The Social Networker

Should corporations invest in Twitter presence for customer care?
by Chris Miller at 04:01:00 AM on Thursday, May 29th, 2008
After listening to a recent TWIT Episode 143.  Apparently Comcast has a team and presence now in the social media space listening to customer concerns and even responding in some instances.  So how should corporations approach this?

Business to Business (B2B) level
After some reflection, I think a presence by any and all companies is not just welcome in such a forum, but needed.  I have a TweetScan that runs daily looking for postings on a specific software topic.  My returned list during the business week consists mainly of 85% complaints.  Many of these are misinformed/untrained users or a system where the administrators have no clue on configurations.  Think of how perception can be changed by communicating and listening to the needs, wants and concerns of the actual users and not those that pay the big dollars at the corporate level.  Companies can create a custom email, RSS feed or even instant searches with such tools as TweetScan (as shown on EverythingTwitter.com).

Business to Consumer (B2C) level
I think this takes more than one person to monitor and effectively act upon.  If the company is smaller, then it might be possible to have a positive presence by listening, acting and responding timely to the needs and concerns of the consumer.  Larger companies with possibly thousands of followers will need a team to handle this.

Currently many companies already have teams in place to handle the constant flow of email that is sent in or submitted via web forms.  What is so different in moving to such tools as Twitter.  They just came from a phone only support model with tons of operators.  Email was the next migration, followed quickly by instant messaging.  Now with presence costing tons for companies to have a proper anonymous instant messaging support, free tools such as Twitter beg to be utilized.

I humorously tried to search for some names outside of http://twitter.com/ComcastCares and found http://twitter.com/TimeWarnerCares, who knows what else might be out there in alternate names.  There were definitely some organizations listed.

I sense a turn of how we interact once again with companies that are getting the impact of the social media space.

Update: I was sent this link from a comment for a story that Silicon Valley Insider did a few weeks ago.
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Location: St. Louis, MO		 Category:  Twitter 
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  • 1) Should corporations invest in Twitter presence for customer care?
    Created by william fischer at 05/29/2008 5:16:55 AM email | website

    As a tool for "listening" to customers, open facing social facilitators like twitter and friendfeed, are invaluable for getting insight into the mind of users. The challenge for using them for customer support is the current lack of good tools to integrate them into contact management systems. Customers hate being ignored even if it's not technically the fault of the company.

    bill

    { Link }

  • 2) Should corporations invest in Twitter presence for customer care?
    Created by Rob Wunderlich at 05/29/2008 12:12:06 PM email | website

    Chris:

    FYI ... interesting article on much the same theme (and mentions some of the same customer service Twitterers) from Silicon Valley Insider:

    { Link }

    - Rob

  • 3) re: Should corporations invest in Twitter presence for customer care?
    Created by Chris Miller at 05/29/2008 2:09:51 PM email | website

  • 4) re: Should corporations invest in Twitter presence for customer care?
    Created by Chris Miller at 05/29/2008 2:09:56 PM email | website

    @Rob - thanks, I had no idea. Going to link it in the posting

    @Bill - the companies really need to dedicate staff if they undertake the initiative don't they?

  • 5) Should corporations invest in Twitter presence for customer care?
    Created by Erin McMahon at 05/30/2008 11:34:40 PM email | website

    I've been contacted via twitter by a few businesses regarding issues that could fall under the general heading of customer care. The exchanges have been brief (in a good way- not requiring much time on my part) and have all had a very positive tone of information-seeking (e.g. how can we make this product better?). They have provided value for me by answering questions and offering solutions in some cases.

    So long as it stays this way- an actual value-add and not just more fluff and noise- then I am all for it!


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