Twitter, the ultimate customer service tool

Tuesday I wrote about why I think some marketers aren't jumping in to social media faster. In part, I think the feedback is too honest, some marketers don't want to listen and the last thing they want to do is create two-way conversations. Overall though, customer service is one of the best uses of social media and can have a major impact on corporate brand and reputation.

Twitter has been around (as far as we're concerned) for about a year. It's often misunderstood and frequently maligned by journalists and traditional marketers. Part of the issue is, in my opinion, the name of the thing. Twitter? Tweets? Twitterers? I feel dumb for saying these things and I always get the same reaction from people who I am guiding through the landscape.

However, to see the real value of Twitter you have to look past the name to the underlying potential. The underlying technology and architecture is the future of communication. It's a seamless publishing tool that you can use from web, mobile web, mobile app, desktop app, IM, widget, etc. and consume the content using the same methods. (You can check out my full presentation on Micromedia here.)

Here is a visual representation of Twitter's publishing and consumption model. The key is choice and flexibility on both sides.

Customer Service

Twitter is the ultimate customer service tool. It's live, instantaneous, community driven, open, two-way and multi-way, unfiltered and predictive. This is, however, only for the most advanced, customer-forward companies to attempt to use. You definitely need a black belt in customer service ninja techniques to do this well.

The first step is a piece of cake. Go to www.twitter.com and register an account. Point a designer at the page and have them outfit it with a branded background and custom style sheet so it looks like your brand. The account can be protected while you are doing the legwork to set it up and train employees.

Now comes the hard part. Twitter is live and 24x7. Staffing needs to be done accordingly and it's not something that can be started and stopped. Would you abandon a call center or an 800 number? Absolutely not and Twitter is the same thing.

So how does it work?

Once you have the account ready and have the staffing in place you can start promoting it. Be sure to give an overview of how to use it, make signup easy, create a video that walks people through the system. Most people will just use the web version. You can use Twitter's API to basically re-skin the system on your site so people don't know they're using Twitter. Create shortcuts for them to make interacting easier (like adding the @ sign for them when communicating directly.

Once the messages come in, you have to be monitoring. If nobody is available, set up a responder that kicks them back a message and tells them when you will respond. The key is to be fast in response, be honest in what you tell them and allow the entire community to see the conversation. Get Satisfaction is doing this with crowdsourced service, but isn't using Twitter.

Seems pretty easy right? It's not, but the power of listening, responding to issues in real time, letting your customers see this and get a feel for the level of care that you're providing is priceless. The reps that handle this communication need to be specifically trained on the medium and the "rules".

I'm going to break out each of these steps in posts next week and show how the system could integrate into an existing customer service plan.

What do you think? Is this doable? What companies could pull this off and thrive? Some are doing it one-way (service alerts, etc.), but nobody is doing live, open customer service like this.

[Update: Make sure you read Joshua March's great counterpoint post. Weigh in on this from your point of view.]

Technorati Tags:
customer service, marketing, Matt Dickman, service, Techno//Marketer, trends, Twitter

Comments

[Jamie Clark]

Before companies will really want to start pushing Twitter as a customer service tool it needs to be recognised as one of the most reliable forms of communication on the web.

Thus, they (Twitter) have got a long way to go.

[Matt Dickman]

Jamie -- You're absolutely right on the stability front. I think that companies could pretty easily re-build the functionality to create an in-house version. Twitter is obviously still dealing with scalability, but it seems to be getting more reliable.

[Ike]

I like the concept a lot, but the extra points of contact that Twitter provides is more likely to help a company or service that is just as mobile.

Firms would be well-advised to experiment with this model now. I'm not calling Twitter the so-called "Next Killer App", but the flexibility and personalization we see in Twitter will become baseline expectations for tomorrow's consumers. Be in front of that curve, and be loved for a very long time...

[Matt Dickman]

Ike -- That's an excellent point. Companies that are already mobile may be the first to give it a run.

I think you're also right on trying this in a limited release first. I'll get in to that a bit more this week, but I appreciate you raising it here. Being in front of the curve on service could really help a company redefine its image. I think there are a number of companies that could use that!

[Steven Di Pietro]

I run a Mystery Shopping Company in Australia. I measure service every day. I had a thought that perhaps I could get my shoppers to send Twitter updates when they are shopping - ie not on assignment. Could ask them to tell me the store name and the experience.

Could be a sales tool for my mystery shopping business.

Also I could use it perhaps for the shoppers to comment about assignments they are completing, or looking to complete. Hmmm will give it more thought. Looking forward to your next posts.

[Reid]

I think Mosio has been more helpful to me in answering questions I have about anything and everything vs. Twitter.

[Matt Dickman]

Steven -- It sounds like this has a lot of synergy with what you are offering. Keep us posted!

[Matt Dickman]

Reid -- Thanks for pointing out Mosio. I may do a deep dive on that with a video post. Gracias!

[Becky Carroll]

Matt, thanks for sharing examples on how customer service can use social media like Twitter. According to the panelists last week at GetSatisfaction's "Customer Service is the New Marketing" conference, quite a few people are already using Twitter for customer service.

It is do-able, and it will require a mindset change for contact centers and management alike. The thought of engaging in a conversation with real people does indeed scare some companies.

Looking forward to hearing more, Matt. You rock!

[Gary Sherman]

Good stuff Matt.

I do agree that this type of support is not for those with less than complete commitment.

FYI - Geezeo is using Campfire (from 37 Signals) to offer live, open customer service in a similar manner:
http://37signals.blogs.com/products/2007/11/how-geezeo-uses.html

[Matt Dickman]

Becky -- Thank you for your comment! I really wish I had known about the conference you attended. I completely agree that customer service is vital to new marketing and PR.

I'd love to see some of the examples that you heard of and how they fit into what I am writing here.

[Matt Dickman]

Gary -- Thanks for that example with Geezo. Campfire is a great app for support.