Thursday, August 23, 2012 Make No Mistake About It: Twitter Is For Customer Service
When you’re on the receiving end of a customer service line, you field a wide range of random inquiries and comments. And, that's exactly what happens—and what investment companies should anticipate—when it's time to hang a shingle on Twitter.
Here are a few examples of comments directed to firms recently. Many customers just prefer this channel for giving feedback. This selection of tweets also provides a view of the breezy way Twitter users search for information. I once received a random tweet: "@RockTheBoatMKTG, I just heard about crowdsourcing. Explain."
Be aware that unlike the odd question or request that comes in via other channels and meanders through an organization in search of a reply, the response clock on these tweets ticks in tripletime. Better answer or at least acknowledge these kinds of tweets pronto! In fact, most of the firms mentioned below did respond. The embed code doesn't capture the responses, unfortunately.
@fidelity You've communicated by email for the first time. Not sure it's genuine so I'm treating it as spam. #justsaying
annie garfoot (@annieb_g) August 17, 2012
Seriously @oppfunds?! You expect me to spend 30 bucks worth of ink to print your two 20+ page documents in order for me to sign 3 pages?
Ombwah (@Ombwah) August 10, 2012
@charlesschwab I know u said checking account phone help is available on weekends but drop-down on site says M-F 830am-7pm. Who's right?
Ron Lieber (@ronlieber) August 23, 2012
@pimco Hey guys - do you know the date of the Jackson Holes summit - I can not find this information ANYWHERE...thanks
Diane Stibbard (@dstibbard) August 14, 2012
@direxionshares is there a way to know before hand if Direxion will offer new leveraged ETFs?
George(@GeorgeVT) August 3, 2012
@fidelityWhats the deal. You supposed to lower Margin Req. on Indexes to 20k from 50k with credit spreads, by Aug 1st. Please fix now
BillyMo (@b1llmoo) August 7, 2012
@jpmorganfunds what are the top 5 perfoming stocks year to date?
Gabriel Bermudez (@GabrielBermude3) August 18, 2012
@vanguard_group I'm very concerned at the extremely short password length limit on vanguard.com. Why only 10 chars? Please extend!
Peter Matthew Reed (@Fomentings) August 22, 2012
@blackrock When you say "into retirement" not sure younger less finance savvy audience knows what that means, still trying to figure it out!
DanielDelson (@DanielDelson) July 16, 2012
Reader Comments (5)
Nice one, Pat! I find I'm impatient, too, when I use social media to communicate with a company.
Wow these are great embeds Pat and definitely evidence of how consumers are using the channel. Many financial firms fear this new communication, but it is such an opportunity to build advocates if done right.
Oh, I agree, Susan. The company that's available on Twitter seems to be agreeing to make itself more accountable in some way. Thanks for stopping to comment.
You like this excerpt from my ever-expanding scrapbook, Steph? I'm part professional eavesdropper. The payoff really is when a firm responds and there's a connection made. Magic! Thanks for stopping to comment.
Love this coverage - and we love Twitter for service. in fact - props to Zendesk for providing a customer service platform that allows us to snag tweets and Facebook posts right into the ticketing process. This insures individuals and teams are notified about social requests and get on the case. one step further is Zendesk's friendly nature with CRMs - which means sales teams can participate and provide a layer of accountability for insuring customers get responses!