Harnessing Twitter for Customer Service Champions

John Smith’s company just got on twitter… He owns a toy store with it’s own custom toys. They manufacture these toys in house, and sell them off to bigger distributors. He first began this adventure into the world of twitter based on the recommendation of those who had done his website. SEO, SEM, RSS – and now he’s tweeting, using @’s and #’s in a way that doesn’t include cartoonish profanity. His head is still spinning with all of this new development, but he’s latching on, growing and doing his best.

If he wasn’t sure of the value of twitter yesterday, today he is.

John learned about something called twitsearch. It’s like Google, but for searching twitter to see what people are saying about specific things. He did a search for two specific keywords – his company’s name and their most popular toy, Hubert the Helicopter Hippo.

He discovered several positive comments.

He discovered two even more valuable tweets.

The first was a person complaining about the return policy at his flagship store. The second was a different person, a mother, complaining about how the toy had broken and could not be replaced, as they had sold out over the Christmas season.

John quickly replied to their comments, and sent each a DM (direct message) respectively. He invited the first person to offer feedback on how they could better adjust their return policy. He went one step further and invited them to meet with him at the store with the product they wished to return, where they could tackle the problem together. To the mother, he asked her how the toy had broken, and for her to send her address in a direct message so that they could replace the product for her.

This kind of quality control is a rarity in terms of customer service. The next time you’re in your kitchen complaining about how the coffee pot leaks to your wife, it’s unlikely that the owner of the company is going to run into the room with a replacement for you. Because it’s such a rarity is what makes it so newsworthy in social media. The first person who John was able to help was so impressed that she tweeted about his prompt response, and how impressed she was. Another influential blogger with a scope of tens of thousands of readers is impressed as well, and he re-tweets about this customer service coups. The second woman is a mommy blogger who writes a rave review in her blog about how pleased she was. She also writes for magazines, and does a product review in Parent Today magazine.

For the price of a few minutes of his time and replacing some faulty merchandise, John has gotten priceless advertising, a reputation for having stellar customer service, and invaluable feedback to help make his company better.

From the Online Strategy Blog of !escunid

If you would like more information, or to discuss a social media strategy for your organization, please do not hesitate to contact !escunid Online Development.

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