User friendly and effective customer service is a key component of running a successful business. The term "customer service" has been tarnished of late and a lot of people have had poor experiences. The use of a badly run call center or impersonal emails can scare customers away and can damage your business.
New opportunities have opened-up over the last two to three years due to the growth of social media. Social media has millions of users and it is therefore the ideal platform for businesses to use for customer service. You can engage your customers, solve their problems and build a solid brand reputation through the use of social media.
Why use Twitter as a customer service platform?
- Quick attention to problems - Twitter is a lightning-fast platform that can help sift through and solve problems quickly without the wait times experienced at a call center. Customers with problems requiring detailed interaction can be directed to alternative platforms.
- Free marketing - Twitter is one of the most viral platforms around and great customer service will get tweeted about thereby promoting your business to millions of new users.
- Staff motivation - Using Twitter is more interesting to staff than using email or the phone and they have the ability to measure their impact on customers. Staff performance can be measured and recognition given to the top performers on a monthly basis.
- Reducing costs - It is always important to look at new ways of reducing overheads and using Twitter will reduce the time spend per customer and will cost far less than a dedicated call center.
How to use Twitter as a customer service platform:
1. Promote your Twitter profile - People need to know about you in order for them to interact with you. "Follow me" buttons on your website, advertisements and information about the customer service platform that you provide should be made available.
2. Monitor conversations about your business - Use Monitter or Tweetbeep to track keywords related to your business or products mentioned in conversations on Twitter. Know what people are saying about your company or product and engage with them.
3. Be quick to reply and interact - When a customer complains you need to act quickly and provide them with the information needed in order to sort-out the complaint. The speed and quality of your response is vital.
4. Keep it personal - Use this platform to talk with your customers and to promote any success stories or new features. It is very important to always build your brand and with this platform you can get your customers to participate in discussions about your business.
5. Keep it real - Never promise something than you can’t deliver or tell a half truth. It has become very easy for customers to research the information that you have provided and if they find that you have lied to them they will pull you apart. Due to the viral nature of Twitter this may have disastrous results for your business.
Twitter can be a great customer service platform if you manage it correctly. It is important to adapt to your customers and to make use of the technology and communication platforms that they prefer. Always remember that brilliant SEO strategies and marketing campaigns can be nullified by poor customer experiences.
Stands back from the kyeborad in amazement! Thanks!