Superpower 1
Save money through enhanced customer service
Increasingly, companies and brands are turning to Twitter to complement their existing customer service procedures. The platform can be an extremely powerful customer service tool, especially when combined with a website with a comprehensive FAQ page. By redirecting customer questions and complaints to the FAQ site, you can save significantly on having to deal with these same questions and complaints through a traditional call center. A phone call to a customer service representative can be cumbersome and inefficient, leading to extra time spent on the phone for a problem that can most likely be addressed through a few tweets or a FAQ answer.
In addition to saving money on your end, you are providing the customer with an enhanced service experience. As long as your Twitter representative is timely, polite, and personable, your customer will feel very well taken care of and, most importantly, that their views matter to you (as they should). Learn from the example of Best Buy's CMO, who snubbed a customer through his Twitter account, thereby generating negative buzz in the blogosphere.
Learning from past mistakes, Best Buy has recently taken the initiative to launch its innovative Twelpforce portal, which enables Best Buy employees on Twitter to collectively handle customer complaints and questions. Their responses are aggregated on a single stream at @twelpforce. While delegating customer service duties to untrained employees is a risky move, Best Buy has made sure to clearly outline its Twelpforce policies in a handy (and public) guide called "Tips & Expectations."
Best Buy CMO Barry Judge admits: [I know] we will make mistakes. Heck, I have made many mistakes in my own use of social media. But, I also know we will learn from them and be a smarter company about how to better serve customers going forward.
This idea has enhanced customer service, generated buzz for the company, and is possibly saving the organization countless hours of traditional call-center troubleshooting.
To follow Best Buy's lead, make your customer service procedure transparent and authentic, pool the resources of your employee base, outline clear benchmarks and guidelines, and focus on delivering quality customer care while being open to mistakes along the way.
