Customer Service on TwitterSuccessful Strategies

Carolyn ShelbyDirector of SEO and SEM, Tribune Publishing

Customer Service is still customer service…

You still do all the same things to help people with their problems.

It’s just faster, easier, and more public to complain now.

“Traditional” CS via Twitter• Monitor for brand terms and @ mentions

via HootSuite or TweetDeck, or some other tool.

• Respond in a timely and helpful fashion.

• Have someone/a process for actually, meaningfully addressing customer complaints or problems.

Reporting… usually• Simply Measured, Trackur, and other

tools have great reports for quantifying social media activity and sentiment.

• Sentiment is difficult to track when your brand is frequently cited simply as a source of news rather than THE news.

Our Normal Process• Team of social media analysts monitoring via

HootSuite for brand terms, @mentions, and direct conversations.

• Prompt acknowledgements of complaints or comments.

• A triage process for routing complaints to people/departments that can *do something* about them

Special Situations/Events• War room – constant, team monitoring

from a central location for the duration of the event.

Like during the relaunch of the LA Times…

The War Room

General Recommendations• For serious issues, move the conversation OFF of

Twitter (or social media in general) as quickly as possible.• Phone number to call, specific person to speak to, etc.

• Do not reply to complaints in a manner that lets the world see the response… unless it’s necessary.• No .@replys...

I assure you, there are a LOT of people who seriously hate this guy.

And they have zero interest in being happy with any kind of customer service remedy offered to them.

You cannot make *everyone* happy…

Some people want to stay mad.

When dealing with Extreme Haters…• Be CALM, civil, and courteous.

• Do not be goaded into making snippy comments or snide remarks.

• Reiterate your calm, logical statement a few times, but then let the problem child cry it out alone.

• With patience (and luck), they will just look like a crazy-psycho ranting to an empty room.

Carolyn ShelbyDirector, SEO/SEMTribune Publishing

Twitter: @cshelEmail: cshelby@tribpub.com

Thank You!