Customer Support on Twitter

April 17, 2008 · Comments

turbotax Do you have a customer support organization? Is it possible that your customers are web users? I just noticed TurboTax Support has a Twitter account. How brilliant. It’s software. Software users (a reasonably high percentage of them) can potentially be online. Ergo, put “ears” into Twitter and be ready to respond. Brilliant. Truly. This is the customer service channel I mentioned in my post about from a week or two ago.

So, who else needs to be using Twitter as a listening and responding post? I know Dell is here. What about HP or IBM? What other brands should be listening? How can higher ups in a company be convinced that this is useful?

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  • Could Turbo Tax offer a better global shout out than, "Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock," this time of year (above)? At once self-effacing, human, and force-close sales oriented. Brilliant indeed.
  • Customers are definitely catching on. And the companies that are listening on Twitter (for Customer Service as well as in general) will definitely be appreciated by their customers (as well as gain an edge).

    I recently wrote about this http://conniebensen.com/blog/2008/04/06/should-...
    and there's a link to a post that's gathering the @Companies.
  • While I agree it’s a cool idea and a productive use of the forum, the potential for creating customer dissatisfaction scares the hell out of me.

    Putting a customer support function on Twitter is akin to placing a support person on a busy sidewalk with a sign asking “Can I help you?” I imagine the queue could become overwhelming pretty darn quickly.

    Is it brilliant? No more brilliant than using the phone or a chat function or any other incoming communication technology. They’re all pretty nifty, but each have their limitations and frustrations for customers. It stands to reason that the Twitter doorway will have some shortcomings too.

    I would be interested in understanding the internal protocol and work instructions TurboTax build around their foray into Twitter-based support.

    How many live bodies are reading the feed of what kind of schedule?
    What’s the procedure for handling an incoming support query?
    Does the Twitter person hand off to a traditional support function?
    Does TurboTax apply the same metrics of acceptable response and satisfaction to Twitter as they do to other forms of query or is this just somebody’s personal science project?
    Is this a temporary presence or has TurboTax made Twitter a permanent part of their customer support structure?

    I could probably think of more, not least of which is, do the customers find it better, the same or worse?
  • Sometimes I use "brilliant" when maybe I should say "pretty neato?" I get called out for "brilliant" a lot. But you know? I have this feeling, this unshakable feeling that this is the start of something bigger, so I give points for early adopters.

    That said, Don, you just made me laugh out loud with the realization of that person on the street corner (Manhattan in my mind). I think you've got a point there.
  • Part of the frustration for me in calling or chatting with a company is that they are only one person. Ever not get your issue resolved and hangup and call back? The fun of twitter is there are plenty of people following the @ replies and maybe you'll get a better faster answer from another member of the community.

    Don you make a good point that companies should pay attention to. If they already have a knowledge base, but still get some of the same questions on twitter maybe they need to improve their traditional kb, or add to it if there are new issues.

    And sometimes it's just comforting to know there's a real person behind the machine.

    PS Chris keep being brilliant! (I am famous for overusing Fabulous)
  • STUMBLED!

    Its amazing how powerful Twitter can be when used to its full potential.

    VOTED for you at:
    http://www.newsdots.com/industrynews/customer-s...
  • Of course all brands should be listening to Twitter, but I'm not sure it makes sense that they all use Twitter. I'm still very tied to the notion of communicating with people not brands. I do, however, find immediate value when I can direct feedback about a web application I'm using to the people who can actually make the changes. I like the immediate response and recognition. I guess my point is that a brand's Twitter presence all depends on the purpose. So many people are extremely sensitive to Twitter "spam" that backlashes are definitely real possibilities.
  • Comcast has a twitter account! Kenmore still doesn't but my washing machine is fixed and the repairman is almost a social media evangelist .. (see second video) - but maybe companies should have a presence on QIK!
    http://beth.typepad.com/n95/2008/04/as-the-spin...

    And perhaps Nokia too
    http://qik.com/video/58581
  • I know Pandora follow folk on twitter, and I'm pretty sure Evernote do too. Nice app, and when I tweeted about it... lo and behold I got followed by them.
  • Awesome. I was part of a panel discussion last week and gave them the Delta example of Twitter from Join The Conversation, this is yet another great case study!
  • Beth is right - I was shocked today. The Philly Inquirer's Sunday paper had a front page article about @comcastcares. Philly has now officially heard of Twitter. Check out the article here: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories...
  • I'm not sure I agree with the analogy of the guy on the street corner with a "Can I help you?" sign. This is a simply an example of a company going where their customers are, and communicating with them on their channel.

    Twitter is additive to their support offerings, not a replacement for the phone or live chat - which they also offer.

    Well done.
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