Waiting for UPS Bunny by Max Estes
First…the timeline.
September 2005. I meet Thor Muller at a Techcrunch party.
September 2007. Thor and others get funding for GetSatisfaction.com
October 2007. I get a book deal for The Whuffie Factor. Time to start researching!
Late 2007. The folks at GetSatisfaction.com announce a conference they are throwing, Customer Service is the New Marketing. Tony Hsieh from Zappos is on the roster. I ask Thor for an introduction so I can interview Tony for my book.
January 2008. I fly out to Las Vegas to meet Tony and his team and totally fall in love with everything about Zappos. They become a bigger part of my book and Tony and I continue to talk. He gets interested in Twitter.
March 8, 2008. Tony starts tweeting.
March 8 - November 26, 2008 - Tony picks up Twitter like second nature, gains over 23,000 followers, gets featured in national magazines and we keep in good touch.
November 26, 2008. I order a lovely new storage unit from Target.com to help me de-clutterize my home. Estimated delivery date: December 10, 2008.
December 7, 2008. I return from a trip to New York City to find two attempted delivery notices on my door from UPS from Friday, December 5, 2008. 1st and 2nd notice. I logon to UPS.com with my tracking number and request a re-delivery of December 10, 2008, a day I have already set aside to work from home. I also call to confirm. All set.
December 10, 2008. 7:30 a.m. - I wake up early to walk Ridley (my dog) so that I can be home and ready in case the package comes first thing in the morning (8:00 a.m.).
December 10, 2008. 9:30 a.m. - my friend, Seth, comes over to take away the table where the storage unit is going to go later that day. Excited. I run downstairs to put some sticky ‘heart’ notes on the door to let the UPS delivery person know I’m upstairs and waiting.
December 10, 2008. 12:00 p.m. - I haven’t heard anything, so I logon to UPS.com and see that the tracking hasn’t been updated. I call the 1-800 number to find out more information and am told that the package is on the truck for delivery, but they can’t give me a specific time. I wait.
December 10, 2008. 1:00 p.m. - I tweet that I’m at the mercy of UPS delivery.
December 10, 2008. 2:00 p.m. - I ask my roommate, Jen, who has a migraine if she can watch for UPS while I shower, then walk Ridley and instruct her to call me as soon as they arrive and I’ll rush home.
December 10, 2008. 4:00 p.m. - I call and reschedule a meeting I have with potential clients to the restaurant downstairs from my apartment at 6:00 p.m. so I can watch for the UPS truck just in case.
December 10, 2008. 5:00 p.m. - I tweet a suggestion to UPS to add text aheads or GPS 
tracking to their service so that people don’t get stuck waiting all day like I have.
December 10, 2008. 6:00 p.m. - I have a terribly distracted meeting, constantly looking out the window for the UPS truck. I’ve left more little sticky ‘heart’ notes with the information that I am downstairs in case I missed the delivery with my cell number on it.
December 10, 2008. 7:00 p.m. - I go back upstairs. Still nothing. Sticky notes still there waiting. I tweet again. Then I call and a hold recording tells me that, due to holiday deliveries, I may receive packages after 7:00 p.m. Others tell me they’ve received packages as late as 10:00 p.m.
December 10, 2008. 9:15 p.m. - I’m getting really upset. No UPS. My tweets are getting agitated.
December 10, 2008. 9:17 p.m. - Tony direct messages me asking me for some of the delivery information and I send it back to him.
December 10, 2008. 9:26 p.m. - Tony direct messages me to tell me the President of the Pacific Region for UPS is on the phone tracking the package down for me.
December 10, 2008. 9:40 p.m. - Tony tells me that UPS will be calling me soon.
December 10, 2008. 9:41 p.m. - I get a phonecall from Lorraine, the Regional Security Director for UPS. She gets my story and hangs up to find out what happened and get the package to me asap.
December 10, 2008. 9:46 p.m. - While I’m on the phone with Lorraine, Jerry, the President of the Pacific Region leaves me a voicemail. He’s actually having dinner with Tony and is on the case.
December 10, 2008. 9:50 p.m. - I call Jerry back, who apologizes perfusively and tells me to keep his number on hand for ANY issues I ever encounter with UPS.
