Fat Face, a UK clothing brand recently announced that it was going to offer customer services via @fatfacedotcom on Twitter. Much of the coverage relating to customer services is based on US companies such as @comcastcares and @southwestair, so I thought I would look at companies in the UK, which are doing customer services via Twitter. Although these companies may have been later to start then their US counterparts, they are are doing well and may have outshone those social media commentators’ US favourites.
So who are they?
BT
BT is the largest fixed line telecommunications company in the UK and has the largest number of customers supported via @btcare out of all of the examples. This has been a successful implementation by Graeme Stoker, who was responsible for researching and developing this support channel. As with all of the examples used in this posting; BT is being both reactive and proactive in their approach.
easyJet
Whilst at easyJet, a European low fares airline carrying around 50 million customers annually, I started @easyJetcare and it was one of the first companies in the UK to offer customer services via Twitter. @easyJetcare was used successfully during the severe snow of winter 09/10 and shows that social media can play a part in crisis management.
Carphone Warehouse
Another organisation within the telecommunications sector is @cpwcares set up by Guy Stephens who now moderates a group called Where Social Media Meets Customer Service on Linkedin.com. Although somewhat smaller then the previous two examples, it still does great work in engaging customers. As Carphone Warehouse is part owned by Best Buy, a large US electrical retailer, it will be interesting to see what elements of the successful social media strategy Best Buy will bring to the table.
Virgin Trains
@virgintrains was started by Rich Baker following a move to a new role as Head of Customer Services of Virgin Trains (a UK rail company). Rich thought it would be a great way to engage with customers and this is how the project snowballed. It still continues to support and offer advice to customers who use its rail network.
Not renowned for customer services
It is interesting that some of the pioneers in the UK are not always renowned for their levels of customer services but they all are pretty dominant within their respective market. Even more interesting is the fact that all four of the examples where set up by one individual within each company, who saw the potential in the use of social media to support customers.
What can we learn from these companies?
Whether your company is renowned for great customer services or not, there is no escaping from the fact that all businesses have a need to engage with customers via whatever channel the customer wants; this could be via Facebook, Twitter or even a customer forum. In a recent post on the Gartner blog; Twitter Jitters in Customer Service, Michael Maoz questioned 250 customer service executives, he found only 15% had a Twitter strategy for customer services and this proves companies still have a long way to go before grasping new technology.
What is happening in your country?
Do you know any other companies outside of the US who are doing well with their use of Twitter to offer customer support, may be in France, Germany or Spain? Please leave your comments.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
T-Mobile @TMobileUKHelp are another good example of great Twitter use for customer services in the UK. They are good all round but like they way they come on line and announce and close their hours of service each day.
The main problem with UK companies who are using Twitter in this way is that they don’t integrate the channel with their customer services function and run it as an add-on. Whilst being helpful @easyJetcare mentioned above is guilty of this and refers to its ‘customer services’ as if it’s a separate department. They ask customers to phone the CS department. Much better to give the power to sort issues to the Twitter team. If customers wanted to phone they’d do that in the first place.
Jonathan
Thanks for your valued comments. @TMobileUKHelp is another good example of a UK company doing well.
With regards to social media based support being part of the customer services function, this is done by many companies but sometimes it cannot be done within the confines of a tweet. easyJet in the past has carried out full customer services via Twitter but due to issues relating to the ash cloud, it has had to divert people to the traditional customer service channels.
We have to be very careful on how much emphasis we put on social media support and organisations have to think of all of their customers (not just the 1% that use Twitter). We have the possibility of ending up delivering different levels of service for the the ‘haves and the have nots’. Providing a great customer experience is for everyone and everyone should be treated equally (I will be writing about this in a few weeks).
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