Digital media is profoundly transforming consumer behaviour and traditional communications models. While creating new opportunities, its influence has been accelerated by not only the proliferation of hand-held devices, but also the speed at which these devices allow the user to connect, send and receive messages, images and videos. Apple claims up to 30 frames per second for its 3GS iPhone, which is the same as a high definition television!

The biggest impact this year on the social landscape has been the micro blogging site - Twitter. It’s had its fair share of critics, referred to as a fad by some media publications while New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd was quoted as saying to Twitter founders “I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account.”  But is twitter merely an elaborately disguised spam tool or a toy for bored celebrities with big egos? I don’t think so, and this is why.

Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users in June. It has become an extremely popular business tool, opportunists know that conversation is power, and Twitter is where the conversation is right now.  Some recent stats released by AC Neilson include:

- Twitter is the fastest growing community site on the web
- Twitter experienced 1,382% growth in the 12 months to Feb 09
- The largest user group on Twitter is 35-49 year olds
- In January 09, 735,000 unique visitors accessed the Twitter Web site through mobile phones

For you or your organisation, Twitter can be a journalistic live-coverage tool. A reputation-builder. A way to connect with others in your field. A personal journal to the world. An RSS supplement, a way to send out links to your own articles. A collaborative community-builder. A reporting system for events (such as the election disputes in Iran). A real-time search engine. All of these and more are perfectly valid ways to use Twitter, but of course each requires a different approach if it’s to succeed.

Kalena Jordan ran an online poll and asked the question ‘If you represent a business using Twitter, what is your/their *main* reason for doing so? The results were pretty interesting:

• Customer interaction 37%
• Driving traffic 23%
• News / product announcements 11%
• Branding 7%
• Reputation management 7%
• Fun 5%
• Service status updates 2%
• Search Engine Optimisation 0%
• Other 9%

It’s not surprising that customer interaction ranks highest on the list, an astonishing 14% higher than Driving Traffic. Unhappy consumers are using social networking sites to share their woes. And big companies are starting to us the same technology to respond. This has got me interested in how companies are using Twitter for the purpose of interacting with customers and increasing their level of service quality. Companies are no longer relying on the traditional tools that support customer interaction, they have developed a cross-channel customer service solutions approach and Twitter has the potential to be as powerful as the phone.

Dell have a team of several customer service people  on Twitter who address complaints across several countries in real-time.  For example, a customer is annoyed because an order for a PC is delayed three weeks and posts it on Twitter. Within 30 minutes, a representative from Dell contacts the upset customer and requests the customer to send through the order number so the case can be looked into. Best case scenario, the customer’s waiting time is reduced, worst case the customer’s waiting time for delivery isn’t reduced but at least the customer knows Dell are trying to do something about it. The environment that this communication takes place in is open and transparent for everyone to see.  It’s clear that Dell is trying to do something about it. So instead of allowing a customer’s complaint to go unacknowledged for everyone to see, Dell are proactively trying to assist the customer in resolving the issue, all under the watchful eye of the general public.

Just as negative tweets have the potential to quickly spread and devastate a company, positive tweets have the potential to quickly spread and strengthen the image and credibility of a company. A user of the FireFox browser changed a setting that resulted in an undesirable result. A FireFox representative quickly provided a fix via Twitter and saved the day. Read the case study here and check out some of the comments beneath it.  Companies, like people, make mistakes. What’s important is how they respond to these mistakes. Very often a company that seeks to rectify their errors will come out looking more favourable.

The travel industry has been on the receiving end of its fair share of tweets, running a quick search on twitter for ‘lost baggage’ reveals a whole host of unhappy customers venting their frustration with the inadequacies of airlines.  Further analysis of these tweets reveals that the conversation is one-way, the customer speaking to everyone and the airlines ignoring or choosing not to participate.

However, not all airlines are as ‘sloth-like’. EasyJet has integrated Twitter into the very fabric of its customer service strategy and addresses negative Tweets in real-time and through the open forum of Twitter. A quick search of their Twitter page reveals a customer requesting information about baggage weight restrictions and 9 minutes later a representative from EasyJet responds. Issue resolved.

So, hooray to the companies who have embraced Twitter as a medium for customer service and customer support. If you’re not on Twitter and conversing then you’re missing an opportunity to resolve queries and interact with your customer. It’s not the silver bullet but it will certainly complement your other customer service channels. As the internet and mobile internet devices continue to develop and expand, Twitters importance will continue to grow. It’s up to you whether you want your organisation to be a leader or laggard.

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Barry Judge
Director of Marketing
Ethos Consultancy