Twitter has introduced a couple of handy new direct messaging features for brands and businesses as part of its ongoing bid to make itself the premier customer service portal.
Companies with a Twitter presence can now set a default “welcome message” that greets consumers — without relying on a prompt from the user to kick-start a conversation. Businesses can create multiple welcome messages, and can link directly to a specific greeting from tweets, websites, or apps.
“Welcome messages help businesses demonstrate their commitment to service and help people learn what options exist to engage with a business in Direct Messages,” Twitter stated in its blog post announcing the feature.
Even handier are “quick replies,” which essentially allow businesses to provide consumers with a set of options regarding possible queries. For example, Evernote’s support account (@EvernoteHelps) immediately serves up several quick replies, such as “check the status of a ticket,” and “get help with a technical issue,” before you even enter a message. Selecting one of the options allows the account to then quickly respond with the next steps you should take.
As Twitter wrote in its blog post, the combination of the two features streamlines the customer service process: “When quick replies and welcome messages are used together, businesses can reduce wait times and educate people on the best ways to interact with them.”
Welcome messages are currently available to all businesses with the latest version of the Twitter mobile app. Users have always been able to create automated responses within DMs using third-party tools, but they’re generally viewed as spam when sent without a prompt. In the case of the new welcome messages, they are only created when someone chooses to message a business.
Businesses that are interested in creating quick replies must first get in touch with Twitter’s development partners, the full list of which can be found here.
Twitter has recently been busy building more support tools for businesses, including the ability to add customer service response times to a support account, a bigger direct messaging button, and new plug-ins for websites.
