September 26, 2018 | By:

How to Provide Stellar Customer Service on Twitter

Social media has reinvented the way in which both the brands and their consumers approach customer service. In today’s modern times, people expect fast and convenient ways to get what they need, and that includes connecting with their favorite brands. In fact, according to Sprout Social, nearly 70% of consumers have used social media to raise concerns and ask questions directly to brands.

While Facebook and Instagram are among the top social media platforms globally, statistics show that Twitter remains as the top avenue for customer service. Twitter reported that they have seen a 2.5x increase in customer service conversations on their platform. Sprout Social’s data also shows that 21% of consumers prefer to use Twitter over traditional customer service channels, such as telephone and email.

Why Consumers Love Twitter for Customer Service

There are a number of good reasons why Twitter is rapidly becoming an important customer service tool for businesses:

  • Twitter’s character limit encourages consumers to immediately get to the point with their concerns, resulting into more efficient problem resolution.
  • Twitter is public, therefore, conversations on the platform become distributed, allowing brands to reach multiple users at a time; as Jeff Lesser from Twitter puts it, “ It’s [a] one-on-one interaction, but with an audience.”
  • Responses and interactions on Twitter come in real-time, which makes for faster customer service.
Twitter’s Customer Service Features

Brands also benefit from using Twitter as a customer service tool. In fact, customers are willing to spend 20% to 40% more with companies who respond to customers through social media. Additionally, companies using Twitter for customer service saw a 19% increase in customer satisfaction.

Twitter also offers robust customer service features for businesses, which allows you the following capabilities to better support your audience’s concerns:

  • Display your support hours – Your customers will know when they can expect to hear back from you.
  • Display “Provides support” info beside your account name – When you turn on the “Support account” option, customers can see that your brand’s Twitter account is customer-service friendly. A Message button will also be added to your profile.
  • Enable direct messages (DM) – This gives customers the option to directly reach out to you for more complex issues or for sharing private customer details. Additionally, you can opt to customize your DM with a welcome message.
Tips on Providing Stellar Customer Service on Twitter
1. Have a separate Twitter account for customer service

For efficiency, businesses should have two separate Twitter accounts: one is dedicated for marketing and the other for customer service. To avoid confusion, you may use a specific Twitter handle that gives consumers a good idea that it’s for customer support—for example, @TalkToYourBrand or @YourBrandCustomerSupport. You can also indicate which account is for customer service by using Twitter’s support indicator.

This way, your respective marketing and customer support teams can focus on their tasks, without distracting both themselves and your customers. If, for example, a customer seeks support from the wrong channel, make sure to still respond to their inquiry and guide them to your support channel.

2. Monitor brand mentions and keywords

Not all customers will directly reach out to your brand when they have concerns. This is why it’s important to tune into the right conversations and find opportunities to serve your customers better. Include social listening to your customer support strategy by monitoring mentions of your brand or product on Twitter, as well as searching for keywords relevant to your brand.

Through social listening, your brand will have a rich opportunity to engage with your customers and build stronger and more meaningful relationships. Thank them when they give you praise, resolve concerns promptly, and take note on what other people say about your brand—both good and bad.

3. Don’t ignore trolls and negative feedback

As a related point to the previous tip, it’s important to address every concern, even if they are negative or are coming from Internet trolls. Give your full attention to criticism and negative feedback; these are good opportunities to improve your products and services.

Moreover, responding with grace and humor is key in winning the hearts of your customers. Timely responses and empathy are important in dealing with irate customers. Remember that your responses reflect on your company, so it’s crucial to stay positive and tactful at all times.

4. Personalize your approach

While automating responses by using templates can save you time and effort, especially for common queries, personalizing your responses builds stronger relationships. Consumers connect better with your brand when you show emotion and humor with your Tweets.

Consider using emojis and signing each tweet with your customer service representative’s name instead of your brand name. By signing your tweets, this creates a sense of accountability, as well as allowing you to easily track interactions between your support team and customers.

5. Respect your customer’s privacy

Twitter, being a public social media platform, is ideal for customer service since it holds brands accountable and provides transparency. However, this also removes the sense of privacy afforded by traditional customer service support.

Your role as a brand is to know the appropriate times when to respond to a customer concern via tweet or when to take the conversation privately. When dealing with sensitive personal information—such as email addresses, account numbers, phone numbers, and addresses—it’s best to use the DM feature to respect and uphold your customer’s privacy.

In Conclusion

Customer service is crucial for every business—it’s often the determining factor whether your customers will stick around or leave your brand for good. While Twitter offers comprehensive tools for customer support, the success of your social media customer service strategy lies on how you interact and respond to your customer’s concerns.

If you want to know more about social media marketing, or if you need help with any of your marketing efforts, give us a call at 888-420-5115, or send us an email to [email protected].

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