PEPCO keeps its word

By I.J. Hudson

Is it magic?  Is it social media?  Is it coincidence?

The answers could be, “probably not,” “maybe,” and “unfortunately, yes.”

The last post whined a bit about PEPCO’s tree-trimming program.  Maybe their folks read it – or maybe not.

Background:  I gave permission for PEPCO to take down a couple of pine trees that could interfere with their lines in my neighborhood.  My beef:  they took down the trees and left the proceeds on the ground for two weeks – nobody considers “free wood” a bargain when it’s pine.

I wondered, “What lies beneath?”  Has my grass been killed?  Is there a major landscaping job to be done (paid for)? 

Well today, tah-dah, the crew came through and picked up the dismembered pine trees.  Yayyy!  That’s good news.   

 

The pictures show that damage to my lawn, IMO, is minimal – not a big deal;  certainly not enough to fuss about.  

But for the social media gurus out there, how could this have played out as a big-time advantage for PEPCO?

Hmmm?  I can’t pretend that I know everything PEPCO has been/is doing with social media, but I might have sent a crew around to record interviews with customers as the contractors took down trees, let PEPCO talk about the tree trimming programs and the customers talk about giving up some branches and some trees for reliability (if it really helps that much.)

---And let people complain “on camera” about PEPCO, its service, outages during blue sky days, trees toppled but left on the ground – and answer those complaints --- directly and honestly.  

Trust is based on long-term relationships.  It takes years to earn it; only a few minutes to destroy it.  If I were PEPCO, I would start building it slowly - under promise and over deliver.  Keep the dialogue between the real people of PEPCO and customers totally in the open.

The deal

PEPCO eventually did what it promised it would do – written down on a little piece of paper I signed back in March.  But no one would know about it, unless I wrote about it.  Yeah, I complained.  We all do.  But I also am giving PEPCO credit for following through.  PEPCO should give itself credit, too.  

Silence these days is foolish, not golden.  You need converts - people who were complaining now saying, "Thanks, you did what you said you would do."   

That conversation needs to be out in the open so people can see how a big company deals with the good, the bad – and the….well, me.