Find out how experts would have "corrected" eight real customer service interactions on Twitter to provide a better customer experience.

1. How Experts Would Fix 8
Twitter Missteps
Insights from top social media minds

2. To compile the Tweets for this report, I followed these steps:
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• I created a list of the 130 most socially active brands (those listed on The
Social 100, the 2012 Social Customer Service Index, the 2012 Brands on
Twitter report and Forbes 20 Most Social Brands Report).
• Then, I then set up queries with a social listening tool to pull a month’s worth
of social media data for each brand.
• To narrow down my list of 130, I focused on those companies with the highest
ratio of negative sentiment.
• Then, I created a filter to only pull mentions from Twitter that included the
words “customer service” and had negative sentiment. (Note: This sentiment
analysis is automated. It is possible that some mentions were incorrectly
identified as being negative, and vice versa for mentions that were categorized
as neutral or positive).
Abstract

3. Silence Is NOT Golden: Don’t Leave Your Customers Hanging
According to our experts, this is one of the most common missteps companies
make: not responding at all. In fact, one study found that only 29 percent of
customers receive a response when voicing a complaint on Twitter.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response: [The company did not respond in this case]
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

4. Don’t Leave Your Customers Hanging [Example 2]
Here’s a second example of a company not responding. Kim suggests brands
always do the following in their responses: acknowledge issue head-on, address
customer by name, apologize and attempt to fix the issue.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response: [The company did not respond in this case]
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

5. Don’t Tell Customers to Do Something When They’re Upset
A recent HBR article described why low-effort customer service is one of the most
important factors when it comes to fostering customer loyalty. In this interaction,
American Airlines did the opposite.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response:
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

6. Don’t Just Respond—Tell The Customer You’re Here to Help
The responder should always clearly state their desire to help the customer. While
it’s implied the customer can email the address provided to get a response, the
agent should have specifically said the words “we want to help.”
Customer Tweet:
Company Response:
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

7. Tell The Customer You’re Here to Help [Example 2]
In addition to not making a clear offer to help immediately, Vermeren says
Target’s response is robotic and typical of companies using canned responses in
social media interactions.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response:
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

8. Choose Your Words Carefully
With so few characters in a Tweet, it’s critical that agents choose their words
carefully. In this case, if you’re going to ‘convey’ something, you’re just describing
it—it doesn’t imply that you’re going to take action.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response:
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

9. Don’t Forget to Close the Issue Publicly
In instances where you have to take the interaction to a private channel (because
account information is needed), don’t forget to close the issue publicly to let
everyone know the issue was resolved.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response:
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

10. Ask the Customer for a Chance to Rectify the Experience
In instances when the problem isn’t something you can’t technically “fix” because
it’s a negative experience, create an opportunity for the customer to give you
another chance to rectify the situation.
Customer Tweet:
Company Response:
Expert’s “Corrected”
Response:

11. To Respond, or Not to Respond?
In other words, while social media isn’t a “required channel” in the way phone and
email support is, companies should recognize the risk they take in not making it a
priority: they could end up losing customers.
“It’s important to understand that there is no obligation, per se, on the
part of the brand to respond—participation is the brand’s decision …
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It is also then the right of the customer to draw from this whatever
conclusion one wishes. Most customers, left ignored, would conclude
the brand is disinterested in satisfying them.”
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—Dave Evans, VP of social strategy for Lithium Technologies

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