How to use Twitter for customer support
With Twitter having 229 million monetisable daily active users as of April 2022, it’s a social media resource that no dynamic brand can afford to neglect.
You can almost think of Twitter like a public version of live chat that allows customer-centric businesses to interact directly with their customers on a personal and immediate level, while simultaneously answering questions that other customers might have.
There are many significant benefits to using Twitter effectively in your customer support strategy. Read on to find out how!
The pros and cons of using Twitter for customer support
While using Twitter for customer support is pretty common, you might have to make significant adaptations to do so effectively. Here are some pros and cons to utilising Twitter so you can make an informed decision:
Advantages:
- It offers your customers an easy way of interacting with you.
- You can investigate many customer inquiries simultaneously and group similar customer problems together.
- It is an excellent platform to build and promote your brand personality.
- It speeds up feedback and responding to your customers.
Disadvantages:
- It puts your brand in a goldfish bowl! Any customer problems are aired in public, and trolls can be a menace.
- Twitter’s 280-character limit puts constraints on the communication.
- Once customers know you are using Twitter, you might be inundated!
Related content: Do you need a separate Twitter account for your CS team?
Tips for using Twitter for customer support
Design an effective Twitter customer support strategy that will work for your business
Decide what’ll work most effectively for your brand, and who’s going to head up your Twitter operation. Your social media community manager is usually the perfect person. Every team member must be thoroughly trained to carry out your Twitter customer support strategy.
Clarify which issues you’re going to handle publicly on Twitter
Clarify and list the issues that your customer support team can deal with on Twitter. Highlight the additional resources available and avenues for dealing with more complicated issues and queries. Agents need to know when conversations have to be rerouted and moved off-platform. This might pertain to dealing with private information or when the matter has grown too complex to carry it forward online.
Customer support on Twitter entails the same principles as good customer support
Interactions must be friendly, helpful and ‘human’. Agents must use natural and spontaneous language that avoids familiarity, but doesn’t sound too formal and scripted. They must show empathy with the customer and sound sincere. The interaction must be personalised to the customer by using their name (if possible) and not just their Twitter handle. And grammatical errors are absolutely verboten!
‘Humanise’ the agents of your support team
Make your Twitter customer support come alive by letting your customers know that there are real, live humans, who care about them, behind the handle. Include names or initials in signing off messages, and use personal pronouns, like ‘I’ and ‘we’ to make the interaction human and conversational.
Respond to issues speedily
Crucial watchwords for customer support on Twitter are promptness and speed. Today’s technologically sophisticated customers don’t want to wait, and won’t. You therefore have to reach out swiftly and respond to any queries or issues.
Tweets should be short and concise
As Twitter has a 280-character limit on tweets, waffling is out! You need to get your point across swiftly in order to grab your readers’ attention. Bear the following in mind:
- Hashtags should be short, distinctive, obvious, and memorable. Avoid over-tagging or ‘hashtag spam’.
- Master the use of emojis and GIFs because visuals are often more impactful than words
- Learn the correct jargon and abbreviations:
- DM: Direct message
- FB: Facebook
- FYI: For your information
- G2G: Got to go
- IMO: In my opinion
- MSG: Message
- RT: Retweet
- TTYL: Talk to you later
Closely monitor all mentions or references to your brand
You must be continuously aware of all discussions or conversations, good or bad, around your brand, so you can respond speedily. Compile a comprehensive list of keywords and topics that you follow closely on social media. Social listening tools can be extremely helpful here.
Never ignore customer feedback
Ignoring negative feedback about your brand online is guaranteed to make matters worse. Never be tempted to try to avoid responsibility! Dealing with the problem honestly shows customers you care and are committed to setting things right.
And the other side of the coin also pertains, of course – never be shy to use positive feedback to build and consolidate your brand image.
Boost your brand’s image and personality
In any interaction with customers, you always want to make your brand’s voice heard and emphasise its unique personality. Using videos, engaging images and GIFs are all effective ways to boost your brand’s image and let its personality shine through.
Related content: Dos and don’ts of using social media for customer service
In conclusion
Twitter can be an extremely valuable communication tool with customers. We realise, however, that the demands it puts on a brand are not insignificant, and many businesses are intimidated by going the Twitter route.
And that’s where we can come to your rescue! You can outsource your Twitter support to Digital Customer Care Company. Our expert team will perform all the heavy Twitter lifting for you, so you can rest assured your customers are getting the best Twitter support possible.
