Social Customer Service and Twitter

Chapter 7 of Delivering Effective Social Customer Service by Blunt and Hill-Wilson discusses the use of Twitter as a service channel. Twitter is becoming an "instant" channel, where users can send public complaints or praises to brands and companies in 140-character messages. I think Blunt and Hill-Wilson summed up Chapter 7 perfectly in these few sentences:

"Social Customer Service via Twitter is fast becoming an expected norm. Ignore it at your peril. Moreover doing it really well is essential to encourage customers to leave positive commentary in your Twitter stream. Otherwise suffer whatever consequences this has on new customers warming up to your brand or existing customers wondering if the grass now looks greener elsewhere" (pg. 124).

Basically, customers are on Twitter talking about brands whether those brands are on Twitter to respond or not. Twitter provides so many opportunities for companies to increase customer service initiatives, and in turn increase customer loyalty and word of mouth buzz. It's up to those companies to figure out respectful, timely, compassionate and creative ways to reach out to their customers and display positive social customer service.

Just after reading the title of this chapter, "How to Use Twitter as a Service Channel," a specific Twitter account came to mind: @HiltonSuggests. The @HiltonSuggests Twitter account is a little bit different than the type of customer service discussed in Chapter 7. In my opinion, Blunt and Hill-Wilson's tips were mostly for reactive customer service initiatives. On the other hand, @HiltonSuggests is a proactive customer service account. Instead of monitoring their account for users mentioning their brand, they actively search for travelers in new cities and give them suggestions on everything from dining to tourist attractions. The @HiltonSuggests account even recommends competitor hotels if their facilities don't meet the needs of a Twitter user. Delivering Effective Social Customer Service provides great advice for responding to brand mentions and customer service issues on Twitter, but I think that the proactive customer service @HiltonSuggests provides is just as effective, if not more effective. The Hilton brand has gone above and beyond customer service norms by providing helpful suggestions to Twitter users who aren't necessarily Hilton customers. If Hilton will go out of their way to help an individual, even when that individual isn't benefiting the Hilton brand in any way, imagine the extent to which they'll aim to please the valued customer who directly contacts them with a specific complaint or need.