Customer Service: Phone-based Versus Twitter #fail Tag
Just do a search for customer service #fail on Twitter any given time of the day and you’ll see customers complaining about a failure in service.
Take this one from a Toyota customer for example. She loves her vehicle, but hates the service. 
Or how about this one from a Best Buy customer on hold on the phone, sending a tweet to the @Twelpforce to complain about a problem with an online order.
In both of these cases, it appears they’ve tried to resolve their problem through typical methods, but just are not getting the results they need. Twitter is a new outlet or vent for their frustrations.
In the Church of the Customer blog, there’s a great conversation going on in the comments about Twitter as a customer support killer application. It seems people are divided in their opinions about using Twitter for customer service. The blog poster, Jackie Huba, told about her favorable experience with one of the five AT&T Twitter monitors. The first commenter on her post believes AT&T has already failed her due to the poor phone support she received.
I’m beginning to believe in a new form of customer service, one where either company representatives or community members can help you solve problems. I think it’s great for the company to meet the customer where she was at that particular time – on Twitter. I also know that the community-at-large can help quickly too. For example, I’ve searched Twitter when I had a problem with the GMail Manager Firefox plug-in. And in fact, I had an answer in minutes. Now, I realize that my Firefox example is geared toward technical support, not customer support. But I think that people are changing some of their patterns for getting support, and Twitter is helping to change the rules a bit.
What is going on here? Are customers shortcutting the long hold times on the phone and trying to get to the front of the line and support queue by using Twitter power? Or are they so fed up with the poor service on the phone lines and in person that they feel they are out of other options and use Twitter as a last resort? I’d love your thoughts and experiences on Twitter for support.
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