How Twitter has Changed Customer Service - Forever!

It's no longer true that one person will tell 3 people about their service experience, they may tell 15,000 people - directly! And you won't even know it's happening.

I recently had a conversation with a Futurist by the name of Craig Rispin.  He reminded me that many organisations are 'clueless' about Social Media and how to use them in business.  I take it for granted sometimes so I'll post a series of articles about the different technologies available to help you understand customer service. 

The first is twitter.

Twitter was developed along the lines of SMS text messages.  All messages are limited to 142 characters but do not require a phone.  The big difference is that twitter has become a new way of broadcasting what you do, news or whatever.  Even the Road Authorities in NSW Australia are twittering traffic updates. eg
 Eg Valley Heights: Great Wstern Hwy at Valley Heights railway station; Accident: Car; Lanes closed: Eastbnd; Attending: Emerg services, RTA

Here are some corporate examples:
"I hate eating at xyz, they are too slow" or
"I'm on a train headed into the city" or
"Can anyone help me with ........?"

You can "follow" people on Twitter and/or they can be "Followers".  Here's the thing, with word of mouth, the classic story has one person telling 3 and those three telling three and so on.  In Twitter, one person may tell 150, or over 15,000 people directly.  What a way to ignite word-of-mouth, good or bad.

It may seem like idle chatter but your brand is probably being discussed right now.  What are people saying?  Doing a Google News search on your Brand or product is insufficient, you now need to search Social Networks, but also filter all the noise.
Some organisations have already tried to build Social Networks but customers don't play.  Customers transmit when they like, where they like. If you friend them while they are talking about your brand they will stick, otherwise you will be ignored.  So how do you find out when they are talking about you?

How can you use Social Media?

1)      Hear what real customers are saying
2)      Talk to your customers (at least they know they are being heard)
3)      Use the knowledge to tweak your business, or revamp it altogether.

If you want to know more about getting started, just email me or see a demonstration slideshow (another Social Networking tool) here.

You can find a real life example of how the data is collected here.
We can do this for you for less than $7 per day or you can do it yourself. By following the instructions below.  Keep in mind this is a "How To" for only one of the hundreds of Social Media networks.

Find out more through this short online slideshow here. 

Keep in touch on twitter (sdipietr) or Facebookor LinkedIn