Twitter, Alone, Is Not Customer Service
Back in May, after a frustrating issue with one of our hosting providers, I mentioned the item on Twitter.
Literally five minutes later, the provider @replied to me. This felt great. Almost instantaneous support with real person. A frustrating situation was turned into something positive. Rob, had a similar experience with Alaska Air on Twitter.
Last week, I had a another issue with the same hosting provider. Instead of airing dirty laundry on Twitter, I used a more traditional channel for support. I sent an email to the provider's support account. After 24 hours of not hearing anything, I sent a follow-up email. 48 hours later, and still no response.
Just for kicks, I mentioned this issue again on Twitter. And once again, in less than five minutes, I got a reply. Companies that truly care about customer service use social media to augment existing support channels, not replace them.
Comments
I've had the same issue with Comcast. Last week I complained about their HD service. Within minutes I had a reply.
Same here, and my story is with Alaska Air, too. Their website said the customer service phone number was open something like 8am-8pm PST, but this was after hours, so I tweeted. Lo, and behold, I got a tweet response in 10 minutes with the 24/7 phone number. But this didn't change the confusion from their website info. However, being on the other side of things (tweeting for my own company) I understand that customer service tweets are only half of the battle. It's like having a toll-free number...that goes to an answering machine. (Hmm...)
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Or they simply respond more quickly to public complaints.