Customer hotline 2.0

For customers, dialing a company's customer service hotline can be the beginning of a nightmare. Almost everyone knows the drill: after getting a recorded message, the caller is placed on hold and forced to endure an endless loop of Mozart or, even worse, some company jingle, for what seems like hours.

When a live human voice actually surfaces on the other end, the odyssey is usually not over. Often one is passed along to several customer service reps before getting to the one who can, perhaps, solve the particular problem.

But in the era of social networking, customer service is taking on a new face. German companies such as Lufthansa, Deutsche Telekom, Internet service provider 1&1 and low-cost phone operator Simyo are increasingly using the short messaging service Twitter to answer customer questions.

This month, rail operator Deutsche Bahn started answering questions from followers of its Twitter account, @DB-Bahn.

New relationship

Social networks like Twitter offer customers a new kind of platform to give feedback to customers and talk about problems. Comments left on a company's Twitter feed, for example, are immediately seen by a myriad of others.

For the company, it means they have a new way of structuring the customer relationship.

"Previously, customer service primarily took the form of a one-to-one conversation," Rainer Kolm, co-publisher of the guide "Social Media and Customer Service," told Deutsche Welle. "Through social networks it's possible to reach a large number of people."

Air carrier Lufthansa was one of the first DAX companies to understand the new possibilities offered by social networks. In May 2009, the company made its first foray into the Twitter universe.

"As a company, we wanted to go to where our customers were," company spokesman Marco Dall'Asta told Deutsche Welle.

When a volcanic eruption in Iceland paralyzed European air traffic last year, the Twitter account @Lufthansa_DE proved very useful.

"Our Twitter account helped lighten the load faced by our call center considerably," he said.

Customer and company benefits

By getting on Twitter, companies also have the ability to use other forms communication - such as links, pictures and videos - in connecting with customers and solving problems.

In addition, they can personalize customer contact. On the Twitter pages of Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bahn, pictures of customer service representatives answering tweets are posted. An abbreviation at the end of every tweet indicates who the author is.

It's a change from what many see as the impersonal nature of the call center, which many see as something of a black hole.

Satisfied customers sometimes quickly send off a tweet of praise that can be seen by others and help burnish the company's image. Simyo and Deutsche Bahn have special filters in place that look for all tweets that mention their name, even if they weren't directly addressed to the companies' Twitter accounts.

Twitter can save customers those frustrating minutes – or hours, or eternity – on hold and customer service representatives can take the time needed to find solutions to problems without having to calm the increasingly frustrated customer on the other end of the line.

Thanks to copy and paste, once a solution is found, it can be passed along to other employees who can respond even more quickly to future enquiries.

Potential pitfalls

While using Twitter and other social media networks smartly can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty, there are certain risks involved.

Companies have to accept the fact that it's nearly impossible to control the development of a conversation on Twitter and that users demand quick responses.

While happy customers can spread the good word, angry ones also have a platform to make their grievances very public.

"Something always comes back, you just don't know exactly when and how," said Kolm, comparing social media to a boomerang.

Deutsche Bahn is well aware of this potential pitfall. For example, in order to avoid heated political discussions, the company decided to delete tweets that referred to its controversial rail construction project Stuttgart 21. The project sparked a large protest movement in southwest Germany and sometimes violent confrontations.

But measures like this one are not generally seen positively in the online community. Companies are considered just like other users on a given social network and without special rights to artificially control the flow and quality of information.

Communication on Twitter also has its own rules, different from those most companies are accustomed to. If a firm sets up a Twitter feed, users expect it to focus on a dialogue with customers, not on marketing. Users don't want to see a torrent of advertising.

"You have to imagine it a little like being at a party," said Kolm. "You can't just put on a cool outfit and then go stand in the corner."

If a firm starts a conversation with a customer, he or she will expect something out of it. That's why experts say when a company sets up a Twitter account, it should be sure that it has people on board who know the rules of the social network world and actively engage with it.

Author: Mareike Theisling / jam
Editor: Nicole Goebel