Posts within the category: Social Customer Service

April 26, 2013

Why a 280-Character Customer Service Tweet is a Bad Idea

This is a tale of social customer service. The main characters in this story are Bluehost, the company that hosts my website, and me, the customer. Our "happy marriage" has lasted about 4 years, but now we are on the rocks because my website keeps going down. In frustration, I send out this tweet:

A mere seven minutes later, the strangest thing happens. Bluehost sends me a two-tweet response. No, not two tweets. That wouldn't be quite as strange. Bluehost has sent me one 280-character response that's been broken mid-sentence into two 140-character tweets. And in my inbox and my Twitter Interactions, the second one showed up first.

Why a 280-Character Customer Service Tweet is a Bad Idea

Don't even get me started on the content of the tweet(s). (In my opinion, Twitter isn't the best place to urge an angry customer to upgrade and pay more.) Here are three reasons why using Twitter in this fashion is a bad idea:

1. If separated from the other, each tweet looks like a mistake. Plus, this two-tweet weirdness makes it seem like Bluehost doesn't understand how Twitter works.
2. Customer service writers are obliged to work within the requirements of each channel. If you write a customer an e-mail, you have to use a subject line. That's one of the requirements of the channel. If you mail a customer a letter, it should have a greeting, closing, and the signature of the person who wrote it. Those are the requirements of the channel. If you tweet a customer, you've got to present your message in a 140-character box. If you have more to say, tweet or DM the customer and ask to switch to a "more words" channel: e-mail or phone.
3. This two-tweet set is impossible to share. The best social customer service is easy to share. While a customer service agent may not have crafted a tweet to an individual customer so it could go viral, it's just dumb to write tweets that cannot ever be shared.

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Maybe I need to get with the times and realize that the two-tweet message is a thing. Are you as put off by Bluehost's two-tweet message as I am?

It's not like this is the first time.  The I-can't-fit-everything-I-have-to-say-into-140-characters problem is pretty common. (See my previous post "Twitter Customer Service: Two partial DMs from AT&T do not make a whole.") But a 280-character just seems wrong to me, like violating the rules of the game, like being both the shoe and the Scottie dog in Monopoly. That's just not fair.

Want more posts on writing to customers in social media?

• In live chat, don’t argue with customers who are trying to pay
• Using Twitter for customer service? Answer the customer’s dang question
• Six things that won’t change about writing to customers

June 6, 2012

Twitter Customer Service: Two partial DMs from AT&T do not make a whole

If you're using Twitter for customer service, you've got to live within your means. Yes, the 140-character limit is a struggle. It's hard to solve a customer's problem or answer a question in such tight quarters. Even the Pledge of Allegiance (flowery wording, but concise) doesn't fit. You'd have to cut "with liberty and justice for all" to squeak in at 140.

Take Two - They're Small

AT&T seems to have gotten little mixed up about replying via direct message (DM) to a customer's request for help. A few weeks ago, I tweeted AT&T about ongoing problems I was having with my landline. In response to my tweet, AT&T sent me this stopped-in-mid-sentence DM.

 

 

And two minutes later, AT&T finished the thought with this started-in-mid-sentence DM.

 

That approach simply isn't going to work. If AT&T can't answer my question, solve my problem, or relieve my frustration in one 140-character DM, they shouldn't try. The AT&T social customer care agent should have realized that she had more to say than she could fit in one DM, and she should have used the DM to ask me whether she could call me (on my cell, not my landline) or e-mail me, so she could express herself fully. Or, at the very least, the AT&T agent should have mentioned in the first DM that another one was coming. She could have used 9 of those 140 characters on the word "continued." (Actually, that strategy would have made the two-partial-DMs approach a less bad idea, but definitely not a good idea.)

And don't even get me started on the utterly unreadable sentence created by combining the two DMs. The AT&T customer care agent wrote:

Leslie, I wanted to assure you that AnthonyG has engaged our executive office of the matter to get Verizon technicians engaged to look for the source of this issue even if it is working when they go out to keep it from happening when it rains. Thank you.

I think she meant something along these lines:

Leslie, I want to assure you that our executive office knows about the problems you've been having with your landline each time it rains. We have the Verizon repair technicians looking for the source of this issue, so even if your landline is working when they come to check it, the technicians can take steps to solve the rain-related problem. Thank you.

And at 355 characters, the readable sentences won't fit into Twitter.

So, we agree that cutting message in half and packaging it as two DMs is wrong. Here's how to write social customer care messages that work.

5 Tips for Writing Direct Messages or Tweets to Customers

1. Use simple, direct (short) words. You'll be squeezing a lot of meaning into a very small space, so you'll have to avoid bureaucratic phrasings such as "I wanted to assure you" when you could write "please understand" or "to get Verizon technicians engaged to look for" when the simpler "Verizon technicians will look for" will do.
2. Have a personality. In DMs, you should avoid stiff business diction such as “We appreciate your prompt response …” and use friendly, personal wording instead: “Thanks for getting back to us …”
3. Tell the customer what to do or what you will do. Tweets and DMs offer a tiny communication space. Most customers who turn to this channel for service want to know who's going to do what to solve their problems, so most tweets or DMs to customers should feature the required or impending action. Your slim, trim DM should help get something done.
4. Include links to more detailed info at your site. Really, how much customer service can anyone deliver in 140 characters? Even the best writer in the world will work hard to get complete, readable, and helpful content into a DM. So save some of those characters for links to detailed help content at your website: demos, tutorials, FAQs, or knowledgebase. And use a link shortener like bit.ly or TinyURL.
5. Ask the customer for information. It's actually pretty easy to ask a good question in a 140-character direct message. So if you need information from a customer (an account number, the date he visited the retail store, a product name), a DM is a good way to ask.

So, to wrap it all up, social customer service is a good idea, but not if the channel stunts the service. Always answer a customer's DM, but don't be shy about moving the discussion out of Twitter if you'll be able to give better service in another channel.

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