Sunday, December 12, 2010

Customer Service In the Age of Twitter


Earlier this month, Mashable announced its 5 Nominees For Best Social Media Customer Service.

It got me to thinking about how important customer service is in today's transformational marketplace.

We live in a world where user experience is everything. It isn't enough for the product to be great. Every touch point connected with it has to be great, as well.

It's no longer enough to sell the benefits of the product. Every contact with the brand must add value that syncs with the brand's personality and literally helps the consumer to experience a transformation for the better.

This goal must be imbued in every channel – from print, TV and point of sale, to online.

The digital realm, of course, is the easiest in which to have a meaningful, real time dialogue with the consumer. Twitter and and social networks like Facebook are particularly useful for demonstrating a brand's commitment to providing beyond the expected levels of customer service.

Take the two examples shown here. HP (at top) has technical support people available on Twitter. They proactively provide proof of their interest in customer satisfaction.

ZocDoc (above), a service that helps patients find doctors and make appointments in the same step, uses Twitter to show empathy for their customers and, in the process, gives the brand a much needed human face.

Check out Mashable's finalists. They have some good ideas about how to use new technology to provide better service to their customers. But there are a  many others out there, too. Some that already exist, and some still waiting to be discovered. 


We'd love to hear any examples you have.


-MD


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2 comments:

  1. As a PR student I have been reading your blog for quite some time and found you articles interesting as well as helpful for my PR course.

    I especially liked your article on the dead celebrities campaign. I thought it was a really good idea and worked really effectively.

    I am now a 'Follower' of your blog. I have recently started writing my own blog about being a PR student as well as current affairs. I would really appreciate it if you would follow me at http://2plus2pr.blogspot.com/

    Thanks!

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  2. Nice post! I agree that many companies uses twitter for customer service. It is more convenient to everyone to say whatever they need and it is really worked. Anyway, I know that there are more other social media that can be use for customer service, but still I think twitter is the easiest one. Thanks for sharing.

    -mel-

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