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Panel preview: ‘Customer Support in a 140 Character World’
‘Customer Support in a 140 Character World’
5 p.m., Monday, March 15
It’s just one illustration of the way social media has changed the game for companies that are expected to stay on top of consumer problems and complaints. (Here’s another: the guy who took United Airlines to task for breaking his guitar.)
Lois Townsend, HP’s global manager of social media strategy, will speak on a panel sponsored by her company about customer service with social media analyst Jeremiah Owyang, CNET reporter Caroline McCarthy, Microsoft community and online support manager Toby Richards and Frank Eliason, the man behind the @ComcastCares Twitter account.
Townsend says that at her company, social media for customer support is a continually evolving effort. She manages a team of about 11 people and a larger group of about 80 that directly responds to complaints and comments over Twitter, Facebook and HP’s own Web site communities.
“If Facebook is how (our customers) want to engage, we want to be there,” she said. “It’s like we’re at a virtual reception desk — there’s this customer outside of the building screaming and yelling. We go outside, shake their hand and bring them inside. We get them whatever help they may need.”
One sea shift that’s happened in the last 10 years in which HP has been experimenting with social media, Townsend said, is that customers now not only expect to find technical support on the Web, the in fact prefer to find it there. So, while HP is trying not to ignore the massive numbers of people reaching out on Twitter and Facebook, “Social media avenues are growing very fast, but are still much smaller in total as compared with the rest of the more traditional methods (of providing support).”
About 30 million customers a month got to HP’s Web site seeking product support, she said.
Her team, she says, knows that the worst feeling a customer online can have is to feel ignored. But in some cases, a person seeking support falls away from simply wanting help into a category she calls, “Abusive.” While an immediate response is usually best, she said, sometimes a support representative might wait until, say, a Twitter poster has calmed down.
“They’re not easy to talk to,” Townsend said, “they may calm down in a couple of days. We may reach out to them after they calm down.”
She says she had her own experience with challenging customer support situation: she lost an earring on a connecting flight in Chicago and tried to get the airline to send someone to find it.
“They told me when I got back I should send an e-mail,” Townsend said. “Well, that’s not very effective; right now is the time to take action.” She didn’t have a smartphone or laptop with her, but if she had, “I think I probably would have Tweeted about it. I think I would have gotten a real-time response.”
Kevin Smith would totally understand.
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By Dave
March 8, 2010 9:16 AM | Link to this
Nice article. It's amazing to think about how social media has transformed the way that information is filtered through to the people even at the highest levels. Like when President Obama spoke "off the record" about Kanye West and his actions at the Grammy's and it was instantly Twitted and shot all over the web. There's no such thing as off the record these days