Avoid making a 'Twit' of yourself
The stream of consciousnesses gushing forth from the millions of Twitter users out there may appear to be yet another means for the self-obsessed to stroke their own egos; after all, celebrities such as Katie Price have nearly half a million ‘followers’ hanging off her every mundane (and misspelt) word. Do we really care what she had for breakfast today?
But for many tech-savvy businesses, Twitter is proving a highly successful communications tool. Used well, it is a means of engaging with customers in a way that outsourced call centres no longer seem capable of. Importantly it can result in a positive customer experience and growing feelings of brand loyalty.
We don’t all live like rock stars so inevitably ‘Tweeters’ update followers about every mundane aspect of their lives, in real time; ‘my washing machine is broken’, ‘I’m annoyed with by broadband provider’; ‘my holiday accommodation was awful’.
With Twitter offering the ability to search keywords and monitor specific topics being discussed in real time, switched on businesses are reacting quickly to these tweets in a positive way, engaging on an individual level with customers to resolve problems and offering satisfying solutions; free gifts, money off bills, quickly arranged repairs.
It seems the idea of grievances being aired in public, and hard fought reputations tarnished without the option for rebuttal, has spurred many businesses including Dell, BT and Tesco to name but a few, to take decisive action – and this can only be good for the customer.
Of course, reacting to social media is time intensive. It involves employing considerable resources to constantly monitor, and respond to, the stream of information and data flowing across the internet. There is little point reacting to a tweet – or trying to resolve the problem - weeks after it has happened.
But if businesses take the time to seriously consider Twitter and its capabilities, they will see it offers a wealth of possibility. Ironically, this new technology offers the opportunity to transport us back to the days when customers were valued as individuals and their needs dealt with personally – something sadly missing from many client experiences in recent years.