Use Social Media to Reach Dedicated Customer Service
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Social media is giving each of us a stage – a stage for a voice to be heard.
Forget walking into a store, dialing the phone, or sending an e-mail because there may be a more effective way to reach customer service. The powerful, trendy way to get some attention is via social media.
We, the people, have made social media channels into a core part of the marketing campaigns of many companies. The gazillion updates that are sent can cover unlimited topics that will occasionally include an inquiry, comment, or complaint about a specific company, product, or service.
Nowadays, you could be expressing your unhappiness about something on Twitter or Facebook and find a customer service reaching out to you to make that frown upside-down. This is the result of the rise of social media – bringing together something you love to do (blabber about everything happening in your life) and something you hate to do (dealing with customer service).
Our Voices Tweets and Facebook Updates Will Be Heard
Because social media tools like Twitter and Facebook are evolving as part of companies’ public relations and marketing efforts, consumers play a role in shaping the companies’ images. And they all want nothing but praises from our tweets and updates.
There may be 300 customer service reps and none of them are willing to work with you. Put your frustrations on Twitter or Facebook and you’ll get special attention because you are now targeting a part of the company whose goals are to improve its image and brand, whereas you’d typically be dealing with someone who is trained to follow protocol.
Departments of PR and marketing representatives are scouring the web for anything that may pertain to their company. If you are a regular reader of Consumerist, you’d know that some unsatisfied consumers, who shared their stories, would have their problems resolved or addressed because they were featured on a popular consumer website. Having a lot of Twitter followers and/or Facebook friends can offer the same results.
I may not possess a great reach on my social media channels but there are some companies that place more emphasis on their social media efforts than others, which gave me a taste of how neat social media has become.
- @Scottrade (Twitter) – Scottrade houses my Roth IRA account. They pointed me to the information I needed after tweeting a question.
- @TeamTurboTax (Twitter) – I didn’t know which version of their tax preparation software would be suffice but they told me. Also, they were great help during tax season as anyone could ask them tax-related questions.
- @Lunarpages (Twitter) – Last month, my Lunarpages webhosting plan was about to expire and I tweeted that I was open to switching companies unless they could offer better pricing. Later that day, I received a call from them and got a nice deal (my story here).
Leverage Your Social Media Presence
The trend is growing in our favor. Use it to your advantage.
Here’s how you can leverage your presence on Twitter and Facebook to possibly reach dedicated customer service:
- Twitter: There are Twitter applications that allow you to search a specific term and will also produce a feed just for those terms. Companies on top of their social media channels would have feeds where the terms may include their company name, brands, and products. Put these terms in your tweets and they may get noticed. Or, you can search for their specific Twitter handle and mention (@) them in a tweet.
- Facebook: Many businesses have Facebook Pages. Conduct a search through Facebook for these pages and “Like” (doesn’t actually mean you have to like them). Afterwards, you could be able to write on their “Wall” and open for all other fans to see.
While having a plenty of followers and friends is great, you don’t need them to make this work for you. After all, you represent a part of a company’s business. If they make you unhappy, you could spread the word and hurt the company. If they treat you well, you could spread the word and bring them new business. Therefore, it would be wise for them to be on your good side.
So, be sure to add this to your list of money hacks!
(Photo credit: Coletivo Mambenbe)
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