December 10, 2008. 9:55 p.m. - I tweet out thank you’s to Tony and finally take Ridley for his nightly walk. (he was so patient)
December 10, 2008. 10:53 p.m. - Lorraine calls back. She says they are tracking everything down and it should be able to get out to me tonight. I tell her as long as it’s delivered before 10:00 a.m. on the 11th, I will be fine. Time to write this blog post.
UPDATE:
December 11, 2008. 7:45 a.m. - Lorraine calls. The delivery is ready to come out. She asks me what time would be convenient for me? I tell her 9:00 a.m. I take Ridley for his morning walk.
December 11, 2008. 8:55 a.m. - My doorbell rings and I run downstairs. I see not only ONE 
but THREE UPS delivery men standing on my doorstep. One with the delivery. One with flowers and chocolates. And one with treats for Ridley! They bring everything up and Michael, the security manager, tells me he brought tools and is happy to help me assemble the unit. I don’t have time this morning, but I may take him up on it later. 
What a saga! But the saga is filled with Whuffie lessons.
#1. If I hadn’t met Thor, who introduced me to Tony, who I forged a friendship with over time, who hadn’t been dining with Jerry, I probably wouldn’t have had this level of awesome attention. These are amazing connections (combined with a little bit of luck). This is the importance of being part of that community you serve as a participant.
#2. If Tony and I hadn’t been such Twitter addicts - watching our networks, spending time following people and getting to know people - he wouldn’t have seen my distressed tweets about the delivery and couldn’t have had that conversation with Jerry. This shows the importance of turning the bullhorn around…listening…watching for feedback…watching for ways to help out.
#3. Because this happened in a spectacular way, loads of people watched and were delighted by the story. This going above and beyond gave Zappos a load of Whuffie. UPS Whuffie for turning things around. And even gave Whuffie to Thor and myself in indirect ways. Definitely all achieved through creating an amazing customer experience (after a not so amazing one).
#4. This couldn’t have been planned better. How was Tony to know the night he was to have dinner with Jerry that I’d be in UPS distress? How would Jerry have ever known? How would I have guessed? Pretty awesome ‘chance’. Almost the perfect storm. This is definitely the benefit of embracing the chaos.
#5. And finally, without Tony’s own commitment to customer service and dedication to giving back to the community, he wouldn’t have been there checking his tweets and listening to what people are talking about. Tony’s dedication to the higher purpose of Zappos - the 10 core values - makes him the type of CEO who wields his influence for good, bringing loads more Whuffie.
And the really important thing to note here is that I see this type of thing happen all of the time. This is the one of the few that I’ve documented so closely, but it really does happen more and more as my own Whuffie grows. And these are stories that people repeat and get picked up by even the traditional media (just like Frank at Comcast who was on ABC News for a similar story with a friend of mine, Tracey Lee Wallace), which then gets spread further. As you can see, Whuffie is a powerful enhancer for word of mouth. Which is exactly why it’s at the core of the power of online communities.
View Tara Hunt's profile
31 Comments
This is Twitter and Whuffle folklore in the making. This story will be told and re-told in board rooms and seminar rooms around the world for years to come as we all fondly recall where we were when the storage unit from Target didn’t come.
Sounds like a rather familiar story. http://www.truelightresources.com/en/art/?18
Twitter & Wuffie really do make the world a better place.
Peace, Love & Light,
T
Thoughts.
1) Don’t try to make domestic deliveries ahead of your estimated delivery date because (arguably counter-intuitively) you will annoy more customers, due to their not being in, than you will delight by being early.
2) Have a friend who is a major customer of your carrier.
3) How many other customers will have been disadvantaged by the extra attention given to your delivery and what are the implications for UPS’s assumption that this incident has featured only one dissatisfied customer?
What a great story on Whuffie. I’m often amazed at the power of twitter and how it’s really become a part of who I am. I’m also amazed at companies like Zappos, Virgin America, Comcast, and many others who are using Twitter for customer service. They’re embracing it and value it as a tool, not just a waste of time.
I actually heard UPS share their social network/media strategy at Blogwell a few weeks ago. They are scanning blogs and other areas, including Twitter if I’m remembering correctly. I even asked about then having a Twitter account and they said they have a lot of things they’re looking at for 2009. Maybe because of the involvement of Jerry, it will move up on their ‘to do’ list.
