Providing Great Customer Service on Twitter

It seems that everyone is on Twitter these days, so it’s no surprise that it has quickly become a main channel for providing customer service. For customers, it’s convenient to handle inquiries quickly and concisely in a few short tweets rather than use traditional channels like telephone or email.

With more and more inquires funneling through Twitter, some larger companies like Hy-Vee have even found it necessary to create entire departments to attend to the inquiries their customers make through social media. While smaller businesses probably don’t see the volume of inquires that larger companies might, it is still important to know how to provide great customer service through Twitter.

Here are some of the most important guidelines (for both large and small businesses) which you should follow when serving your customers through Twitter:

1. Respond to tweets as soon as possible.
    
2. Be proactive. If there is an issue, give an estimated time of resolution and thank customers for their patience.
    
3. Be friendly. Even if someone is upset, handle it with the same demeanor you would use to defuse a hostile situation on the phone. Avoid getting into arguments.
    
4. If it is presented to you on Twitter, deal with it on Twitter. If something needs to be handled privately, use Twitter’s DM (direct message) feature.
    
5. Follow up. Check back at a later time to see how things are going.

Stay in line with the core values and mission of your organization and always treat your customers as you would want to be treated. Following these guidelines will help to ensure that you are meeting their needs.