Context

If you sell a product or service, you likely have a customer service department. Typically it includes a call center.

Why would you add Twitter?

Look at it from a customer perspective:

Many call centers do not operate 24/7.

Calling often means call center hell. Long waits, disconnects and really bad music. In the realm of horror stories, call centers occupy their own department. Therefore, many people avoid calling. That may seem like a good thing, but it’s not. It doesn’t mean they don’t have an issue – it’s just not worth the agony. So they talk to their friends, blog about it, make videos and create URLs like (yourcompany)sucks.com.

Email can be dicey too. Some companies are good at responding, others not so good.

Compare this to Twitter. A customer does a search on Twitter and finds the company they’re thinking about. They send a tweet with a query or complaint. The company monitors Twitter and gets back within hours. The situation is acknowledged and on its way to being answered.

Here’s a real exchange from the Sears Canada Twitter stream. Mary (not her real name) tweets:

@SearsCA #Sears My washer has been broken since Sept 22, and still not fixed after 6 visits from repairman – who can I contact locally?

The Sears response:

@Mary Hi. I just DM’d you my contact info…please get in touch so we can talk about your washer issue. Thanks.

Mary’s reply:

Now impressed with @SearsCA for the speedy response! Thanks!

This whole exchange happened over night, the issue was resolved privately and Sears has a much happier customer.

Or this exchange on Starbucks where a customer tweets:

Thoroughly annoyed by the Christmas music in @Starbucks. Seriously, I like to work in there, but not with that crap already.

Starbucks responds:

We sent it to stores, but they aren’t supposed to play the disc yet. Mention it to the barista next time.

Top 10 Twitter Benefits

1. Being on Twitter shows you’re listening and you care.
2. It lets you monitor the conversation. You can put out small fires before they spread.
3. It’s friendlier, more casual, lets you behave like a person, not an entity. “Companies are people too.”
4. It’s easier for customers and encourages interactions. Yes the Starbucks complaint seems trivial, but it’s acknowledged and answered. It’s no big deal to say, “hey, we made a mistake”.
5. Customers can tweet anytime – no need to look up call center hours of operation.
6. Twitter can take an issue private quickly. See the Sears example. Better than having “Mary” blog about her dishwasher or put a video on YouTube.
7. It’s also a channel for sending out good news, special offers, product announcements, etc.
8. You can monitor your competition. Assume they’re already monitoring you.
9. Twitter is most popular among working adults, i.e. customers, and still growing by over 1,000% per year.
10. Twitter is free.