Blog

Twitter as a customer service channel

Tuesday, August 18, 2015 Angelica Manlunas

Technology has made it easier for customers and companies to connect. As a result, the bar is raised for the level of service expectations that your customers have. There are many tools that you can utilise to encourage open communication between your company and your customer. Aside from the phone, email or chat service, you can also take advantage of social media channels such as Twitter.

Should you use Twitter for customer support?

You may already be spending time and resources on your other customer service tools and are asking, should I add Twitter in the mix too? Take a look at these two questions:

  1. Are your existing customers on Twitter?
  2. Are your potential customers on Twitter?

If your answer to one or both of these questions is yes, then Twitter is a useful tool that your business should use to improve the overall experience of your customers.

How can you help?

Existing customers
  • Real-time concerns - Twitter, with its character limit of 140 characters is a fast paced channel. People use it to compose live updates. when interacting with the companies that they purchase from, these updates can at times include.
  • Questions on products and services - On Twitter your customers are able to ask questions on how to use your products or how to optimise their benefit.
Potential customers
  • Answer questions related to your industry. Take the time to be proactively join in conversations wherein you are able to help answer questions that affects your industry. To find these conversations, use keywords on Twitter’s search box or on a social media management platform such as Tweetdeck.
    • Be informative - Curate content (your own and other industry experts) that you think your target audience will benefit from.

      • Best practices

      1. Train your customer service team to manage engagement on Twitter. Help them learn how to monitor mentions, follow and manage hashtags and be responsive to tweets and DM’s.
      2. Be fast. The difference with customer service on social media to other tools is that other people can see feedback or complaints that your clients post. Customers also expect a faster turn around time for issue resolution on social media as opposed to email. Responding instantly to customer service tweets not only positively impacts the experience of your customers, it also prevents unresolved issues to linger on the Twitterverse for other people to see.
      3. Take responsibility. The best way to resolve a customer issue is to start with taking responsibility for it. Begin with an apology and empathy. this goes a long way in making your customers feel acknowledged.
      4. Be proactive. Taking proactive measures is different from responding quickly. This means to address an issue even before the customer brings it up. Tweeting a link to your website’s FAQs, addressing known issues, announcing updates, and encouraging questions are some of the proactive ways that you can interact with your customers. When gathering customer’s questions, you can use ask them to mention a designated customer service representative (e.g.@SocialGigi) or use an assigned hashtag such as #AskGigi or #AskYourBrandName.
      5. Reply + DM. It is important that a response or a resolution to a concern to be posted on Twitter. It helps your brand convert a complaint into a positive and it also helps other customers that are experiencing similar concerns. However, there are concerns that may not be resolved by a single tweet and would need several exchanges. You do not want your twitter feed to be flooded by tweets from one issue. Transitioning to Direct Message is also important when details including personal information is involved. This protects your customers and helps them becoming comfortable in communicating their situation.
      6. Use other channels. Transition to email, skype, phone, your website’s chat application (when screen sharing is involved). Direct your customer to the channel where you can best address their concerns.
      7. Monitor mentions. Search for and set up alerts for monitoring mentions on your social media management platforms, Google alerts or on other applications. Be sure to include:
        • Company name: MCDonald’s)
        • Nickname: Mickey-D's, Macca's
        • Product names: Big Mac, McMuffin
        • Key personality in your company: Ronald McDonald
      8. Don't automate responses- No customer wants robotic replies.
      9. Create templates - This helps you make sure that your responses are fast and consistent.
      10. Use names - Address the customer by name if you know it. Signing responses with a name also makes the experience a personal one.
      11. Provide a time frame - when resolutions take time or involve multiple steps, make sure to include a timeframe. Let your customer know when the next step of the resolution will occur.
      12. Promote on Website - Let your customers know you are on Twitter by placing a ‘Follow us on Twitter’ button within your website.
      13. Integrate - To keep up with all your Twitter activities, you can integrate your account on Zendesk. How this works is all mentions of your brand name, Twitter handle or designated keywords are automatically added as a ticket that you or your customer service team can promptly address.

    Learn from the Best

    Numerous companies have turned to Twitter to improve their level of customer service. Let’s take a look at how the biggest brand has mastered the art of being helpful on Twitter.

    Nike

    Nike has a separate support Twitter handle, @NikeSupport to receive feedback for their customers and provide timely updates regarding their products and services.

    Myer

    Myer aims to provide great customer service online and in real life.

    JetBlue Airways

    Enthusiasm to help goes a long way. JetBlue Airways offer phone assistance to their customers on Twitter to make sure they are able to make transactions successfully while their website is down.

    Adobe Creative Cloud

    Adobe is a huge company but they manage to make personalised responses within the 1410 character limit by adding signing replies with the rep’s initials.

    Domino’s Pizza UK

    Taking responsibility and offering assistance is a good combo that Domino’s Pizza uses.

    Customer first

    The customer is the most important part of your business equation no matter what industry you are in. The success of a business is primarily hinged on the overall experience of your customers. How do you make your customers feel valued?

    For more insights from the Transeo Team please subscribe below.

    Free content delivered right to your inbox.


    Share this blog on any of these social media channels:

    About the Author

     

    Angelica Manlunas

    About Angelica Manlunas

    Angelica lives off of coffee and pizza. She spends her time online tinkering on social media, watching short films and poetry slams. Her offline time is devoted to trips to the beach or spending lazy days indoors with a book in her hand. Also, she writes at least 1000 words every day. Email Angelica at angelica.manlunas@transeo.com.au and follow Angelica @ang_transeo.

     

Copyright © Transeo 2014 - Powered by Business Catalyst

Scroll to Top