Want to Know How Your Customers Really Feel? Check Twitter

As the internet continues to democratize opinion through reviews posted on sites like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, customers are finding more and more ways to voice their grievances online.

At the same time, platforms like Twitter empower users to connect and commiserate over similar negative and positive experiences, thanks to functionality on the platform like replies and “retweets”. The result is a digital ecosystem that can play a major role in your business’ public identity.

Here are a few things to keep in mind about how customers are using Twitter, from the good to the bad and even the ugly.

Twitter users speak their truth

It’s common to see Twitter users interacting with brands online to voice their opinions. While this could range from engagement (like a retweet) to mentions or replies, the fact remains that there is some real power in what your audience tweets.

This is even more true of users aged 18-29, who comprise almost 39 percent of all Twitter users, and are likely to also seek opinions from their peers on the platform. The result is a public platform that is as powerful as it is brutally honest. 

Need an example of how this power can get ugly fast? Take, for example, the fact that companies like Comcast have had to institute a new position, “social care specialist”, in order to field the massive number of complaints about their brand on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

In fact, a 2015 study found that Comcast had the worst overall customer sentiment across all Twitter mentions, resulting in Mashable proclaiming Comcast to be the “most miserable brand on Twitter”. When popular trending hashtags about the brand range from “#comcastoutage” to “#comcastsucks,” it’s easy to see where that title came from, and just how negative customers can be online.

What you can do about it

So what should you do if you don’t want your company to be the next Comcast? One thing you can do is learn from their mistakes. Taking a look at some of the most egregious tweets, one pattern begins to emerge really affects the likelihood that a customer will complain online: customer service.

You’ve probably already read studies about how businesses lose $75 billion dollars because of bad customer service, and Twitter can play a major role in magnifying and exacerbating customer fallout. For example, viral videos of negative support agent interactions are some of the most damaging forms of content that get shared on social media sites like Twitter, and often necessitate public apologies from company figureheads.

One way to avoid these issues in the first place is to use call center software that allows you to monitor and track employee performance. Even better, by integrating your Microsoft call center with your business’ CRM platform, you can keep tabs on repeat callers, prioritizing them so that they receive specialized support from some of your best agents. This can go a long way in mitigating any risk of negative interactions between your employees and your customers, ultimately protecting your brand.

You’ve probably heard that the best defense is a good offense, and that sentiment couldn’t be more true in the world of customer support. If you perform a quick search of your brand’s mentions online and are upset by what you discover on platforms like Twitter, make sure to take the results seriously and perform an internal audit of your customer support strategy.

By being proactive and taking advantage of top-flight call center software solutions, you can begin to address the problem and ultimately build your reputation back up.