Internet providers have a pretty bad rep when it comes to social customer service. What’s important to remember is that a large majority of tweeters are getting in contact to complain - so are already frustrated and angry prior to the tweet, and do not wish to waste any more time on whatever issue they have.
Internet providers have a pretty bad rep when it comes to social customer service. What’s important to remember is that a large majority of tweeters are getting in contact to complain – so are already frustrated and angry prior to the tweet, and do not wish to waste any more time on whatever issue they have.
This means it is absolutely essential that each social customer service team resolves the problem to the best of their ability in an efficient and friendly manner.
Investigating the Twitter accounts of the UK’s most widely used internet providers, I’m going to judge their performance according to the following criteria. Can they prove their rep wrong? Here goes…
1) CLARITY & EFFICIENCY
Here, I am going to judge how efficient the whole process is. If there is a separate customer service account, is this obvious? Has the brand stated that they are here to help, if the main Twitter account is used to resolve customer service issues? In terms of response, are answers clear, accurate, and solve the problem in an efficient manner? If the problem can’t be solved over Twitter, does the internet provider offer another method of contact?
2) SPEED
Customers expect a response within an hour. Brands who don’t reply within this timeframe damage their image, customers get angrier, and they switch providers.
3) PERSONALITY
Does the brand sound human? Using real names behind Twitter handles, for example, puts customers at ease. People get really angry at internet providers. How has this been handled?
BT
BT’s Twitter page clearly states that there is a separate customer service account. Great!
Over at BT care, the customer service team have stated the hours they are operating, and also that they are happy to help. So far, the brand are demonstrating a high level of efficiency, clarity, and a bit of personality.
Now, let’s check out the tweets.
@SinfulSkittlez Oh crikey, check out –http://t.co/4j4DAxNvBs and let me know if this helps at all. ^Clare
— BTCare (@BTCare) October 19, 2015
The response rate here is just over an hour, which is OK. BT’s reply is distinctly human: no automated bot says “crikey”, and the tweet is signed off with a name. This is all good – it puts the tweeter at ease that a real life person is helping them.
Is the response helpful? Claire sends a useful link, which may solve the problem, and lets the user know that he can follow up with any more questions. So yes.
Let’s see how BT handles complaints.
Hmmm this wasn’t a fast, initial response from BT. Claire has also made more than one spelling mistake!! ‘You’re’ should be ‘your’, and ‘where’ would be ‘were’. The responses are understanding, but nothing seems to be resolved here. In fact, most responses encourage customers to log onto the “chat” service – which is a bit of an effort if you want your problem resolved immediately.
VIRGIN MEDIA
Virgin Media’s main Twitter page deals with internet provider customer service – and members of the team are available to help until 10pm.
How does the internet provider interact with customers? Let’s use this conversation with @Andyloynes as an example.
Andy starts with a simple question – he doesn’t seem angry. A couple of hours later, after receiving no reply, Andy sends another message, which indicates the action of “bumping” – we can only assume this means his head against the wall. Now he’s probably a bit annoyed.
Virgin Media’s response is irritating, for a number of reasons. 1) “can do” isn’t a definite answer 2) Andy didn’t say he had a problem, he just wanted an answer to his question, 3) Having to call for more information is time consuming 3) Virgin’s response is cut short, so you have to click on a link to read the whole thing (according to Virgin, the Lithium Social Web Portal is used so they can exceed 140 characters) 4) Virgin asks Andy to contact some other people at Virgin, passing on the burden.
Let’s follow it a bit more:
Andy is annoyed that his Super Hub broadband isn’t very good, and wants to know why he can’t have Super Hub 2, if the former doesn’t really work. This would be a good time to call Andy, and offer him some sort of deal, or options for Super Hub 2, but Virgin doesn’t do this. Instead Virgin does this:
Again, Virgin Media’s full replies are over on the Lithium Social Web platform. Here is where a weird argument starts happening.
