Complete guide to use Twitter customer service in the right way

This is the age of social media. Social media platforms like Twitter with more than 300m monthly active users and 145 million daily users can be an excellent tool for businesses. 

From marketing to developing brand identity and maintaining brand visibility, Twitter as a direct customer service tool can help businesses in various ways. Customers all around the world expect brands to be present where they are present.

But handling customers on Twitter can be one hectic task. From figuring out ways to respond to customers on Twitter to providing quick support to customers, employing a Customer Service Strategy on Twitter can be tricky. 

This blog serves as a “complete guide to use Twitter customer service in the right way” for you and your customer support teams. 

 

Here are 10 tips on how to use Twitter for business

1. Plan a Twitter Customer support strategy

2. Quick response is a Must-do

3. Add a hint of personalization

4. Define your engagement strategy

5. Keep an eye on your brand mentions

6. Train your customer support agents

7. Know when to end conversations

8. Take feedback seriously

9. Know when to escalate

10. Create a list of selected accounts or hashtags

 

1. Plan a Twitter Customer support strategy

 

First things first, planning a solid Customer Service Strategy on Twitter for your audience is a must-do. Understand that curating a strategy that works for your brand is necessary. 

• Assign roles like that of “social media manager” or “community manager” early.
• Before you start planning a social media strategy ask yourself- 

1. 1. How many message templates will we need?
   2. What kind of comments will we engage with?
   3. Who is going to monitor the comment section?
   4. Who is going to monitor our Twitter handle mentions?
   5. Will we use memes to increase engagement?
   6. What kind of content will we post?

Answering such questions will help you in strategizing efficiently and effectively. 

 

2. Quick response is a Must-do

Did you know that according to a report by Statista 48% of consumers expect a response to social media questions and complaints within 24 hours?

And another report by Statista stated that Both in the United States and worldwide, 18% of customers expect a response from a company’s social media within one hour. 

Customers can get impatient when they don’t receive a quick response from the brand. Having a strategy that caters to such customer needs is important.

Investing in a CRM Software like Kapture that facilitates pre-planned response templates during non-office hours is a smart move. 

 

3. Add a hint of personalization

Did you know that according to a report by Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences?

A study by Evergage stated that 88% of marketers say their biggest driver in personalization is to deliver a better customer experience. 

Though predesigned message templates are very helpful, it is still important that you personalize a conversation whenever you can. Adding a hint of personalization to conversations or responses can go miles and help your brand build a foundation with your customers.

Personalization can not only establish a strong customer bond with the brand but also has the potential to lift sales and increase profitability. 

 

4. Define your engagement strategy 

Knowing when you have to reply or when you have to personalize a customer interaction is not enough. It is essential for brands to have a proper engagement strategy that is a part of their Customer Service Strategy on Twitter.

This engagement strategy should help customer service agents understand what kind of conversation they can engage in. A strong starting point is to have an engagement strategy that does not allow agents to engage in emotional or political conversations.

Training your customer service agents to respond to sensitive comments or negative comments is a must-do. In addition to this, it is also important for community service managers to design a content strategy that will align with the identity and vibe of the brand. 

 

5. Keep an eye on your brand mentions

Keeping an eye on your brand mentions is an important part of your Twitter customer support strategy. 

• Setting an alert for these brand mentions can help agents quickly identify any negative comments or positive mentions.
• These alerts can help customer service agents lookout for Happy customers or extremely satisfied customers.
• This allows easy and effective engagement with the customers or leads.
• In addition to this social media, managers can also set an alert for all related topics to the brand. These alerts can later help brands monitor any new customer discussions, customer forums, the latest consumer trends, and consumer behavior.

The information gained from these will help brands design better marketing and sales strategies.

 

6. Train your customer support agents 

When it comes to Customer Service Strategy on Twitter, finally, it is the customer support agents who are at the end of the line. They are the ones who are going to handle customer comments, brand mentions, inbox messages, etc.

Handling customer engagement on platforms like Twitter requires a slightly different approach and customer service agents need to be prepared for just that.

Train your customer service agents to respond to tickets and other comments accurately.

Equip them with the right tools like Kapture’s customer relationship management software that will help them handle tickets and other responses efficiently. 

 

7. Know when to end conversations 

Knowing when to get off the platform with a certain conversation is necessary. An agent should know when to end a conversation and when to take it further on a different platform.

Handling numerous tickets at the same time can be very stressful and in times like this agents should make use of self-service portals like Kapture to answer queries in inbox messages. 

These self-service portals are very useful when it comes to handling a huge number of tickets in a limited amount of time. Developing a strategy and policy for escalating and ticket assignment can be very helpful.

 

8. Take feedback seriously 

People on social media are brutally honest and can be rude too. But that is no reason for a brand to ignore negative feedback

Not handling negative comments or inbox messages can only increase negative brand identity. Addressing all comments and tickets on Twitter can be a hectic job but with an intelligent CRM like Kapture addressing negative comments, feedback collection and organization can be done effortlessly. 

Following up after your team has addressed the negative feedback is also important. Taking feedback seriously and trying to solve the issue can only encourage positive brand visibility which is very important. 

 

9. Know when to escalate

A lot of customer tickets might take a significant amount of time to solve. Customer service agents might sometimes have to check records and consult different departments, all of which can take time. 

It is important to know and understand that not all brand mentions or tickets can be solved through the platform. In times like this, knowing when to escalate the ticket remediation process on a different platform is necessary.

Train your customer support agents to handle ticket escalations efficiently in advance. 

 

10. Create a list of selected accounts or hashtags

Keeping an eye on a huge number of tweets, mentions or trends can become very confusing if you are this organized. 

Creating a list of selected accounts or hashtags that are related to customer service issues or the latest consumer trends can be very helpful in the long run.

It allows agents to easily catch hold of negative tweets or mentions that require immediate attention. In addition to this, it will also help customer support agents to keep a check on the latest consumer trends which will aid them in providing contextual responses to tweets and mentions.

 

Examples of companies who’ve upped their ‘Twitter customer service’ ante –

Companies use Twitter for customer service operations because it allows businesses to reach out to a huge number of customers and is also very convenient to use.

Creating a customer service strategy and monitoring brand mentions with a Customer Relationship Management software like Kapture. Here are a few examples of businesses providing excellent Twitter customer support –

1. Uber 

Uber is a good example of excellent customer support on Twitter.

• Uber addresses tickets within a short period of time.
• Uber provides the most contextual responses that are appropriate to every customer’s situation.
• It knows exactly when to escalate the ticket remediation process to a different platform which makes it the most efficient customer support.

2. Amazon

Another perfect example is Amazon.

• They have one of the best customer engagement strategies on Twitter.
• They cater to a wide range of tweets and brand mentions in a timely manner.
• Another great thing about their customer support strategy and their customer engagement strategy is that they add a hint of personalization to their customer interactions whenever necessary. 

 

Explore Twitter Customer Service with Kapture

From defining a Customer Service Strategy on Twitter to exploring ways to respond to customers on Twitter, brands have to carefully curate strategies and policies in order to provide the best Twitter customer support.

To know more about how your brand can make use of intelligent CRMs like Kapture to provide the best customer support on Twitter click here for a demo. 

 

About the Author
	Namitha RV
	Namitha R V is a freelance content writer and copywriter whose primary focus leans on B2B and B2C content writing. She has worked on several SEO projects and has a demonstrated history of writing for diverse content requirements like – Long form blog posts, Optimized Website content, Infographics, Ad copies, Social Media content, etc.