I am a Montreal-based marketer who loves social media and technology. With 18 years marketing experience behind me, I understand that social media is only one driver in my marketing toolbox. 
Tonight, Twitter was featured on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. The piece talked about Comcast performing acts of customer service magic by watching the Web for signs of disgruntled customers and then acting as digital detectives to help solve those problems. The report went on to say how companies like Dell, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and Kodak were all on Twitter “aggressively protecting their brand, often giving those who complain amazing service.”
Watching search.twitter.com (formerly Summize) in the minutes that followed the ABC report showed a flood of new Twitter users signing up with expectations of their customer service woes being heard. Here are some examples of first tweets, all of which used the tell-tale generic avatar of a newbie:
With expectations like those, it’s hard not to be disappointed. And if all of those concerns are not addressed, as Tracy Wilson Tracey Lee Wallace’s were in the report, then in the eyes of those customers, the brands mentioned have failed them again.
I feel sorry for Comcast. Their ten “digital detectives” are going to be very busy keeping up with the new complaints channel. But, thankfully there is a (mostly) reliable search engine, because you can be almost certain these new Twitter users won’t know that they’ll be seen faster by using @comcastcares.
UPDATE 07/22/08: A manual search in search.twitter.com conducted 6 hours after the piece aired in the East, revealed more than 100 Tweets attributed to new users as a direct result of the ABC report. This does not account for new users who have signed up and not yet posted or have made their updates private (which, in itself presents a customer service issue for companies on Twitter who won’t see those tweets). In the search, I discovered a tweet from none other than Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter welcoming the new users. And to their credit, despite the reservations of users, Twitter did not go down as a result of the coverage.
UPDATE 07/23/08: There have been some interesting comments left on the ABC site about this story.
UPDATE 07/25/08: The New York Times ran a story today “Griping Online? Comcast Hears and Talks Back“, which also mentions Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods and Zappos using Twitter for customer outreach. As of 11 a.m. the story had received 60 comments. Hat tip Funny Business.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Jim Long // Jul 22, 2008 at 9:48 pm
So does Twitter have its customer service there?
Sometimes my chums in traditional media miss the mark.
2 Michael D // Jul 22, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Interesting that big companies are watching. I have noticed a few companies following me after commenting on products or services. No replies yet on reports of shoddy service.
3 Mark Goren // Jul 23, 2008 at 12:45 am
Got some interesting responses to some negative tweets from Feedly, but they’re hardly a big corporation. I do think, however, that Twitter can be an excellent source for companies looking to pick up on what people are thinking right now. But if you’re joining the service with this as an expectation, you will most certainly be disappointed.
4 Adele McAlear // Jul 23, 2008 at 1:37 am
Jim - Good point about Twitter not using their own service in this way. They rely on GetSatisfaction for their customer service. And, I completely understand how some members of traditional media can miss the mark. The nuances of social media can be too subtle for those not participating in it. I’m glad to see more of your colleagues undertaking your desire to bring old and new media together.
Mark - I absolutely still believe that companies should be on Twitter in a participatory listening way. However, if users come to Twitter with unrealistic expectations and no knowledge of the basics of using the platform, like checking their replies tab, it creates quite a challenge for those trying to do right by their brands.
5 Dave Fleet // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:15 am
@jim, @adele - Twitter has customer service?
6 Michelle/chelpixie // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:26 am
Not only are there unrealistic expectations but Twitter didn’t step in to correct any of the misconceptions. Hopefully the companies tried. This is going to be an issue with new users wanting to “air their gripes” and not being satisfied with a simple exchange.
Each of these companies do customer service on Twitter because they care about their clients, an experiment that’s working. I’m hoping instead of airing complaints and not caring who is on the other end of their words people will realize that customer service reps of these companies are people too. Ones with restrictions on what they are allowed to do to resolve customer’s problems.
7 Rick Wolff // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:41 am
For your future reference, here’s the link to ABC’s story, as long as it lasts: either http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=5388404&page=1 or http://is.gd/10j3 , whichever works. My opinion may follow in a later post.
8 Ike // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:58 am
As someone who considers continuity of operations as part of crisis communications strategy, it’s smart for Twitter to *not* do its customer service on Twitter.
9 Tim (@Twalk) Walker // Jul 23, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Sounds like the ABC story could have been framed (much) better, but in general I’m amazed at how people misperceive the function of online tools. Case in point: At Hoover’s, we (a) cover bazillions of companies, and (b) have a “Feedback” link on each page.
We mean “Please give us feedback if there’s a problem with this record,” and the vast bulk of our user base understands this. (In fact, we get lots of useful feedback from users, e.g. informing us that a certain executive joined the company last week.)
Yet a tiny - but consistent - minority - of our users clicks the “Feedback” link to give us feedback ABOUT the company, e.g. “I have a complaint about the widget I bought from XYZ Corp. last month” or “The service I got in your [sic] location in Podunkville was horrible!”
Don’t know exactly how this applies to Twitter, other than as a reminder (to myself) that there will always be noise in the signal.
10 Pishba // Jul 25, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I have my own Comcast/Twitter story. Had some issues with Comcast billing and a technical issue. Went to the Comcast Twitter stream a few weeks ago as opposed to calling their customer service. Noticed they feature an email to use - which I usedinstead of tweeting about my issues. I had a call back within an hour and all issues solved (including a visit from a tech) within a few hours. The point is I consciously decided not to communicate with Comcast directly through Twitter but through email. I did put in my Twitter stream what a great job they did in responding do quickly and having dealt with all my issues.
11 ComcastCares // Jul 25, 2008 at 1:00 pm
As promised, I wanted to come back and provide my thoughts (once I had time to gather them). Although I agree with the premise that Twitter works because it is a great community and there is a unique interaction, I do think this type of discussion about social media is a good thing. With the number of posts that came right after the story we did have to change our approach guiding individuals to email, we were able to address them in the same manner as prior Customers that we have assisted. Beyond our specific assistance, stories like the one you reference help open the eyes of many to the wonderful world of the blogosphere.
For the new users themselves I would recommend that they review the video regarding using Twitter and pay attention to how others use it. When used properly it is a great community to be a part of.
For companies that decide to get involved, I would recommend that they use the search tools and pay attention to how the community operates before interacting. It is so important to do this right.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Have a great weekend.
Frank
Comcast
@ComcastCares on Twitter
12 Adele McAlear // Jul 25, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Frank - Thank you so much for responding to my post. You’ve taken a very positive approach to using Twitter and I admire your ability to adapt to the changing demands that this kind of mass media attention attracts. I wish you and your team the best of luck in maintaining momentum and meeting the heightened expectations of new users to the service. I’m certain that many companies are watching and learning from what Comcast is doing with this program.
13 Adele McAlear // Jul 25, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Tim - thanks for reminding us that not everyone understands the basics of online communication. That’s something that many people (including myself) take for granted.
Pishba - I’m glad to hear that the email address posted on the @comcastcares Twitter bio was effective in solving your issues. It’s a good idea to have included that additional contact point and I hope that others pick up on that method.
Thanks everyone for your comments!
14 Mary Wehrle // Jul 25, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Out of curiosity, I watched for Comcast tweets in Summize right after the story aired and then again about 23 hours later. I was surprised to see the number of new twitter users who seemed to have the wrong idea about twitter. Wish I new how to aggregate data from twitter to track the number of new twitter users from that night and go back and see how many of them stay and get involved in the whole twitter life.
Leave a Comment