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Using Twitter for Customer Service? Five Reasons Not to Tweet

By: Marijean Jaggers | 07/22/2009

Some notable examples of how Twitter is being succesfully used for customer service have emerged; Frank Eliason is Comcast's leader in caring for customers via Twitter; a pioneer in this practice. Whole Foods is another business with a significant presence on Twitter. This week, Best Buy launched, with significant media exposure, its new Twelpforce -- a top-notch team of tech pros offering advice and being responsive to the Best Buy community on Twitter.

These examples are creating a ripple effect in businesses large and small, with businesses jumping directly on to the Twitter-for-customer service bandwagon. We believe that there are several key considerations before a business begins to tweet.

Five Reasons Not to Tweet for Customer Service

1. Your business lacks the ability (time, resources and staff) to be responsive on Twitter. If you're only able to staff your customer service presence on Twitter 9am-5pm M-F, that's fine, just make sure that's clearly posted on the company's Twitter profile.
2. You're not monitoring for opportunities to respond and engage using tools such as Tweetbeep or Twitter Search; if you're unaware of what's being said, you won't be able to respond to it.
3. Your brand, product or service -- in a word -- sucks. Now more than ever, technology is separating the pack and those who lead in customer service and quality products and services are clearly separated from those who do not.
4. You can't fix your customers' issues. Either you don't care, or can't provide them the assistance they need, or direct them to a resource. In any case, the point of being there is to help; if you can't, then stay away. (And it may be time to reexamine your customer service department as a whole).
5. Twitter is your only social media presence. Do your business a favor and publish FAQs and other content to help customers help themselves, first. Producing this content on a Web site, a Facebook page and other searchable resources will not only save your Twitter team time, but gives your customers total access to the information they seek. Don't, above all, make it more difficult for customers to access your company and your services.
   

Posted in Digital Communications