Whuffie–FTW!
@Tracey I was LOOKING for that link! Thanks! I’ll update.
That is flat-out awesome. Way to go Tony and UPS.
Wow that’s great that everything came together like that, guess it pays to know people
I had a similar experience (in an off season) sans the good things and have pretty much sworn off UPS as a package carrier.
Still it makes me happy to know that companies are willing to go the extra mile to make things right. And of course I can’t say enough good things about Tony and Zappos.
Tara, I’m probably not saying anything you don’t already know, but it just occurred to me that one of the wonderful things about Whuffie is that when it isn’t actively doing something it doesn’t create stress, unlike the “I owe you one” approach that might be considered superficially similar. Both are about people who know each other helping each other, but the frame of mind is completely different.
For instance, you’ve done much more for me than I have for you (and without even intending to). I could take a scorecard attitude, with me “losing”, and I would see in my future a debt until fully paid back, which would be stressful on me even if you didn’t see a debt at all! Instead, with a Whuffie frame of mind (which I didn’t really have until a few years ago) I see a series of opportunities to be able to help you in ways that are unknowable until they present themselves. No stress.
@rohan That’s an amazing way to look at Whuffie! Stress free debts.
@ John Dodds, that’s my reaction as well…
What further evidence do you need that “whuffie” doesn’t scale? There are lessons here-in for business, sure, but they aren’t on the surface.
If this happy little fairy-tale were to reach the millions of other UPS customers waiting for a package this holiday season, UPS’ quarterly “whuffie” report would be a disgraceful looking thing.
And if UPS thus decided to invest whatever “whuffie” it has left into WRM (whuffie relationship mgmt) — that is, lending special treatment to every other patient delivery customer that moaned & groaned on a social network somewhere — its statement of whuffie-flows would really suffer. Might require some sort of whuffie legislation to regulate whuffie bankruptcy, or perhaps a whuffie bailout.
self-indulgence:
http://twitter.com/emjayess/status/1051479130
This is so BS. Thousands of ppl get crappy service from UPS everyday and just because we don’t have the connections from Tony at Zappos. Most people in the US have never heard of social media, twitter and such. Just because you a very attractive and know ppl you get the breaks. I’m sorry but many ppl have their packages delayed and they don’t whine and complain and yet you get your packages plus flowers and treats for your dog. And rest gets shafted.
@ethan
I don’t think it’s BS and I’ve received alot of crappy service from many companies over the years. The point is…that I was able to get this resolved because of my network…the relationships I’ve grown. I didn’t grow a network because I’m attractive. When I met Tony, I was 40 lbs overweight. He and I connected because we both believe in good customer service. I’m hoping that UPS learns from this. My hopes is they will and less people will get “shafted”.
@emjayess
I don’t think the flowers and treats for my dog is scalable…no. But I do think they can use the information gained from this experience to see that - yes - there are MANY people who feel like they are under house arrest when waiting for a package. So, what are the ways that they can alleviate that for customers? That’s the lesson and that lesson was delivered through one example. I’m hoping my experience can lead to a solution that is scalable and can help UPS’s other customers who are less connected.
Look I really didn’t mean any personal attack if I came across that way. I’m just frustrated that us normal ppl who are not in the loop, not connected with social media and thus have no influence are basically screwed.
You have major influence and that means power so allow me to be blunt but your in no way different from a multi-millionaire that can buy these privileges.
Ethan
@ethan
I hear you. I just want you to know that it’s people like Tony Hsieh and myself who think about those things. I’m lucky. I’ve built up some influence. I don’t just want this problem resolved for one time for me. I want it to be a lesson for UPS to implement technology and processes so that ALL customers are positively affected and treated with the same level of care. I also want to be an example of a single mother from a small town in Alberta who made it to the point that I can actually feel re-empowered in this world…hopefully giving others the ability to do so (not as a self-help book, but as a guide to how to grow your own network to get things done easier). I don’t know if that helps…
Wow. I think you just found the business model for Twitter. Make the whole service free except for querying subscriber counts — so companies can use it to give good service to high-Whuffie customers and “Enterprise-Grade” service to the rest.
