Musing and Gadgets

If you are a company with a customer service department and are not on Twitter, then you are working in the past. Whether your business is on Twitter or not, that is where people are talking about your company. If you don't believe me go to Twitter Search and input the name of your company. Then go and sign up for a Twitter account at Twitter .   

Great now you have an account, Next create a list with your companies name as the keyword. Have at least one person whose main job is to follow that list and response to questions and complaints. Answer questions promptly, even if it just to ask for the person to direct message you so you can get further contact information. Kept the customer updated on your progress if it's going to take sometime. If the customer knows you are working on the problem, they are less likely to get frustrated. After the problem is solved follow up to make sure everything is going all right. Many people will be more likely to express their frustration on Twitter, then they are likely to pick up the phone. A frustration expressed on Twitter can quickly become a tsunami if not handled correctly. However a lot of good will, can also be created when a problem is handled promptly.

This also means that companies will have to find new ways to measure success within their customer service department. The main measurement for most customer service department is talk time and number of calls completed. Obviously, this matrix cannot be use for service done over Twitter, so how do you measure success . That is the problem that companies are just beginning to deal with in the new era of social media. There is great opportunity for the person or company who can solve this problem.