November 07, 2016

3 New Twitter Customer Service Features Your Business Needs to Enable

November 07, 2016/ Andrew Macarthy

While Facebook has taken big strides in pushing Messenger as a customer service tool on social media, Twitter has always been a much more renowned destination for customers who want to vent in public. Now, it's stepping up the game by introducing three new tools to help business' handle customer service queries more smoothly:

"These features are designed to help businesses create rich, responsive, full-service experiences that directly advance the work of customer service teams and open up new possibilities for how people engage with businesses on Twitter." - Twitter blog.

In the blog post, I'll run you through everything you need to know to beef up your customer service game on Twitter. To setup these new features, you need to enable them from the Customer Support menu of your Twitter Dashboard - link here.

1. Show people your account provides support

When you check this box, the phrase "Provides support" will appear next to your Twitter name in search and compose suggestions. A message button will also be added to your profile. This option is particularly useful if your brand has multiple accounts - one for marketing and another specifically for support, for example - as a way to direct customers where to get help quickest.

2. Add your support hours

In the past, brands would typically include their available hours of support within their main bio text. Now, you can let people know the best time to tweet or DM you with a dedicated line at the top of your profile.

Tap the "Support hours" button in Settings and enter the hours and days that best suit your business. Don't forget to select your timezone from the drop-down box!

3. Add a Welcome Message

When you add a welcome message, it will appear automatically when people select to DM you from your profile. A welcome message can be used as a quick way to greet customers and let them know how you can help.

Note: In the Tesco example, you'll see that they ask people to select a reason for getting in touch or to enter a specific command - these are Quick Replies. Choosing an option or entering a command will prompt another automatic message to appear, usually asking for more information so that when a customer service representative is ready to handle the query, they have as much useful information to hand as possible. Quick Replies are currently only available to a select group of brands and developers.

Over to you

What do you think of Twitter's new customer service tools? Will you be adding them to your profile? Let me know in the comments below!

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August 17, 2015

5 Surprising Statistics About Customer Service Statistics on Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

August 17, 2015/ Andrew Macarthy

Do you handle customer service issues on Twitter? According to new statistics lifted from Twitter's customer service playbook, handling customer queries and forging relationships on the site is marking the future...

5 Surprising Statistics About Customer Service Statistics on Twitter

95% of consumers say they are influenced by what other people say about companies on
social media.
83% of customers with a personalized interaction were satisfied by their customer service experience on Twitter.
77% of customers satisfied with twitter customer service said they were likely to recommend the brand to others.
250%: the amount that tweets to leading brands have increased over the past two years.
80%: the potential save per interaction using Twitter for customer service vs telephone.

My new book, Successful Social Media Customer Service is out soon.

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April 23, 2014

How NOT to Tweet A Customer Who's Had A Car Accident (A Lesson in Tact and Timing)

April 23, 2014/ Andrew Macarthy

There's no questioning the power of Twitter as a tool for conducting fast and effective customer service. It's a topic I've touched on in the past, most recently with examples of how the bakery Greggs uses Twitter to deal expertly with disgruntled patrons, general queries, and all manner of miscellaneous mentions of its brand.

However, for every company that is handling customer service on Twitter like a baws, there's another that isn't quite on point; a situation made worse when its intentions were genuine and it obviously didn't mean to cause any harm. Case in point is the following example:

A friend, Pippa, was recently involved in a bit of a nasty car accident. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. Here's the tweet she sent some time afterwards, complimenting Volkswagen more than anything...

Thanks be for VW Golfs' structural integrity. Goodbye, faithful metal friend. pic.twitter.com/IuUcLtELpb
— Pippa (@pippaappip) April 17, 2014

That tweet was followed by another later on the same day. Sinclair Volkswagen, a local car dealer (presumably spotting a nearby mention of the brand) then replied...

The "very grateful to be waking up this morning" portion of Pippa's tweet should have been the first signal to Sinclair Volkswagen that her hunt for a new car wasn't being undertaken in the most positive or circumstances, and that some tact might be necessary in handling any interaction. If that didn't work (and it didn't), her reply to its friendly (and kind of promotional) approach - the first of any contact it had made - definitely cleared that up.

I must clarify that I'm positive Sinclair Volkswagen did not mean to cause any offence with its tweet and is no way a reflection of it as a brand as a whole, and I'm sure a simple and sincere apology to Pippa's reply to them would be more than enough to settle the matter. However, this example does demonstrate - as we see over and over again - how easy it for brands to cause upset on social media, especially if the necessary context is not sought beforehand, or if an eagerness to interact with customers is detrimental to the quality of the message sent.

Perhaps it's the inherent speed of communication on social media is also to blame; it's conditioned us all to reply to messages (both in our personal and professional circles) as soon as humanly possible, and to expect the same attention from others when we message them.

Many marketers, including myself, advise that brands shouldn't leave customers hanging on social media while they wait for a response, or to pro-actively find them, but the example above reminds us that it always pays to take a step back to evaluate the situation in the first instance. No matter how well-intentioned a speedy response, one angry customer can cause an unexpected wave of negative publicity that no company wants to have to deal with.

Have you ever "tweeted before you think" or are you always careful to understand a customer's situation before you reply? Leave a comment to let me know.

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.