Does each supermarket’s social customer service strategy reflect its brand image and demographic? What quality of social customer service are different customers receiving? We took to Twitter to find out.
Our UK supermarkets possess distinct personalities. Waitrose personified, for example, is a Barbour-clad lady-who-lunches stocking up on artichoke hearts and fine red wine, and Aldi is a student trying to purchase as many baked beans as possible for a tenner.
Does each supermarket’s social customer service strategy reflect its brand image and demographic? What quality of social customer service are different customers receiving?
Investigating the Twitter accounts of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains, I’m going to judge performance according to the following criteria:
1) CLARITY
If there is a separate customer service account, is this obvious? Has the supermarket stated that they are here to help, if the main Twitter account is used to resolve customer service issues? In terms of communication, are answers clear, accurate, and problem solving?
2) SPEED
Customers expect a response within an hour. Supermarkets who don’t reply within this timeframe risk angering customers, who will have their say publicly.
3) PERSONALITY
Does the brand sound human and empathetic? Using real names behind Twitter handles, for example, puts customers at ease.
SAINSBURY’S
Sainsbury’s don’t have a customer service account and haven’t listed specific operating hours, but the store does say they’re happy to help which is a start. Let’s see how they deal with complaints. Note: most of these are about mouldy fruit.
LittleL is very annoyed – sorry, ‘disappointed’, with her poor quality fruit, and has taken to Twitter to complain about it. Within the hour, Joe – a member of the Sainsbury’s customer service team – replies and apologies, and enquires further about the problem.
Without the barcode, Sainsbury’s could easily drop the case, but alas they persist and offer another solution:
@livisd Thanks, could you also DM over your Nectar card number? I'll refund you for these. Cheers, Joe.
— Sainsbury's (@sainsburys) October 28, 2015
LittleL now has a refund. Good work.
Aside from individual customer enquiries, it’s interesting to see how supermarkets react to negative press. A good example of this is the ongoing food waste issue.
@blackandsigi Hi there. You can read more on this here: https://t.co/xwtWmXPkb8. Thanks, Naomi.
— Sainsbury's (@sainsburys) October 29, 2015
Sainsbury’s have a pretty solid policy of responding to people who tweet negatively about food waste – and replying before any of the other supermarkets tagged, with a useful links, gives the impression that they really care. Another gold star.
TESCO
Tesco has a personality! Fantastic! Customer service operates from the store’s central Twitter account, and the (long) customer service hours are clearly listed. Let’s see if this personality carries through to customer interaction.
Is it me or is Tesco really creepy on social media? For a start, scrolling through the store’s feed, there are a lot of winky faces. And then there’s the above. Asking people to follow you looks weird and desperate.
Why is Tesco asking tweeters for all their contact details, and promising to send nice surprises? It’s kind forward….
Forgetting the creepy customer interaction, how does Tesco deal with complaints? Firstly, they’re super fast. Responses are within the hour.
Secondly, responses are clear, helpful, and friendly. As a result, customers show public appreciation and therefore help the store’s brand image. In the above interaction, Tesco personally signs tweets, uses smiley faces, and goes the extra mile to help a customer.
ASDA
Find Asda’s customer service team is confusing. The supermarket’s main Twitter page has no mention of customer service at all, so I Googled it instead.
@AsdaServiceTeam is Asda’s customer service account. @Asda_complaints hasn’t been used since 2014. Why hasn’t it been deleted?
So here’s where we’re at. Clear operating hours are listed, and the team have stated they are happy to help.
Similarly, Asda reinforce this helpful, friendly, and open approach by sending out regular tweets that name who is operating the customer service account on a given day. It assures people that there are humans behind the machines.
Although Asda are friendly, they don’t necessary have the best approach to customer service. Take this response to a complaint for example:
Although this is a fast response, it’s not a great one. If Charlie is already annoyed enough to tweet Asda, it’s going to anger him further that he now has to call. Asda should have got his details and called him instead, or offered a quicker solution.
WAITROSE
A bad start for Waitrose. There is no separate customer service account, and no mention of customer service on the store’s main Twitter account.
Unlike customers of the previous supermarkets who complain of fruit and veg that isn’t pristine, Waitrose customers (River Cottage watchers) demand organic, varied produce:
Waitrose replied speedily, and send over a useful link.
Another observation: Waitrose customers really like Waitrose, and tweet the store to show their appreciation. Most of the other Twitter feeds are responses to complaints.
Surely there must be SOME complaints? Ah, here we go:
Waitrose’s response, although apologetic, isn’t particularly helpful. The store could have asked which store the pumpkin came from, and called them for him. Or called the customer. Or arranged a delivery. Either way, Waitrose should try to prevent the customer from having to go back to the store.
ALDI
Aldi has no customer service account, sort-of states that its main account deals with “service”, but doesn’t list any kind of operating hours.
Aldi’s customer service strategy lacks any kind of friendly distinct personality and instead comes across as monotonous and and robotic. To almost every complaint, the store tweets back an apology – and the customer is either told that their information has been passed on to the “relevant team”, is told to DM the store with details, or go back to the store. Not really problem-solving stuff.
