How a Cat Exposed the Optus Outage: A Lesson in Customer Service

Customer Service

This morning I woke up to find my phone had no signal. I logged onto my laptop, chucked on ABC news, and discovered the Optus network was down across the country.

But that’s not how one woman in Sydney found out…

This woman had an automatic cat feeder hooked up to the internet to guarantee her cat received breakfast every morning at precisely 6:10 am.

When the network went down, this trusty device stopped working.

In response, the clever cat took matters into his own paws and went to the bedroom to complain to his owner.

Cue being woken by a meowing cat before the sun’s even up.

No, a purring cat is not the kind of customer service Optus intended to provide. But in this case, it’s how the customer found out there was a problem.

And while this is funny at first glance, it underscores a more significant issue.

The lesson is:

“Your customers shouldn’t learn about issues with your service from their pets.”

Ok, that’s not the main takeaway… But it does hint at what’s important here.

Companies need to make sure they can talk to their customers, especially when things go wrong.  

Good communication is vital to maintain your company’s reputation. Customers know technical problems can happen, but they want you to tell them what’s going on – and fix it fast!

So what can you do about it?

Lesson 1: You need a clear plan for talking to customers. Not only for when things are working but for when things go wrong. By regularly talking with customers, you better understand their problems, how you can help, and how to reach out when the proverbial hits the fan.

Lesson 2: You need different ways to reach your customers. Customers have different preferences and you need to reach them the way they want to be reached. It also serves to protect you in a crisis. If all you’ve got is followers on social media, what happens if Instagram unceremoniously wipes your account.

Customer service is a big part of what you offer as a business. Good communication is key, especially when things go wrong.

Even though we can laugh customer service via cat, the real lesson for businesses is that customers should never be in the dark about your services when things go haywire.

And yes, the cat did get fed.

Written by

Dane McFarlane

Dane McFarlane is an expert communicator, trainer and speaker who can make a real difference for your organisation.

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