Customer service plays a key role in maintaining healthy relationships with your clients, customers and followers. If a certain person has a question or otherwise is in need of assistance, being able to reach a representative of your website or brand quickly is vital in leaving strong, positive impressions upon them that will ultimately result in loyalty and good word of mouth. Many companies have begun using Twitter as a way of answering their customers’ problems; in many ways, Twitter has all the elements of a decent customer service platform. We will explore the advantages and disadvantages of using Twitter in a customer service system, in order to help you determine whether it is right for your brand.

Advantage – Transparency

With Twitter, you will be pinging servers on Twitter for every customer service-related inquiry in real time and in front of all. While some may worry that certain customer service exchanges via public might hurt the brand’s image, there is always an advantage to keep in mind: the faster you resolve the problem, the better it looks on behalf of your company. Nobody expects a business or brand to be perfect, but they do expect a timely resolution for any problem. Twitter will allow you to demonstrate – in front of the entire world – just how responsive and attentive you truly are.

Advantage – Cost Effective

You really can’t beat free – Twitter’s versatile platform combined with its popularity make it one of the best systems in which you can answer questions and deal with complaints regarding your website, business or brand. Big businesses like Comcast have completely scrapped their costly, overseas telephone model for a more interactive, responsive Twitter presence. They have found that not only is it affordable, but their overall satisfaction rates have increased as well. The only requirement on your end is that someone is around to answer and field any and all questions as they come in to your Twitter account.

Advantage – Turn Inquiries Into Conversations

With Twitter’s interface, you can have a full conversation that may or may not be demonstrable of your business’ dedication to satisfying customers and readers. Not only will others be able to see what you and the inquirer are discussing, but you can also include hashtags in each tweet to help further categorize upon select niches and expand your exposure with these audiences.  By categorizing your responses, you will be able to later on review each conversation and maintain a level of quality control comparable to that via phone or email.

Disadvantages

With any such change, there are bound to be some drawbacks. For starters, not everybody uses Twitter; your customers may not appreciate having to sign up for a service just to troubleshoot or otherwise convey information to you. Some companies and websites also may not appreciate their customer service-related conversations pinging servers on a daily basis, particularly if an interaction goes bad. Finally, there are some who would prefer to have a more “intimate” form of communication with you such as telephone or email; any shifts to a platform like Twitter might prevent some potential customers from contacting you in the first place.