Overactive Customer Service via Social Media
Realizing the importance of customer service for growing their business and enhancing customer experience, many brands are adopting social media platforms for addressing queries. Twitter and Facebook are on the top of the list of businesses for connecting with customers speedily. Brands like Vodafone India (@VodafoneIn), Airtel (@Airtel_in), Tata Photon Plus (@TataPhotonPlus), LG India (@LGIndiaTweets) are aggressively attending to issues and resolving grievances through this platform and their efforts are certainly respected.
While this is a much appreciated attempt that businesses are making, some of them are clearly getting it wrong. An adequate amount of research and observation is required before stepping into this platform. Also it is important to have a plan in place for every brand and its target audience. One important thing that they should keep in mind is to steer away from going overboard with these channels. Junk mail, spam posts and unrelated tweets; this is something that nobody will appreciate. Hiding posts and unfollowing brands is simply a click away for users and they wouldn’t reconsider the option if displeased and unconvinced.
After a thorough observation on a few big players, we noticed that Tata Photon Plus addressed a customer’s concern intolerably. The customer service executives called the customer over 8 times in one day after her tweet regarding their connectivity. The issue remained unresolved and moreover this became more of an annoyance for the customer. On the other hand, another active Twitter user complained to the same brand on Twitter itself and conversely his issue was unaddressed even after repeated notifications online as well as offline.
The question that arises here is that shouldn’t there be a balance maintained between the levels of intervention? Is there a specific criterion for deciding which queries must be tackled sooner than the others and which should be left unattended?
