For Customer Service, drop a tweet

How many times we call up the customer service numbers listed for various products and services that we buy or avail, and end up getting even more frustrated than we already were? How many times do we actually call up customer service to give honest feedback, even if it is toll free? How many of us, actually end up getting a resolution to their grievances after talking to the customer service folks? And how many of us end up with a bitter realization that the customer service rep they just spoke to, was more of a parrot than a real person, who would speak the lines he or she had been taught and knew nothing beyond that? Customer service or after sales service is mostly the most painful and agonizing experience of being a customer. Those irritating jingles, those reminders that our call is important to them, those wait times, those warnings of recording conversations for quality and training purposes, those frustrating IVRs who never have the option for our problem and so on.

When such situations arise, more of than not in this digitally enabled social world, we end up sharing our pain and grievances over social media. Some brands have realized this, and learnt it, maybe the hard way or otherwise, to provide customer service support over such social media. I myself have tried and tested this and can vouch for it. Simply Measured’s report shows that between 2013 and 2014, there was a 44% increase in the Twitter mentions of customer service handles. This shows that customers are increasingly choosing to direct their complaints to a brand’s social platform. In fact, it is said that 76% of the customer service responses from Twitter happen in less than 30 minutes.

I have perpetually had some or the other problem with Vodafone. And the customer service number is not even the last place where it gets resolved. But I tweet my problem, and boom, I receive a DM from Vodafone asking for my number and details and they get back to me within minutes. I bought something from Pepperfry and I was struggling to have a carpenter come over and assemble the product. I was so frustrated that as a last resort I decided I myself should start fitting the screws. The customer service was making me go around in circles. I dropped a tweet to Pepperfry and I had the carpenter ringing my doorbell within 15 minutes. Similar have been my experiences with a lot of other brands.

Brands are learning to take social media more seriously than before. One negative feedback can hurt a brand image in ways that could be so difficult to salvage and impossible to do any damage control once the harm is done. At such times, taking the feedback constructively in their stride, if a brand provides friendly and adequate support to the agitated and frustrated customer, it goes miles in not only easing the customer’s situation, but also building brand loyalty. More often than not, the people manning the social media are folks who understand the product or service and have a good understanding of it, and are better equipped to sort out trouble situations. Such social support, actually makes a customer feel important and valued, way more than those jingles over the customer service phone that keep ringing, “Your call is important to us, please hold the line”.

At the end of the day, the customer is looking for a solution. He or she spent time, energy, and of course, money to be buy that product, and wants a satisfying experience out of it. Nobody really has time to sit and aim to defame a brand and just keep complaining for no reason. But if somebody listens to the problem and helps with a solution instead of saying that they are just a customer service executive and cannot do anything beyond this, would solve the problem in most of the cases. Isn’t it better to get a quicker solution, without having to wait on the phone and listen to those torturous jingles and IVRs? Maybe the generation is becoming impatient or maybe it is anti-social, but it works. As more and more brands realize this, they are tapping into this, building their own handles, and even customer service handles.