Customer Service In 140 Characters Or Less: A Cautionary Tale

Many companies, both large and small, have embraced social media.  It has been reported by Facebook that advertising on social media by businesses has increased 1000%.  More and more people are increasing the size and depth of the social media gene pool.

This blog, for one, thinks that is a wonderful thing.  Growth is great!  Just make sure your business is ready to handle using social media correctly.  When you fail in the social media realm everyone, including your mother, is going to know about it.

All lasting business is built on friendship – Alfred Montapert

A Tale Of Two Tweets

There were two business leaders seeking help from esteemed customer service representatives through Twitter.  They had thrown their troubles out into the Twitter Stream hoping that some angler would snare them, reel them in, and not eat them for dinner.  No, these two tweets sought advice that only a customer service representative could provide.

The first tweet came from a fiery haired vixen of the high-plains who has a mouth that would make sailors from any nation across the centuries blush.  She had dismounted from the saddle of her two-wheeled whinny and dusted of her hands to type out a call for help.  She tweeted about her woes with a fruity phone and wanted to make a switch.  Alas her pleas (or tweets) went unanswered.  And these from some very large companies that would love to make the fruity cell phone maker blush bright red.

The second tweet came from a lion.  Granted it is a little weird that a lion would wear glasses, but hey… who is judging?  This lion wanted to participate in an online meeting.  A meeting, whose organizers successfully marketed and reminded all the attendees about, making the lion salivate with anticipation!  Sadly, when the lion went to logon he could not.  He tried numerous times.  He contacted the organizer to no avail.  The lion thought, I’ll use Twitter! To which the customer service rep – about twenty minutes after the first tweet – said, “I dunno.”

Since our fiery foul-mouthed redhead was not able to get a response, she had to hop on her two-wheeled stallion and visit a retailer.  Meanwhile the bespectacled lion was dumbfounded that this reputable online webinar provider did not even try to find out why there were problems.   Both business leaders are now even wary of using social media for their own customer service interactions.  If the big guys fail, what about us? They thought.

Quality Is Job 1 – Ford Motor Company

Customer Service Is A Brand

These two tales share the common theme of a failure to deliver basic customer service through Twitter.  Sure, it can be chalked up to the fact that it is hard to communicate in 140 characters or less, but then why use that for a customer service outlet if you believe that?

What these companies – and others – fail to realize is that by entering the social media realm they are extending the image of their brand.  That extension can be a boon or a harmful substance if it is not planned for correctly.  Customer service is part of that brand image.  Consumers are not willing to fork over their money if they get treated like crap, even on Twitter.  Your brand will suffer.

Your 3 Step Solution

Your business can harness the power of social media to build brand awareness, create relationships, forge partnerships, and extend your reputation for exceptional customer service.  You have to invest the time to plan for a successful strategy and execution of your social media campaign.  You need to role-play the “what ifs” and plan for them.

If these businesses – whose customer service agents let our two protagonists down – where yours here is what you could have done differently:

• Monitor your competition by brand name and keywords associated with them.  This would have helped the cell phone makers hear our heroine’s plea for help.
• Break your social media teams down so that they respond to specific regions – the more localized the better.
• Have a back-up line to go to when 140 characters is not enough to solve the problem; this can be an online chat area which allows for more text or (heresy for saying this) a phone number to an actual human being.

Granted that social media is still in its infancy and the kinks are still being worked out.  With all the case studies out there for using new mediums to connect with customers, it is the expectation of most consumers that the big companies will get it right.  That is what they pay all the big money for to hire staff, consultants, and advertising firms, right?