Customer Support on Social Media

When it comes to providing customer service on social media – my opinion is “All for One”

The other day I went onto Twitter to get some customer service help with a minor issue that I was experiencing.  When I tweeted the company, they sent me over their customer support twitter handle.  Now their reason may have been the volume of customer support requests but I couldn’t help but to hear Jay Baer’s voice in the back of my head… “Hug your haters!” it called to me.

Yea, you can hug your haters on a stand a lone customer support channel but there are a few reasons why I don’t think that this a best practice: One, create a channel that attracts negativity around your brand. Two, you miss out on the opportunity for all of your customers and prospects to see you going above and beyond.

Let’s break it down a bit further:

Collecting Negativity: While the goal is to provide streamlined customer service, by creating a separate social media channel and funneling disgruntled users there, you are collectively pooling your complaints for the world to see.  Yes, I’m sure that you are actively addressing each one of these complaints, but without interspersing other content in between them, you are compiling a list of negativity.  If I am on the fence about purchasing your product, do a Google search, and find that channel, will I still make a purchase after seeing a list of grievances or complaints? There is a good chance that I might reconsider.

Maintaining One Channel:

Yes, its harder to manage a social media channel that is multifaceted, but this isn’t about you.  It’s about your customers.  Do you really want to make your customers to go to multiple places to interact with you? As a user, I want to be able to go to one Twitter profile whether I want to shout about how awesome the company is or ask for a little help.  Many think that bringing customer service issues into a space that is supposed to be positive about brand is a risk.  If you have bad customer service, yea, it’s a risk.  If you have the ability to monitor your social channels and proactively address complaints with good customer service, it’s a huge win.  You are interspersing delighting your customers with your regularly scheduled content and twitter engagement.

What are your thoughts?

I’d like to hear from you! Are you of a different opinion? Do you think that its wise to pull your customer service into a separate account? As a user, what do you prefer? Do you like knowing that there is specialized support channel out there? Or do you have enough going on in your life that you just want to be able to go to one Handle for everything?  I love nerding out about user interaction and preferences so come on, let me know what you think!