There are pros and cons to using Twitter for customer service. I think some of the pros are that customers can connect with the business more by getting daily updates and being able to know promotional activities in a timely manner. Twitter helps customers reach out to users/buyers all over the world and tell them about products/services available.
I think there are also a few cons to using Twitter. One of the main problems is that customers may go unheard due to the vast number of "tweets" to a company. A customer's voice can easily be lost in the busyness of Twitter. Another negative impact Twitter has on customer service is that company's now have to hire employees just to deal with the social media aspects of their company.
Social Media in general has saved some company's and lost others thousands of dollars. One example found in my reading was when a Domino's video was released on YouTube in 2009 displaying Domino's employees treating product in a wrongful manner. This put a bad taste in the mouths of customers across the nation. This social media incident hurt their company. Domino's set out to make a change. Through social medias and other advertising outlets, "prompted Domino’s to make company-wide changes including altering their pizza recipe, aggressively reaching out to customers on social media, and launching a marketing campaign acknowledging mistakes and promising a better product." So through social media, Domino's crashed and also used it so change the thoughts of customers to rise to the top of their market.
While costumers may go unheard due to the large number of tweets received by the company, would the same occur on Facebook? Customers can interact with companies on Facebook by either posting to the page's wall or commenting on one of the company's posts, but just like on Twitter, there can be thousands of other people doing the same for large organizations. I wonder if part of the problem with advertising on Twitter is due to the limited number of characters per tweet. True, the company can complete the message over multiple tweets, but it's more difficult and more expensive to promote multiple tweets.
ReplyDeleteThe same definitely occurs on every social media. Businesses are hiring more and more staff to help with this problem. I just know that many customers go unheard on social media rather than going into a store and talking to an employee themselves. I agree with you on the limited tweet characters, but I do not think it should be changed due to the fact that then it would be basically like Facebook where people vent their whole lives in lengthy paragraphs.
DeleteThis was an interesting read, and I think Domino's handled this situation very well!
ReplyDeleteI've experienced an increase in the customer service presence on Twitter. I think that it's really neat and can really make a brand or product more personal to a consumer. Quick story: I recently bought a six pack of beer brewed at the Terrapin brewery in Athens, GA. I took out a bottle and realized that it had been labeled twice, which I thought was amusing. I took a picture of it and tweeted it to Terrapin saying something like: "holy moley! I got the coveted double label! What do I win?" I was obviously joking but terrapin tweeted me back the next day and are sending me a prize in the mail! I was pretty impressed by this and I am much more loyal to the brand.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome!! haha I do agree that customer service has increased with social medias. But it also sucks when you tweet at a company and it goes unheard. I love the fact that I can interact with businesses and famous people over twitter, but theres always pros and cons. I do believe the cons out weigh the pros on this.
DeleteI have noticed a lot of companies rely solely on Twitter for a lot of things. Nike and Air Jordan both use twitter extensively. Certain shoes are only sold online due to exclusivity, and both companies use Twitter to post the web link for customers to access the site. They also use Twitter to alert customers when certain shoes go on sale in stores, and also to reply to consumers questions and concerns. I actually made a complaint to Nike's twitter because of an issue I had, and surprisingly I got a response. It was very impressive to think that a company as big as Nike would respond to one customer's complaint.
ReplyDeleteUltimately I think any company would be foolish not to use social media. It is a very strong tool that when used properly can increase a business' reputation and sales greatly.
I did not know that Nike and Jordan did that. I will have to follow them now. I believe this is a good example of how businesses use twitter. It makes people want to "follow" them. I am also glad to hear that you got a response back. I also agree that using social medias for your businesses is almost a must, especially considering it's free.
DeleteI honestly don't think twitter is a very useful tool for customer service. It might be a decent tool for marketing but customer service requires too much interaction with the consumer. Usually consumers only contact a company when they have a problem. A tweet doesn't exactly provide a medium for good communication. I know twitter limits the size of your post to a certain amount of characters, I believe it's 140. How can you be expected to effectively communicate a problem in 140 characters? And what you're describe with Dominos doesn't sound like customer service, it sounds like PR.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great customer service tool if utilized correctly. As the other commenters have said, there are many stories of companies who benefit from the use of twitter. I think there may be some difficulty in managing the amount of tweets and filtering out the nonsense ones.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eonline.com/news/414894/rainn-wilson-misses-flight-goes-off-on-us-airways-in-twitter-rant
ReplyDeleteThe article I posted above fits perfectly with this blog post. This article is about Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from the Office) tweeting about the airline company that made him and the rest of his cast/crew miss an airplane. The airline responded on twitter and corrected their mistake via the social networking site.