When I teach workshops about social customer support, one of the platforms I always cover is Twitter. For many years Twitter has been used by organisations and brands for customer support and it it is not unusual to see the Twitter bios include details of when their support team in online to answer questions.
For example Bord Gais Energy promote their hours for customer support on their Twitter profile.
As does Electric Ireland.
But turn your attention to Sky Help Team on Twitter and you will see something different.
You see, Sky is make use of a Twitter feature that it seems few organisations have implemented. Back in September, Twitter introduced new customer support tools.
These new features enable businesses to tell users they provide help on Twitter, indicate when they’re most active, and ensure people know they have the option to send them a Direct Message.
Back in August Twitter introduced the option to add a Twitter direct message button to websites which you can read about here.
Businesses can now indicate that they provide support on their Twitter bio, which adds that information to suggestions when people search for a business, mention a business in a Tweet, or find a business in Direct Messages. Additionally, businesses can display hours of availability on their profile to help set people’s expectations for when they are likely to reply. These businesses’ profiles will also display a more prominent button to start a Direct Message so people know the business offers support privately.
These new features can be activated on a new Customer support settings page on the Twitter Dashboard website. You will need to first enable the setting to receive Direct Messages from anyone – this was a feature enabled some time ago and it means you do not need to follow an account to allow them to send you a Direct Message.
In this screen shot from Twitter you can see how a business can display the hours you are available for customer support on Twitter.
You can let people know you offer customer support on Twitter.
Go here to access your settings on Twitter for customer support.
What is great about this update is that it is available to anyone, unlike some customer support features that were introduced for large brands at the beginning of this year.
Twitter reports that on average, Customer Feedback requests receive a response more than 60% of the time.
Research from 2015 by Twitter indicates that speedy response on Twitter results in more revenue for a brand. So perhapas now is the time to revisit how you are managing customer support on twitter as we approach a busy trading time of year. Tweets could translate into happier customers and more revenue!
If you want to explore social customer support for your organisation you can schedule a private conversation with me here.
