Era when clients tweet their way to improved service
When Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s executive chair, co-founded the social media platform in 2006, I doubt he envisioned the role it would play as a customer service channel. Simply seen by many as the “SMS of the Internet,” the free micro-blogging service has allowed registered users to post updates or send direct messages limited to 140 characters.
The social network has many customer interactions that cut across the globe. Initially, Twitter was used for social networking among individuals. Later it became a tool to share marketing messages with followers, but today it is a service delivery channel and a point of customer interaction that cannot be ignored.
Many smart companies not only listen to what their customers are saying on Twitter, they also have a speedy response mechanism in place.
In Kenya, Twitter usage continues to grow rapidly and we have been ranked as the second most active tweeters in Africa after South Africa. A number of companies, both large and small, have activated their Twitter accounts and grown their following with both customers and the general public.
Most importantly, many of these companies are engaging their customers via Twitter. On a daily basis, they are responding to various queries and complaints.
In addition, and worthy of note, is that Kenya was finally added to the Twitter Trends Map this month. What this means is that we can now get the trending topics customised for Kenya and even further customised for Nairobi and Mombasa. What many may not know is that Kenya is one of only three African countries on the Twitter Trends Map, together with Nigeria and South Africa.
Notable interactions
What has been most intriguing, though, is that soon after Kenya got on the Twitter Trend map, the two topics that were trending in mid-April related to customer interactions.
These were “apologies” and “Kindly DM.” I took a keen interest in these topics and tracked them to a number of firms that have had notable interactions with their customers on Twitter. The said companies not only respond to enquiries via Twitter but they also deal with customer complaints.
The leading contributor of the trends was Kenya Power (@kenyapower). This company was not offering customer service via the channel in 2011 when I first wrote on social media in this column. Power outages that resulted in more than 208,000 telephone calls, as reported at last week’s press conference, must have also generated loads of tweets and heavy traffic on Twitter. Complaints require an apology and a follow up. It is for these two reasons that apologies and requests to communicate further through a direct message (DM) were trending.
What I also noted was that, in addition to Kenya Power, Zuku, DSTV Kenya, Safaricom, and Airtel were the other companies that made these topics trend.
It is evident that social networks will remain as both channels for customers to speak out and points for companies to respond to their customers. Forward looking companies can no longer ignore the role of social media responses in creating their overall customer experience.
As customer interactions via Twitter heighten, we are likely to see many senior executives take a keen interest in the quality of these interactions. Lets us tweet our way to improved service!
Lucy Kiruthu is a management consultant and can be reached on [email protected] or via twitter @kiruthulucy
