Monday, March 1, 2010

Customer Service through Tweets

Social media becomes the catalyst of innovational and evolutional approaches for companies to improve their customer service nowadays.

More than half of the Fortune 100 companies are using Twitter for customer service, recruiting employees, blasting news and announcing promotions, according to the study by public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and its digital-media unit, Proof.

Company

Twitter handle

Off-hour service

Allstate

Allstate

Y

AT&T

ATTNews

Y

Best Buy

BestBuyCMO

Best Buy

Twelpforce

British Airways

BritishAirways

Comcast

ComcastCares

Y

Dell

multiple accounts

Y

Delta Air Lines

DeltaAirLines

DirecTV

DirecTV

Ford

ScottMonty

Y

GE

GE_Reports

General Motors

GMblogs

Y

H&R Block

HRBlock

Hardees

Hardees

Harley-Davidson

harleydavidson

Honda

Alicia_at_Honda

Y

Jet Blue

JetBlue

Y

Marriott Int'l

MarriottIntl

New York Times Co.

NYTimesComm

Y

Nordstrom

Nordstrom

Y

Nortel

Nortel

Oracle

multiple accounts

Pizza Hut

PizzaHut

Y

Popeyes Chicken

PopeyesChicken

Quicken Loans

quickenloans

Renault

Renault_Live

Y

Samsung

SamsungMobileUS

Y

Southwest

SouthwestAir

Y

Starbucks

Starbucks

Y

State Farm

StateFarm

Texas Instrum.

TXInstruments

Y

The Home Depot

homedepot

Y

Toyota

Toyota

Y

Tyson Fds.

TysonFoods

UPS

ThomasAtUPS

Wells Fargo

Ask_WellsFargo

Y

Whole Foods

WholeFoods

Y

source from Nielsen

One of the most important advantages of twitter is that it enables the companies to listen and respond to customers in a genuine and timely manner. From a more historical perspective, twitter set a high bar for the customer service industry—to promote company’s reputation by promising and honoring the promising of instant gratification.

Instant gratification is not the creation of the companies, but, rather, the demand of the customers. They certainly are looking for help on Twitter. In one recent survey, 58% of respondents said if they had tweeted about a bad experience, they would like the company to respond to their comment.

On the other hand, twitter also has its limitations. It is hard to solve the complex issue within 140 characters. That’s why, ideally, Twitter should be one of several customer service solutions (e.g., phone, e-mail and online chat support etc.).





4 comments:

Clayton said...

Great post. Thanks for including Quicken Loans. Just to clarify, we are absolutely available during off hours to help with any questions about Quicken Loans. Thanks again for mentioning us!

cwu6 said...

Thanks for letting me know. The social media as a new tool for customer services is moving so fast. The data is easily getting out-of-date.

mindy said...

Quicken Loans's comments on your blog is also some sort of interaction with the stakeholders. Again, we see the power of social media!

cwu6 said...

Good point, thanks Mindy!