No One Will Tell You This One Trick For Great Customer Service

Customer service is really hit or miss, especially online.

I know I much prefer walking into a store and talking to a representative.

But you can’t always do this, as so many corporations these days are national or international.

If you call, you sit on hold for hours. If you use the online customer service tool, you don’t get a response. If you send an e-mail, it disappears down a black hole.

However, there is one way to guarantee excellent customer service.

Tweet.

Basically every corporation runs a separate Twitter customer team from their regular customer service team.

Tweet at them with your customer service complaint, and they know it is public. All their customers can see it. So they respond almost immediately, sometimes with a direct message, sometimes publicly.

As just one example, recently one company we’d used for advertising had over-charged our church a significant amount. We were having trouble getting it resolved by phone or e-mail.

But one tweet, and within two hours I had a direct message that we’d be seeing a refund in a couple of business days.

Not only was the Twitter customer service faster. They were also more empowered. They seem to have less levels of command or decision, and the Twitter teams can be nimble and effective in resolving customer complaints.

I don’t know what it is about corporate structures that makes this true, but it is. So you might as well take advantage of it.

This post has nothing to do with progressive Christianity that I can think of, but it might simplify someone’s life this weekend.