Attracting A Company’s Customer Support Via Twitter
Apr 05 2008 
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A lot of web companies have made twitter accounts, opting to also inform users of updates on products and services through the micro-blogging tool rather than spam them with numerous emails that will be deleted the moment they hit the inbox or simply get caught somewhere in spam. In doing so, They’ve opened the doors to give customer support via Twitter!
For example, I was having a serious issue changing the site link for SheGeeks in MyBlogLog (MBL), a site to help you discover others that visit the same sites as you. I was trying my best to keep those that have subscribed to the SheGeeks community on MyBlogLog and not have to worry about new data, stats, etc. I ended up getting pretty confused because I couldn’t simply edit the link like I should’ve been able to according to Yahoo!’s MBL FAQ.
So, I emailed Yahoo and got a reply that basically said the same exact thing the FAQ said. In all honesty, it was a highly different experience from what I’ve received from Disqus (Great Quality Customer Support With Disqus ) and FeedHub (which I’ll be reviewing next week). I’m sure you know I just had to twitter my frustration about that, because I’d waited hours for a reply and didn’t feel like doing the same for another one.
Within literally 10 minutes of my tweet, I had not one, but two MyBlogLog representatives emailing me and twittering me asking what my problem was. As you can see, I twittered my last frustration at 1:15pm, by 2:50 my problem was resolved. Actually, it was probably resolved around 2:30.
There Eyes Were Watching Twitter
This just goes to show that some companies are watching and probably using twitter’s Tracking feature better than any of us. Also, notice that I didn’t insult MyBlogLog. The fact that I put another service’s customer support quality above theirs turn heads, including MyBlogLog’s.
My best advice for attracting companies that are using Twitter: don’t insult them. No one wants a rude customer. Vent without being rude and they’ll come running. I think I might’ve gotten an entirely different response had I said something rude about the company itself.
This also demonstrates how powerful of a tool Twitter is becoming and companies really need to pay attention to it to utilize it to their benefit!
Twiitter Response
Cyndy Aleo-Carreira (@fourlittlebees on Twitter” href=”http://twitter.com/fourlittlebees” target=”_blank”>@fourlittlebees), tweeted me that she’s received support from Socialthing!!, Twhirl, and Toluu developer @calebeston on Twitter” href=”http://twitter.com/calebelston” target=”_blank”>CalebEston via Twitter!
Do you have any Twitter customer support stories?
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I have found that the best support for MyBlogLog doesn't come from Yahoo – they're still stuck trying to figure out new Customer Satisfaction surveys – but just yell loud ofr Ian or John and you will find help coming faster than Tonto to the rescue of the Lone Ranger.
I have pretty well documented my trials and tribulations with MBL since it first went south on me and while Ian did try his best it was actually John who got me all sorted out
http://www.winextra.com/2007/12/29/a-simple-way...
http://www.winextra.com/2008/01/20/why-yahoo-su...
http://www.winextra.com/2008/02/07/yahoo-you-de...
http://www.winextra.com/2008/03/26/banging-my-h...
http://www.winextra.com/2008/03/26/well-ill-be-... << finally the solution
Thanks for the post. We're feeling our way through this as we go along. In order to keep our support issues all in one place and filtered out from updates about what coffee we happen to be drinking or what band we're going out to see, I created a new account:
http://twitter.com/mblsupport
Follow us here for updates and feel free to D tweet us here with any issues.
@Steven – I appreciate your comments about the Customer Service issues. Clearly there is some work to do. We need to because a John/Ian/Tonto solution isn't going to scale very well!
Thanks for the post. We're feeling our way through this as we go along. In order to keep our support issues all in one place and filtered out from updates about what coffee we happen to be drinking or what band we're going out to see, I created a new account:
http://twitter.com/mblsupport
Follow us here for updates and feel free to D tweet us here with any issues.
@Steven – I appreciate your comments about the Customer Service issues. Clearly there is some work to do. We need to because a John/Ian/Tonto solution isn't going to scale very well!
Thanks for the post. We're feeling our way through this as we go along. In order to keep our support issues all in one place and filtered out from updates about what coffee we happen to be drinking or what band we're going out to see, I created a new account:
http://twitter.com/mblsupport
Follow us here for updates and feel free to D tweet us here with any issues.
@Steven – I appreciate your comments about the Customer Service issues. Clearly there is some work to do. We need to because a John/Ian/Tonto solution isn't going to scale very well!