Jul/091
Is Twitter Customer Service Sustainable?
There’s a lot of buzz about large companies responding to customers on Twitter. Comcast is a success story that everyone can point to. You can get your Comcast problem addressed faster by tweeting than by calling (hours instead of days later). I’m happy that people are getting better service but how long will that last?
A major concern with social media, for large companies is that they can’t control the conversation any longer. In the past, individuals couldn’t afford to blanket the airwaves with a commercial about their problem. Companies could and they grew very large. There was no balance of power between customer and large business. Companies have taken advantage of that intentionally and unintentionally. Social media (twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc.) give consumers a voice and it’s slowly restoring the balance of power. Now it’s up to the companies to address this change.
My question is this: If Comcast can provide 3 hour response to a Twitter complaint, why can’t they do that for complaints that originate from a phone call? Either they can and haven’t been because there wasn’t an incentive or they can’t and the more popular twitter becomes, the worse twitter customer service will get.
I like to think social media is a reconning for companies that haven’t been giving customers the attention they deserve. Power is balancing out and companies are going to have to do more than open a Twitter account to survive. They’re going to have to address people’s problems and their own service.
Let me hear your comments and please take the polls:
What was your twitter customer service experience?
How does twitter impact customer service?
Author: Michael Johnstone
Business Analyst and entrepreneurLeave a comment
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9:20 am on July 17th, 2009
You’re absolutely right about the balance in power being restored between consumers and providers. Both the general availability of information and the information savvy of consumers have been increasing steadily with the development of the web. The change is the contact point between company and consumer. Email/Web Contact customer service access was controlled by the company. Blogs and discussion boards are generally under the control of consumers. People will talk. Companies must make the strategic decisions of where to engage consumers, and how responsive to be. This is the same competition point (“customer service”) as before. However, the equilibrium point is now much closer to the consumer.
If a provider is seeking competitive advantage, it will be to make internal systems for monitoring, processing and resolving issues as rapid and cost-effective as possible, enabling a better position relative to the consumer. That is no different than before. New technologies, though, only help those organizations willing to invest in them.