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/business/business-model-for-twitter/
I know what your saying, I’m glad your at this point in your life that you have influence. I understand you paid your dues. But this is your industry, you speak at conferences your a tech person that can devote time to gaining connections.
What about the working class ppl who have no idea what Twitter is? What about my mom who waits patiently when I send a package home and she has no idea when the delivery man will arrive?
@ethan
All good questions. I’d like to see UPS implement a better notification system. Calling or texting (depending on your choice) 1/2 hour before delivery. This way, you can go out and check your messages. You aren’t under house arrest. I’d also like to see their communication increase. Why can’t I call the customer service and have them check on the driver? They can send a message or the like and say, “Hey, what’s your route today? When are you estimating to hit X neighborhood?” Then your mom and others not on Twitter have a resource that they can tap into that will tell them if it’s safe to go out for some food or hop in the shower (my biggest fear…being in the shower when they arrive!).
What do you think of that?
I hate to say it, but I think Ethan has a bit of a point. You have to realize that most of this may be as a result of your connections to Jeremy, et. al, and his coincidental dinner w/ TPTB @ UPS, but a good chunk of it also has to do with the fact that you’re not just connected, but a well-known marketing and SNS personality.
I’m on Twitter, have a blog, am rather well-known in Bay Area geekdom, could crash at any one of a dozen friends’ houses around the world at the drop of an SMS, but I’d still be waiting for my package to show up *today* and hopefully undamaged at that.
Case in point:
I’m a Very Frequent Flyer with United. I worked on an NGO project in Malawi this summer which entailed multiple flights on United and South African between SF, Dakar, Johannesburg and Blantyre, Malawi. I got mileage credit for all the flights right away *except* the longest ones between Wash., D.C. and Jo’Burg.
It took me 4 months of multiple phone calls, emails, and website form-fillouts to get the 16,000 miles I accrued on those legs. I made the trip in July/August and the miles finally showed up last week. I’ve tweeted about this multiple times, complained about it on FlyerTalk, so I should have gotten hugs and kisses, original flight credit all via singing telegram from Mileage Plus or Star Alliance back in *September* according to your thesis.
Instead, I had to take the usual route of complaining about it via Old Media to UA and SAA and wait for the system to work itself out.
I’m glad you got your package and that Ridley got treats, but I would also like you to address this counter-example for those of us who have fairly well-developed social networks(or so I think) but are not highly visible marketing personalities with a book coming out.
Everything you said are great ideas.
I would add its also a internal thing. Just like Zappos, Southwest etc. they have a culture of excellent consistent service. They treat everyone like a King.
I have never been treated important by UPS before. I’ve have important presents lost, stuff for my mom delayed etc.
When I saw they treated you like a Queen I just got angry. If they would just do that consistently I would be less upset. Just say what your gonna do and execute it.
@jetdillo
Let me counter your counter with MY United horror stories. I fly ALOT. So much I feel guilty about my carbon footprint. But I don’t fly with United any longer. No matter how many letters, blog posts (this was pre-twitter…although I’ve had to resort to them recently with equally awful results and tweeted my anger), phonecalls, wheeling and dealing I did, the most I ever got from them after canceling flights and leaving me stranded, making me sleep in an airport overnight in Beijing while they slowly pushed the departure time back hour after hour, losing my child (he was an unaccompanied minor who was ‘lost’ by United at one point), and never honoring my many thousands of miles…I think I had 43,000 at one point. Nada. Well, I just made the pact with myself that I would never ever ever use them again. Recently, though, I had a partner airline book me for a United leg. Guess what they did? They ‘marked’ me for extra security clearance because I’m Canadian. I spent an extra hour getting everything ripped apart in both my carry on and my checked luggage.
I don’t find those old routes very useful, either. They take so much time and energy and I end up weighing in and realizing it just isn’t worth it. That is why it is SO refreshing to have companies on Twitter pay attention. I have influence THERE. I’ve built it. I feel like a human being again that matters.
But yes, I am abso-fucking-lutely committed to making sure EVERYONE else feels that way everyday. Seriously. It’s been my goal for the last 10 years of marketing. It’s my ‘higher purpose’.
