Twitter Can Help With Customer Service
When Wes Harper’s high-definition cable service went on the fritz a few months ago, he hopped on Twitter and tried to reach Comcast’s customer service reps.
At the time, it seemed the best course of action, given Comcast’s sterling reputation on the social-media service.
But Comcast ignored him, pushing Harper, a 26-year-old digital-media strategist in Naples, Fla., to take extreme measures. He began a campaign of “flaming” Comcast with withering tweets.
Eventually, he got Comcast’s attention, and the issue was resolved.
Leyl Master Black had quite a different experience. Instead of looking for a Dell rep after her PC’s hard drive died, Black got the rep to come to her.
After Black griped on Twitter, a blogger friend put Black in touch with a Dell expert. Problem solved. “It was so quick,” says Black, 39, of San Francisco.
Such are the vagaries of customer support on Twitter. Hailed as the Next Big Thing, customer service through tweets is a work in progress, says Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of digital strategic services at Nielsen. The performance of many companies has been uneven as they try to handle a crush of customer queries, integrate Twitter into their overall strategy and manage the heightened expectations of consumers.
“Social media is not a panacea,” says Blackshaw. “It is a catalyst for fresh thinking on how companies can improve customer service in the digital age.”
