Every so often now you hear about how great company or brands customer service is, or how awful. Everything is so public now because of social media, and so much of that customer service is being done via Facebook, twitter, and Google+. As the months and years go on it will only become more and more prevalent to respond to your customer through Social Media – it seems to be what the public wants anyways.
I follow various airlines on twitter, and I always notice the amount of conversation there is – whether its complaints about delays, or compliments about their in-flight crew, its incredibly constant. Of course they cant respond to every single person, but the airlines to try and respond to as many as they can. If there are delay issues or canceling issues, I’ve seen numerous times the airlines via Twitter trying to help and fix the situation. We all know there is nothing worse than hearing your flight is cancelled when you NEED to be somewhere that day.
Twitter is big for customer service because its so easy to reach out to someone, and say what you want to say. There is no guarantee they’ll respond, but at least you’ve said your piece and that is that. We hope that they respond to us, and give is something in return of course, but even if they dont, others may see our comments.
Facebook is of course also huge for customer service. I find that it can be more of a slippery slope than twitter is. When you have an unhappy customer, all they have to do is post on your Facebook wall, and everyone else who comes to that page will be able to see it. Which also makes it extremely important that the company responds as quickly as they can, so they can show that they do take their customer service seriously. Facebook, and Twitter are basically forcing companies to take responsibility for their actions and if they dont, everyone will know about it.
One story that promoted me to write this blog post in the first place, was about a Taco Bell fan on Facebook, who posted a funny request on their wall. This person got a response, and Im sure it was not what he was expecting. You can see the exchange below.
Sure enough, Ryan got a speedo that said think outside the buns on the back of it! thought it was so awesome that Taco Bell first even recognized it, and then actually went through with it and sent him the speedo! I think this story shows the right way company should handle customer service. Granted, it did take them about 2 weeks to respond, but it was over the holidays so we can let that slide.
Customer service can really make or break a company. With the way social media is playing a role now, its out there for everyone to see. If I’m trying a new restaurant, doctor, business in general, I always check their Facebook accounts first, to see if they have one, and to also see what people have said about them on their pages.
