Part of my Portfolio for my English class last semester was a research paper. I chose to write it on a topic that I knew very well and wanted to learn even more about: How Companies are using Twitter.
I’ve been toying with the idea of posting it on my blog since I wrote it in December, and I finally decided to just do it. I’m posting it unedited from what was given to my professor so you’ll see some format weirdness and the lovely in-text citations and more from the MLA requirements. (Really don’t like MLA, but that’s a whole other blog post.)
So here it is and let me know what you think.
Tweet Your Favorite Company
More and more companies have started using social media to connect with their customers. Burger King launched its “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign that offered if you “unfriended” 10 of your Facebook friends, you would get a free hamburger (Quenqua 1). That was one promotion that did not go over well. Other companies have tried a less controversial approach by communicating with their customers through Twitter, a very popular microblogging website.
Twitter is the online tool that is opening up the window for conversations between companies and their consumers:
“In the past, companies would hire a market research firm to understand their audience,” says Mike Hudack, CEO of Blip.tv, a New York-based video website. “Now we use Twitter to get the fastest, most honest research any company every hear– the good, bad and ugly– and it doesn’t cost a cent,” he says (Graham 2). “More than half of the Fortune 100 companies are using Twitter for customer service, recruiting employees, blasting news and announcing promotions, according to the study by public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and its digital- media unit, Proof” (Swartz 1). There are many different ways those companies have utilized this new technology: whether it’s the CEO speaking directly to their customers, travel companies talking about deals, or automakers promoting the newest speedster.
The industry in which Twitter usage is most prevalent is travel. Many hotel chains, and almost every major airline have some kind of presence on the social networking website: JetBlue, Southwest, Tablet Hotels and Marriott Hotels to name a few (Pegorano 1-2).
JetBlue views Twitter “as a virtual “information booth”” (Learmonth 1). Morgan Johnston, manager of corporate communications for JetBlue says, “The ability to engage directly with our customer humanizes the brand, creating a deeper level of engagement with our customers that fosters loyalty” (Learmonth 1). JetBlue watches for situations happening on Twitter, and then responds with tweets directing people to tools available on JetBlue’s website, such as flight-status updates (Heslin 1).
JetBlue does more than just point people in the right direction; they will take action to help a customer with a more complicated issue. For example, when Tony Wagner was flying with his wife and two-year-old daughter on a JetBlue flight, he realized that they weren’t seated together. He tried calling the customer service line, but they told him it was something that he would have to handle at the gate. He decided to try tweeting to JetBlue’s Twitter account to see if they could help him. JetBlue’s Twitter team saw Tony’s tweet, flagged his issue as a priority concern, and he, his wife and daughter were then seated together on the flight (Higgins 1).
Tony Wanger probably received better service via JetBlue’s Twitter feed due to the viral nature of Twitter (Higgins 1). It was very easy and commonplace to ReTweet (or forward) a person’s tweet, so information spreads quickly. Companies… “want to head off the conversation as quickly as possible,” says Mr. Wagner (Higgins 1). He continued, “it’s in their best interest to make people who have a pulpit happy” (Higgins 1).
Southwest Airlines is one of the airlines that is using Twitter to its full potential. To Christi Day, an emerging media specialist for Southwest Airlines, “[Twitter] is a great way to have your voice heard. I don’t know if that’s the best way to have your problem solved” (Higgins 2). It’s due to that mentality that they don’t just use their feed for customer service and informational updates about their flight schedules, they also post fun updates about the daily goings on of the flight attendants and the passengers. For example: “One day in August, [Christi] Day fired off 11 messages, known as tweets, covering such issues as a gate agent’s cranky behavior, Southwest job openings and a passenger’s in-flight meltdown that led to his taking off his clothes” (Pegorano 1). Southwest also hosts “Tweetups”, meetings of Twitter users who follow them. Southwest will send out a message like this one: “Traveling through DAL, DEN, or PHX today? 10am-5pm we’ll be wrapping your gifts with our Container Store friends in the SWA gate areas” (Heslin 1). “If a company’s DNA is not truly dedicated to listening and responding to customers in a genuine and timely manner, no technology will provide a solution, according to Lloyd Trufelman” (Swartz 2). It is Southwest’s understanding of its customers and their activities, like Twitter, that makes them so successful in such a harsh economy.
Just like airlines, hotels have been embracing Twitter to help with customer issues. For example, Tablet Hotels uses Twitter to keep a look out for customer complaints so they may be able to help (Heslin 1): “We had one of our (frequent guest) members Twitter from the front desk when the hotel was giving her a hard time,” Michael Davis, co-founder of Tablet Hotels says. “We caught it within 30 seconds of posting, and our customer service called the hotel to resolve” (Heslin 2).
Effectively, Tablet Hotels was able to resolve a problem and stop the spread of bad press by the customer’s tweet.
Hyatt Hotels have a Twitter set up, @HyattConcierge, to assist guests with anything a real-life concierge would do, like dinner reservations, etc. (Higgins 2).
Omni Hotels is using Twitter for more than just resolving customer complaints. Recently they saw that one of their soon to be guests tweeted about his plans to watch a game at one of their hotel’s bar. When this customer showed up, they surprised him with a reserved table with a fantastic view of the TV and free beer (Higgins 2). It is cases like this one that show a company can use Twitter to generate good press by not just responding to potential customer issues.
Other companies with time-sensitive customer service issues, like Comcast, are following the travel companies’ lead in using Twitter to turn around negative perceptions.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, an online shoe and accessories company, has made himself available to his customers via his personal Twitter account. “For people who follow us on Twitter, it gives them more depth into what we’re like, and my own personality,” he says. (Graham 2) Zappos is responding to its clients in a unique and personal way. That has proved to be successful for the company, which was just bought for $800 million by online retail giant Amazon, which has a policy of being very customer centric like Zappos (“What” 2).
Comcast is one company that has found almost a saving grace in Twitter. Frank Eliason, director of digital care at Comcast, has turned to Twitter to save Comcast’s bad reputation for frustrating customer service. “He has 11 people working under him to handle queries from 33,500 followers. He points out that Comcast uses Facebook, YouTube, blogs and help forums in addition to Twitter” (Swartz 2). Though Eliason is certain to point out that Twitter has made “more transparent and showed the benefits of listening to our customers through all communications channels” (Swartz 2). Eliason’s team has “helped solve about 21,000 customer issues [via social media] since they started the work a year ago” (“Comcast’s” 1). The key to that is Eliason and his team’s unique approach to solving problems. They don’t force themselves into the conversations they see people tweeting about. They simply ask, “Can I help?” (“Comcast’s 1) It is that simple phrase that has changed the way companies use Twitter, and all of social media, for customer service.
Customer service now centers on the conversation between the customer and the Company. As the above companies have shown, people are responding positively to feeling heard and being helped by the companies whose products they use daily. More companies should follow Southwest, and others’ example and start talking to their consumers.
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Great job Lizzie! I’m feeling inspired to engage some customers now
Well done Lizzie. In addition to the customer service, we use Twitter for several other purposes, and in several languages. Two very effective uses are to alert other sites/blogs when we have sweepstakes & private sales on the hotels, which they then re-publish (creating more exposure). The other is to drive users to Facebook…why? Because Facebook is like a mini-site to us and there is value in having more fans (a different paper perhaps!), and the probability that a user who tweets also uses Facebook is high.
I do think that most brands turn to Twitter for damage control, and disgruntled users/customers who Tweet are starting to understand that they hold some considerable power…which makes it essential that brands pay attention. Good luck!