by Clare Harrison on 14/10/2011 18:59:46 in CorpComms Online | share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet
Social media team deal with the clamour surrounding launch of iPhone 4S

Clare writes for CorpComms Mag, follow her tweets here @ClareJHarrison

A would-be iPhone 4S customer who tweeted his displeasure at O2's policy to offer the new handset exclusively to existing customers has received a personalised video response from the mobile phone company.
Would-be customer Justin was so upset at the policy that he sent O2 a video complaint via YouTube
He said: 'Dear O2. I have an issue with the way you are dealing with the iPhone 4S situation. You promote yourself as the most connected service provider but I see no connection happening between you and I at the moment - all the other providers are offering different tariffs and you are just sitting there saying we are too cool for you guys.'
The customer asked a series of questions of O2 about its policy, asking whether he had been singled out because he was 'yellow', 'Asian' and 'performed poorly in bed', and likened the mobile phone company to a church.
'I am begging to spend my money on you... if your company were a church right now, it's like saying even if you had accepted Jesus Christ as your saviour but hadn't been with our church for the last two months...you have absolutely no chance of getting into heaven'.
Inspired by his unique approach, 'JP from the iPhone team' at O2 shot a video response (on the iPhone 4S) in the same vein, tweeted this to the irate customer and posted it on YouTube. 'It's coming soon so soon just hold on for a bit longer, we want you to be the first to get it, we are tweeting you soon - watch out for it,' O2 said, before assuring him that the policy had nothing to do with either his prowess in bed or the colour of his skin.
'If we were a church, we would want you in it,' said JP. 'You can come into our church, but it's full right now with people who already want to go to iPhone heaven...if you were in the church first, would you want a new person to go to gadget heaven before you.'
The customer liked O2's approach, that he retweeted its video and made his own response showing his appreciation for the clip, which can be seen here.
O2, which prides itself on its 'continuous customer conversation' strategy, has sent 3,000 tweets since Monday - or 250 per hour - about the new iPhone 4S in the lead up to today's launch, which sees the mobile phone group only offer current customers access to the new model.
The social media team at O2 has spent the past five days placating would-be customers unable to get hold of the new iPhone 4S.
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