Wow!!! I really enjoyed reading this! I think it’s simply amazing how things turned out for you! I am a newbie when it comes to social networking but you gave me a lot of insight on helping me to emerge from my shell and into the mix of things. Thanks so much, and I’ll be watching ya!
Hi Tara,
Glad to hear everything worked out for you! I think the biggest benefit that came out of my having dinner with UPS while you happened to be tweeting about waiting for your package was that UPS execs experienced first-hand the power of twitter and listening to customers on twitter.
During dinner, I showed them how to search for mentions of UPS at http://search.twitter.com and so they read not only what you were saying about UPS, but also what other customers are saying. We also talked about how good a job @comcastcares is doing on twitter.
As a result of that, they are now looking into having people monitor twitter as another channel of providing better service to their customers. Of course, not every customer is on twitter, but I think the more channels companies listen to, the better service they can provide.
@Ethan
Speaking from my own experience working for companies that have customers with bad experiences, I can tell you that even though they know that they can do better, what really sparks action is individual stories, especially those where the top people at the company had to get involved. There is now a good chance that people at UPS will talk about “how could we have handled that particular situation better?” And if someone proposes an improvement that sounds good, but someone else says “yeah, but how would this help in a situation like that Tara Hunt person had?”, that question will get addressed. Nobody would want to disappoint the President of the Pacific Region when he asks what is being done to prevent repeats.
So yes, she may have been treated like a queen where you and I wouldn’t — but we’ll probably still benefit from that.
@miss rogue
@CEO Zappos.com
I applaud you guys on fighting for customer service.
I know you guys are trying your best but man theres gotta be a better way for ppl outside Califonia to get good service.
Outside of California nobody knows about Twitter or different channels on the internet to get their voices out.
Tara, I liked your story when I read it in my Google Reader feed this morning. I still like it. I just wanted to post this (http://uxsoapbox.blogspot.com/2008/11/ups-worst-customer-experience-of-my.html) as a cf. And if UPS reads this thread, maybe they’ll see that where they wouldn’t have otherwise.
As always, thanks!
Oh, fine. I thought it would auto-link it. Here’s the linked version of that: http://uxsoapbox.blogspot.com/2008/11/ups-worst-customer-experience-of-my.html.
I agree entirely with your endorsement of Tony Hsieh - he is entirely approachable, prioritises customer service in a way all companies should and, from my experience Ethan, would I am sure have made the connection for anyone with whom he was in contact.
The question going forward, of course, is how does UPS ensure that all their customers feel they are connected to the same network of influence as you were. Tony’s response above hints at the answer.
What worries me is that those UPS execs haven’t been informed by their own internal marketing team about the impact of the internet and it’s myriad channels on their name. It was (and still is) reactionary customer service - they understood (because of the connection to you) that this singular customer has reach, to execs such as yourself and a wide ranging community of readers + subscribers.
The test, as has been commented elsewhere, is whether or not this shifts from one-off reactionary countermeasures for potentially damaging commentary and to a proactive customer service environment. For that we need a new generation of, or at least mindset in, management that understand the new world of communications as well as the traditional one.
Tara, the link to Max’s site is wrong. It links to http://www.horsepigcow.com/2008/12/10/whuffie-in-action-the-ups-story/www.maxestes.com instead of http://www.maxestes.com/
I thought I should chime in on the conversation. My name is Debbie Curtis-Magley and I work with UPS Public Relations. I apologize for joining the conversation late. At times, our monitoring tools miss conversations about UPS and that’s what happened here.
There were several great points raised in the discussion thread about customer service and UPS. We’ve learned quite a bit from other companies about connecting with customers through online channels, which in turn has sparked conversations at UPS on what we can do. Tony and his team at Zappos serve as a terrific example. It was great to read Tony’s comments about his dinner conversation with Jerry.
For those of you who shared your frustrations about UPS at this blog, I am truly sorry to read about your disappointment. Please know that UPS employees like me do value the trust and business our customers give to our company. I hope you’ll each consider giving us another chance to regain your trust.
Having been through holiday heck by UPS…got our packages a week after Christmas, when FedEx & USPS got here on time. I have to wonder if all the Whuffle isn’t who you know.
That seems to be the case here.
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