Hoteliers have to up their customer service so their Tripadvisor ratings stay high. Zappos in the US has risen to the top simply by offering a policy where customers can try at home any shoes and return the ones they don't like free of charge. Love it or hate it one of the reasons Ebay took off so well was down to its feedback system, yet even that needed adjusting to fit with the changing demands of the consumer. Even in our supermarkets, the cashiers no longer throw carrier bags at you and leave you to get on with it, they ask you if you need any help. There are magazines that regularly survey readers and post their findings, banks, utility companies, shops, etc now know where they fit with their competitors regarding resolving problems and general customer service, the public can then decide which companies to use.
There are occasions though when no amount of phone calls, emails, letters will get you anywhere with a complaint. On a few occasions this has happened I managed to find a way of getting help and quick, via Twitter. It isn't even always the case that you have to contact the company direct, just a mention of them gets their attention. A bad word on Twitter can linger and the companies want to sort it out. The first time I did this was with a large multiple high street electrical retailer, I had a faulty item that had been exchanged three times, I was told all I could do was keep exchanging for the same product, there was no other way forward, I tried everything, even contacting Trading Standards who couldn't help, in desperation I tweeted about it, within a few minutes I had a tweet back asking for my contact details, within a few more minutes I had a call from the CEO's office offering me a choice of products in any store. The Twitter departments of a lot of companies are quite high up in the organisation, where a phone call gets through to a low ranking member of staff, they need their Twitter to be someone well briefed. A badly answered phone call will rarely end up in the newspapers, a tweet can be viewed by millions in minutes so the top companies are keen to have a good, clean amd helpful Twitter presence.
I'm still working on my balance between Facebook and Twitter and now this blog, our Facebook page is linked to Twitter and this blog posts direct to Twitter (come on now, keep up!). I occasionally add stuff to Twitter and other stuff to Facebook, I'm working on some useful promotions and other items to make Twitter and Facebook more useful and interesting than just being adverts for stock, I like to think that I'm usually on top of customer service, so hopefully no one will be wanting to contact me on Twitter. Our phone number is on most things now too, just one word of advice, if you do have a problem and call, stop speaking long enough for me to get a word in, especially if I'm not the seller you wanted after all!
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