Nearly one month after the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, it’s sad to say, but a lot of the news media has begun to move on from covering the aftermath and recovery. The storm has lost much of its “newsworthiness” to the majority of the country, but for many in the Northeast, this is just the beginning of a long road back to normalcy. Of course, many of us here at American Water experienced the storm directly, but we also heard the stories and needs from customers through social media, which still continue as we all work towards recovery.
The conversations and feedback we receive through social media on an ongoing basis helps us to know what matters to the people we serve. During the storm, social media became an important tool for both relaying important information to our customers, and also “hearing” what customers had to say and the information they wanted to know. Whether it was confirming that water service would not be cut off, or asking about untrue rumors they heard about needing to boil their water, we could “feel” what our customers were dealing with and we were able to give them some relief in knowing they had water and it was safe to drink. And now, as the conversations shift to discussions of recovery, it’s nice to see stories of people in their communities working together to rebuild weeks later.
Some examples of our interactions during or after the storm follow below. We’re glad social media helps us communicate better. Links to each of our Facebook pages follow at the end of this post. If you haven’t already joined one of our social media networks, and you are a customer, we encourage you to join in the dialogue and help us serve you better!