In the days before social media, if you wanted to get a hold of customer service, it meant wading deep into the treacherous waters of phone trees and hearing “Oh, this is the wrong department for that, let me transfer you.” The daunting experience of having to wait to speak to a rep and entering half a dozen menu choices — if you were lucky — made you think hard about whether or not it was worth your time, despite whatever problem you may have.
Now you can get a hold of customer service with the speed of, say, Twitter. And the social network has acknowledged who it feels is the very best in the field of customer service: Apple. Specifically, the Cupertino company’s @AppleSupport Twitter account, proud winner of the new #Customer award. According to Twitter Marketing, “The #Customer award celebrates those companies that took advantage of Twitter to listen and respond to their customers in real time, making lifelong friends and brand advocates along the way.”
According to Neowin, the awards “Are split into six categories: #Live, #Impact, #Creativity, #Scale, #Customer, and #Growth.” In awarding the title to Apple, Twitter Marketing wrote, “The average online customer service response time is a long, grueling 17 hours. Hours! @AppleSupport decided to do something about that sad stat and use Twitter to respond to customer inquiries and comments.”
The marketing people went on to say “Because of the live nature of Twitter they are also able to pick up conversations with customers at any time, and incorporate rich media into responses to provide even more help to people when and where they need it most.”
AppleSupport has received “outstanding” customer feedback and has generated more than 150,000 likes and retweets since its March 2016 launch. The service also is ranked at the top of the list of support accounts for average engagements.
The bottom line is that even though Apple’s mantra is “it just works,” if it doesn’t, Twitter might be your pipeline to customer satisfaction.
