The Power of Blogging

I started this blog in March of this year, not really knowing what to make of it but mostly to learn more about the world of blogging, what it entails, and how to use internet communication as a means of marketing. My philosophy is that the best way to learn something is by diving in. So I jumped, and landed in a crazy world. Not only have I learned a tremendous amount about what blogging really is but I've also come to understand why it's so widely popular.

I remember when I was young my mom would always threaten to write a letter to a business or organization when she was frustrated or had had horrible service. I always laughed and gave her a hard time. "Yeah Mom you tell them what's what," I used to say in a sarcastic tone. The irony is that today's digital age has made "letters" highly replicatable through emails, blogs, newsletters, and article databases. Writing a letter is now a powerful tool.

In my previous post I talked about my horrible experience with Next Student, a Private college loan company similar to Sallie Mae and others. It was a late night when I posted the rant, about three A.M. where I'm writing from. The next day I received a call from a senior manager who had seen the article. It had been found by a member of the company's marketing team and passed on to management in the customer service division. She had called to apologize for the poor customer service and frustrating situation I was going through. To help fix as much as she could, she offered to call my school and speak with financial aid to make sure that they do not drop me from my classes. They also offered to overnight my funds to me in an effort to speed things up and get everything taken care. She understood that student loans are a commodity and people can go anywhere to get them these days. The companies with the best value get the most business. She is absolutely right.

While most of the damage has already been done, it is not to go unnoticed that someone did reach out and apologize. It's just an unfortunate shame that it has to come to what it did to get the value that every customer really deserves. Think about any business. If we treated everyone the way I was treated after I shared my experience with the world there would be some businesses out there killing the competition. The sad truth is that most businesses lack effective training, qualified outsourced services, and experienced individuals (you get what you pay for).

Blogging has made it too expensive for companies to have bad service, because I can tell the world about it instantly. In less than 24 hours over 600 people had read my article. Businesses absolutely do not want this. However, what if I ranted about how great the service was? What if 600 people heard how great my experience was? That's powerful for business. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. Some of the most powerful marketing tools can be customer testimonials. If you have a great service or product, your customers will reward you for it.

The internet has given each and everyone a powerful voice if we choose to use that way. This is what I believe a big part of blogging is about. Consumers finally have a voice. I hope that companies are adaptive enough to thrive in a world that embraces this.

Need a Student Loan? Next Student is Not the Place To Go

With rising tuition costs it's no wonder more and more students are taking out loans to get through college. Because students are dependent on the loans to continue education in many cases, the loan companies often discard the notion of customer service since they know you need them. Let me share the nightmare of my experience with Next Student, a private student loan company with a hip mantra - "College funding made simple".

I first applied for my loan at the beginning of May. After the hullabaloo of document gathering (which is standard don't get me wrong) and time spent waiting for reps to return my calls I had everything signed and sent in. It was May 12th at this point and I was eager to finalize everything since I was taking summer classes and tuition was due sooner than later. Weeks began to go by and my endless calling was answered by a placated voice on the other end telling me that there was nothing that could be done. The department was backed up.

I can understand things are busy, but after 3 weeks I still had no answer, only to be continually told the same thing over and over. Begging my school not to drop me from my classes at the same time I began to feel helpless in the battle to get my student loan. The sight of Next Student's logo infuriated me. "College funding made simple." Soon after I was told that the underwriters had a hard time reading my faxed documents -THREE WEEKS AFTER I SENT THEM - and that I would need to resend the documents to the general fax line and restart the underwriting process. I actually laughed out load I was so shocked.

Upset and perplexed, I worked my way up the ladder until I spoke with someone who had enough intelligence to make decisions on their own. We got the documents into the department without resending them and things were starting to look a bit progressive. I was assured by Next Student the check would be ready at latest June 2.

I am writing this today, on June 5th, frustrated and eager to share my experience because no one should have to go through the stress and frustration of what I have had to go through this last month. Since June 2nd I have left three voice mails, none of which have been returned, and am fearful that despite my efforts I will be dropped from my classes and have wasted the first half of the summer. This will also cause me not to graduate on time.

I hope when you look into private loan funding you look to a company who has a reputable customer service staff. Perhaps a company that still believes in delivering value to clients. That company is not Next Student.