Adapted from Tricia's Customer Service Success Blog. Customers are increasingly turning to social media to ask questions and post customer service related comments and they expect responses. Learn how your company can use Twitter to address customer issues quickly and effectively. Read more of Tricia's blogs at www.parature.com/blog.

1. 5 Tips for Delivering
Originally Posted on
April 17, 2012 by
Customer Service in
Tricia Morris 140 Characters or
Less

2. Providing customer service in
140 characters or less; that’s a
challenge a growing number of
companies are facing. A Maritz 71% of
Research survey of customer
approximately 1,300 Twitter complaints
users showed that 71% of and questions
customer complaints and on Twitter
questions posted to Twitter were
went unanswered, leading to unanswered
our first tip for tweet success:

3. NUMBER ONE
LISTEN CAREFULLY
Whether using a free tool or a customer
service solution for social media that
integrates with other customer service
processes, a company’s reputation is
becoming increasingly staked on its social
responsiveness or lack thereof.

4. More than half of the Maritz
study’s respondents
38% or 18 to 24 expected their tweet to be
read by the company, and
year olds and
that expectation actually
65% of those increased with age. While
over 55 just 38% of 18 to 24-year-
expected their olds had faith that the
brand would read their
tweet to be post, close to 65% of
read. respondents ages 55 and
over expected their tweet to
be read.

5. Companies need to be more and more
aware that their social media platforms are
two-way conversation channels, and that
conversations usually begin at the follower
or customer’s convenience, which is why
dedicated monitoring is so important.

6. In addition, studies have shown that
many complainants on social media
usually post or Tweet because they
have been recently frustrated or
disappointed by the lack of response on
another customer channel, which makes
highly visible social media channels the
venue where the customer relationship
is at a make or break level.

7. Unlike Facebook, it is very difficult if not
impossible to delete a negative tweet made
by an individual about your brand.

8. NUMBER TWO
USE YOUR TWITTER PAGE WISELY
Use your Twitter real estate including your organization’s
bio and background space to the left of your feed to
provide customer support information such as business
hours where customer service is provided on Twitter,
support portal or email addresses, or the address of a
Twitter feed dedicated solely to support. Many social-
savvy companies even provide the name of the
customer service agent who is currently responding to
Twitter questions and comments in their Twitter bio to
provide a more personalized experience.

9. NUMBER THREE
DELIVER A CONSISTENT MESSAGE
Ensure the tone of your social persona is
consistent, kind and personable. Language
should not be overly formal, and if the message
cannot answer a follower’s question or complaint
in a single tweet, the conversation should move
to a direct message or direct the customer to a
channel that allows for a more in-depth
conversation instead of engaging in public-facing
back and forth.

10. Many companies that
successfully use Twitter for
customer service have a
standard 140-character-or-
less response to questions
or complaints, so that they
can answer tweets quickly
in a consistent tone, for
example, “Thanks for your
tweet. We’d really like to
help you, so please use
this link to tell us more.”

11. NUMBER FOUR
DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE PROACTIVE
Even though a customer is not tweeting a
complaint about your company directly @
your organization’s twitter handle, through
monitoring of your brand name, you can
impressively reach out to offer service, a
technique pioneered many years ago by
Comcast’s Frank Eliason.

12. In addition, many companies use Twitter to
proactively communicate issues their
customers may be experiencing and the
expected resolution so that social media
and other customer service channels aren’t
flooded with calls, emails and comments.

13. NUMBER FIVE
KNOW THE RULES OF THE TWEET
Anyone posting on your company’s behalf
on social media should have a good
understanding of Twitter’s written and
unwritten rules, #hashtags, messaging, etc.,
as well as have a strong understanding of
your company’s messaging.

14. Listen, use your page wisely, be
consistent, be proactive & know
the rules – in 140 characters or
less, these are five best practices
for delivering more effective
customer service on Twitter.

15. MORE CUSTOMER CARE CONTENT
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN
• The Business of Being Social
• Customer Success Story: Threadless.com
Extends Support to 200,000 Facebook Fans
• White Paper: Organizing Your Business to
Deliver Effective Social Media Engagement
• Profile of the Social Customer
FIND THIS CONTENT AND MORE AT http://www.parature.com/blog/