Social media has opened many doors for companies. One way social media can be used is for customer service. One company does a great job with social media customer service: AT&T. According to Simply Zesty, AT&T has 1.6 millions fans on Facebook. They receive hundreds of questions everyday and the company uses it for customer service and to create positive experience for users.
AT&T does a few things very well. First off, they use their page for discussions. Wall posts and discussion boards can be a great space for customer service to take place, but companies often forget to use them. When customers post on Facebook, an AT&T customer service rep will respond to them. Their Facebook page gives people another outlet to contact AT&T instead of calling the customer service line. Personally, I’m an AT&T customer and I know that it can be a pain to call them, so this gives me another outlet to use.
Another thing that makes AT&T’s digital customer service a great tool is they educate their employees in weekly digital leadership workshops. This is to make sure there is a collaboration between all departments and that employees communicating the same messages offline or online. This is important, especially within an organization as large as AT&T. Customers need to have consistent messages from the company so they know it’s credible and communicates the correct information.
Although AT&T does a great job with social media customer service, there are still a few thing they can do to improve it. Social media is all about being instant, so fast response times are important. First of all, the could increase their response time to questions or complaints. I logged on to their Facebook page and I had to scroll down to posts from two hours ago to find responses. Other organizations reply faster. The Delta Airlines twitter page responds much quicker than AT&T.
Second, they can employ more people to handle their social media customer service. Right now they only have 20, so more would be beneficial and could increase response time like mentioned above.
Finally, they could be available 24/7. On AT&T’s twitter page, they state hours of operation. The Facebook page doesn’t show hours of operation, but I would guess they are the same. Customers want information at all hours of the day, so only being available for some is a downside.
Muffy Lavens 