Andy wants an upgrade. His Broadband is old and slow. Virgin Media doesn’t seem to understand this. Virgin Media keeps offering Andy a technician. Andy doesn’t want a technician. He’s made it clear he is a loyal customer and would like somebody to talk to him about the service he is getting.
Virgin Media tell Andy a flat out no – and now he’s going to leave. There are also over EIGHTEEN tweets sent here. Why didn’t Virgin offer to call this customer?! Nothing is resolved, Virgin was unhelpful and a bit rude, and Andy is now more frustrated than ever. Terrible customer service.
SKY
Sky have a specific help team, who operate over pretty generous hours. Good start. Now for their latest interaction with a customer:
@Leigh_Anne87 Hi Leigh-Anne, I'm sorry that you're unsatisfied 🙁 I want you to be 100% happy with your Sky Fibre… https://t.co/oAu2hMlcBl
— Sky Help Team (@SkyHelpTeam) October 19, 2015
Argh, Sky – like Virgin Media – also use the Lithium Social Web platform, which means responses exceed 140 characters (more helpful), but replies on the Twitter platform are cut off (annoying). Here’s the full response:
This is a good way to handle a complaint, even if it is a little slow. Richard – who has personally signed off the tweet – apologises immediately, and uses a sad face so the user is under the impression that he actually feels empathy.
He also makes it clear that he wants to help and fix the problem – sending the Sky customer a useful link, and an opportunity to contact him again.
TALK TALK
Talk Talk’s customer service account is clear about its function: it’s here to help. The account’s operating hours are a little limited though – what happens if there is a problem out of the weekday 9-5 hours?
The Talk Talk care team have a pretty good strategy of tweeting out greetings: good morning/happy to help when the team log on, and good evening when they’re going offline. It provides further clarity about operating hours, and shows that humans are behind the account.
In terms of interaction with customers, at the top of Talk Talk Care’s feed an unprecedented helpful and friendly interaction seems to exist:
Talk Talk’s customer service team (who sign their names onto each tweet) reply swiftly, offer quick and helpful solutions, and the customer is happy. He even tells them the problem is fixed.
Surely, this has to be unrepresentative of the account as a whole?? Let’s dig a little deeper.
Zak’s angry, and Talk Talk deal with this pretty well. Positives here include: Addressing the customer by name, offering him help/a solution, signing off tweets personally, asking the customer for his contact details so the team can personally get in touch (rather than forwarding him to a chat service or another number to call). Negatives include: response times aren’t that fast.
PLUSNET
Plusnet have an award winning customer service team. Let’s see if they live up to their accreditations.
Again, these super-friendly daily updates are a positive force.
In terms of customer interaction, Plusnet are fairly fast to reply, friendly, apologetic, and offer solutions where possible – most of the time the team asks customers to DM their username over, taking complaints offline.
@lisahicks14 re you still having issues? Might be worth looking at troubleshooting; https://t.co/ubgwuoGFSC ^CP
— Plusnet Help (@plusnethelp) October 20, 2015
Fairly regularly, the customer service team sends customers a toubleshooting link – which is kind of unhelpful. Most customers tweet because they want a fast solution to a problem and forwarding them to another portal for contact just prolongs any resolve.
CONCLUSION
The best internet providers have a separate Twitter account for customer service, state that they are happy to help, and operate longer hours than the usual 9-5. It’s also important to reply speedily to customers. It’s likely that initial tweets are complaints, so prolonging a response just increases user dissatisfaction. Take Virgin for example – with no reply, one tweeter starts virtually *banging* his head against the wall.
Answers should be clear and accurate. Don’t prolong an issue over Twitter (Virgin, again) – DM the user, offer to call them. It’s also pretty annoying to forward an issue onto another team, chat service, or portal. The tweeter most likely wants a quick resolution and expects you to go out of your way.
Finally, a little personality goes a long way. Sign your tweets off and send out a good morning message. It puts people at ease.
