Comcast uses Twitter for Customer service!
Posted by Ajay Kelkar on Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Ten months ago, Frank Eliason , whose official title is director of digital care, Comcast came up with the idea of using Twitter to interact with customers of Comcast (CMCSA), the mammoth provider of cable TV, Internet, and phone services for whom he has worked for a year and a half.
Eliason discovered that by doing a search for the word "Comcast" (and occasionally "Comcrap"), he could find tweeters who just happened to mention service complaints he could address. In December 2008, he celebrated the handling of his 22,000th tweet.
Read more about this fascinating use of Twitter for Customer service!
While I would not recommend the use of this strategy for everyone, simply because it invites genuine and “not so genuine” customers and may in fact create a backlash for the brand if not managed correctly. In fact the controversies that Shashi Tharoor generates out of his tweeting may just be a new ploy for driving PR!
However, I do believe that this may be a great way for companies to build a personal relationship with their consumers. If done correctly it has the power of enlisting communities to participate in the creation of a customer service.
Customers look for genuine help even when they interact with companies and remember the best customer service representatives are those who bring that sense of “she is doing this for me” into their professional work!
Here is an interesting comment from Frank on his blog:
What else have we learned? Customers, just like most Customer Service agents, are craving real time, unedited information. If something is wrong they really want to know what it is, what is being done and when it will be back. We are working to create that environment at Comcast.
Read more at Frank’s blog