Last month I moved house, and anyone who’s gone through this will be well aware of all the faffing around that has to be done to get things like the meter readings sorted and what not. So as I received the usual ‘we’re sorry you’re leaving us’ closing statement from my electricity provider, I wasn’t really surprised to see that they’d estimated my bill, after all I hadn’t gotten round to updating them. Fortunately, I knew the drill and so logged onto my online account to update the readings and pay up, however what I hadn’t realised is that my online account didn’t technically exist anymore and so the only option available to me was to pay the bill in full. Now, I’m not writing to complain about my account being closed, nor am I writing to moan about my service provider, because what happened next was possibly the best social customer service experience I’ve ever had.
Leading a busy lifestyle (and living in a no-signal zone) I decided to head to Twitter to see if my provider could give me some advice on what to do and here’s what happened…
For anyone still not sure why I was so impressed, not only was I given the option to sort out my issue without having to leave Twitter, but within 15 minutes of my first tweet I received a response. Within 1 hour 10 the whole thing had been sorted (and that’s because it took me half an hour to respond to them). Not only that, the advisor was helpful at every stage and even signed off with a personal message, wishing me well in my new house.
Now, I know a lot of people will be thinking ‘so what? That’s what I expect of social service’ but the thing is so many businesses get it wrong. Too many company’s try to take people away from social, into a call centre or onto email to sort things out and I can’t remember the last time I spoke to a customer service agent who actually listened to what I said, let alone wish me well in my new venture.
Those of you who still aren’t impressed, things then got even better. After perusing my Twitter feed that evening I spotted a tweet asking for standout companies on Twitter, now I don’t normally broadcast things about my personal life (despite what you may think after reading this article) but after being so taken with the service I received earlier that day and with it fresh in my mind I thought, what the heck.
I’m always a bit cautious recommending anything, particularly publicly so thought I’d best caveat my response by pointing out that I’d only had one dealing with the supplier. After a few retweets, in came the replies from other Twitter users extolling the virtues of the business and sharing stories of how well they’d been treated by the customer service team. This is social marketing at its best.
Feeling rather proud of myself for actually putting forward what appeared to be a fairly decent suggestion of a brand doing well on Twitter, I was then granted with one final communication from the customer service team, one which would place this business high up in my estimations for a long time. A tweet from the manager…
For me, this epitomises a brilliant social experience. Though I’m not convinced that this happens all the time, nor do I believe it’s realistic for a manager to get involved with tweets every time, it does go to show the effect that simple, honest service can have online. Not only did I awaken a bunch of enthusiastic tweeters to share positive messages around the brand but I myself have gone on to mention this experience to the majority of friends and family and generally anyone who dares to mention the work energy or electricity.
Using Social Media for Customer Service
We know it’s not always easy to get it right, it takes time to train a customer service agent to work in a social environment and you have to make sure that you’ve got the right processes in place to handle immediate interactions, but there are plenty of examples such as this that prove that it can be done.
If you’re struggling to get your head around social service then here are a few pointers to get you up and running and your business noticed.
Know your limits
You need to understand from the off what’s achievable and what’s not. If you don’t have the systems in place to be able to identify a customer and resolve the most frequently asked questions within the platform then you’re going to struggle to do this in a single team.
Integrate with other teams
If you’re going to be sending people through to a call centre or an email team then there’s a few things you need to consider. Do you have enough people to handle the queries? Do you have a process for getting customers from one channel to another? Do you have systems in place to run an integrated model, so the person on the phone is aware of what’s been said on social media?
Get the right people in
Though it might sound an easy task, being a customer service agent is difficult. The only time anyone wants to speak to you is to complain, be angry or both. Not only have you got to try and help these angry people, but you’ve got to do it whilst conveying the company values and staying calm. It takes a certain type of person to be able to handle negative comments day-in day-out and still respond in an acceptable manner.
Have clear response scenarios
Social media is immediate, not only that but it’s public too. Your team need to be prepared for all scenarios and know how to respond in specific situations. Take time to study previous feedback and provide the team with response guidance to support them in answering queries and complaints.
Create realistic targets and SLAs
People often go to social media to talk because they’re short of time, your social team must work to defined SLAs to ensure every customer query is handled within a set period of time.
