mobile phones, energy bills, bank accounts, credit cards, or things we
have bought that are not quite what we paid for.
People who receive shoddy service from service-oriented companies are
now cultivating the habit of taking to Twitter to lodge complaints.
Such complaints on the micro-blogging service, can garner instant
results.
Most firms have established procedures for dealing with complaints -
often involving an expensive, time-consuming and frustrating phone
call. But there may be a short cut: Twitter.
Judging by the results of people on Twitter complaining using tweets
can be swift and effective.
Not all firms watch Twitter feeds well. Other tweeps have told me they
had got no better response tweeting than by other means.
But it is always worth trying, especially with firms that are aware of
a poor public image like energy companies and banks, those that care
about their reputation and, of course, those that have a Twitter feed
for customer complaints And because Twitter is instant, the teams that
deal with the responses want an instant answer.
Twitter is effective because, unlike email, phones, and letters, it is
public. Half a billion people around the world could see your tweet --
and 15 million of them are in the UK.
The search facility means that anyone researching a firm can find all
the tweets mentioning it. And if the complaint strikes a chord with
others it will be retweeted and could go viral!
When you complain using Twitter follow these five golden rules:
Keep it specific:Find and use the firm's @name -- many have dedicated
customer twitterfeeds which twitter will find once you start typing
it.
Keep it brief:Explain your problem in 140 characters. It can be a
challenge. But the essence of it can always be boiled down. Resist
writing a string of tweets. One strong message is more likely to be
retweeted.
Keep it factual:Avoid abuse and irrelevant material. But be strong in
your complaint.
Keep it going:If you get no response make the lack of response your
next complaint!
Keep it public:Don't agree to divert to direct messaging. You might as
well email.
It is also useful to repeat your complaint to someone with a lot of
Twitter followers who may be influential. 'I am having a real problem
of yyy with @xxxxxx about zzz. What can I do?'
When writing the actual tweet, be sure to include the most shocking or
interesting bit of information. Since you only have 140 characters to
work with, you'll want to catch the attention of the company (and
anyone listening) right off the bat.
If you've got a particularly detailed story to tell, you might want to
write a blog post about it and link to it in your tweet. Just make
sure you put in the most eye-catching detail in the tweet itself so it
actually gets read.
You also have the option to tag other account in the tweet, in order
to raise the profile of the complaint. Think about who might be
interested in this story - prominent journalists, consumer advocacy
groups, local politicians. If you include one or two interested
parties, the company is more likely to respond to all of you.
And lastly, make sure you're monitoring your own @mentions folder to
see when the company responds. It doesn't do you any good to complain
and then not hear the response! And if you don't hear back in about 48
hours, you can send a reminder tweet that they still haven't replied
to your original tweet.
As more and more of us use Twitter to complain, it may become less
useful. But the fact it is public and has the potential to go viral
and embarrass the firm is a huge advantage over all other ways of
complaining.
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