Crafting Likeable eCommerce Experiences with Twitter Social Care

 

Twitter is changing eCommerce customer service. Nearly all brands are on

the Twitter platform for marketing purposes but most aren’t doing the 1

thing they should be doing. Social Listening, a term I was first

introduced to by Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Business.

When conducting this analysis I learned that brands are not responding to

their brand mentions, taking too long to respond and just not being

human.

Nielsen and McKinsey & Company published their findings from a Social

Care Survey in 2012.

● 47% of all social media users have used social care, with usage as high as 59% among 18-24 year olds

● 71% of those who experience positive social care (i.e., a quick and effective brand response) are likely to recommend that brand to others, compared to just 19% of customers that do not receive any response

● Nearly 1 in 3 social media users prefer to reach out to a brand

for customer service through a social channel compared to over the phone. (I am one of them), and when posing the question to my Facebook friends a ton had also engaged with brands via Social Media.

With over 70% of eCommerce brands still without an effective twitter

customer service strategy. Let’s honor #CustomerServiceWeek and

examine how some of the top brands are running their social care centers.

Constructing your Twitter eCommerce Social Customer Care Center Before hiring or outsourcing your social care team think about what you

want to accomplish on the Twitter Platform. Take time to listen and see

what customers are saying about your brand and your competitors, and

start benchmarking so you can track your progress every week or month.

You will want to set your customers expectations, since most customers on

social media expect responses in less than 24 hours, Twitter even more

demanding as 50% of customers expect a response within an hour. You

will want to avoid any mishaps or your customers will end up punishing

you.

Organize a Game Plan For Twitter Social Care 

● How many hours per day will be committed to Twitter customer service?

● How many people will be on the Twitter customer service team?

● Will you have a separate Twitter handle for customer service needs?

● How will you measure success?

eCommerce companies including Bonobos and Zappos have customers

praise them every day in a public forum stating how grand their

experience was with the brand.

This results in a huge return on investment, not only are they retaining

first time buyers and turning them into lifelong customers, their happy

customers are free billboards becoming brand ambassadors and recruiting

new customers for them. According to an American Express Survey 3 in 5

Americans would try a new brand for a Likeable eCommerce experience.

Rather than reinventing the wheel take a look at how some of the most

successful eCommerce companies are doing it. ASOS.com, Bonobos,

Zappos, and Nike. From the research I gathered writing this article these

companies are known to deliver superior customer service.

@ASOS & @ASOS_HeretoHelp

ASOS.com is a huge British online fashion and beauty store with nearly 1

Billion in sales last year their presence on twitter has 5-year history. The

best form of research truly is social listening and it seems as if a lot of

ASOS’s customers are upset with how their packages are treated,

especially the ones paying for thepremier service who are waiting a week

for them to arrive.

With talks about an acquisition from Amazon, any marketing blunder

could potentially damage the deal and lower their price per share. Their

mishap with the premier delivery customer remains unseen on their ASOS

marketing Twitter. It’s definitely wise to have 2 twitter handles, one for

customer service and one for marketing.

How ASOS.com uses Twitter For Marketing 

 

Great example of ASOS.com using contests that drives customer engagement in choosing

what discounts they want to receive.

Fun and trendy tweets, leading to an quiz on their site. Well played ASOS, well played.

Using trending news from the red carpet to get customers to take a look at products. Kudos.

How ASOS.com uses Twitter For Social Care 

 

ASOS.com uses Twitter to get customers to send a direct message via Twitter a practice about

6% of eCommerce companies employ.

Customers paying for the next day service are experiencing some issues but ASOS keeps the

communication going leading Ipek to Direct Message (DM)

Seems as if their customer service team is overwhelmed.

This customer was not too pleased when arriving to find their package in plain sight under the

rain. This Tweet had over 10 comments and favorites about missing packages.

If there is one thing I have learned, it’s don’t piss off a blonde girl waiting for her clothe to

arrive.

Though ASOS.com is supposed to be known for their customer service I

did not see any personality in it’s social care tweets. No customers

praising, basically just order taking. Though this all remained separate

form their main Twitter and will not tarnish their brand unless it

continues and they don’t resolve their issues with premier service.

Bonobos & bonobosninjas

Bonobos did one thing right, they made a better fitting mens pants and

now they are moving onto other products and even a women’s line AYR.

Bonobos practically invented social care. Their CEO Andy Dunn always

has interesting and thought provoking words of wisdom about

eCommerce. Tweeting from @Bonobos and @Bonobosninjas

How Bonobos uses Twitter For Marketing If there is one thing you take away from this article it should be to be

hilarious like Bonobos. Their customer service personality and culture

reflects their twitter social care responses.

Maybe I am a nerd but I literally can’t stop laughing at the conversation between Mr.Clean,

Brawny and Bonobos.

So Jared tagged Bonobos and the Ninjas respond with some Notorious B.I.G reference! You

guys are too hip, you can’t get mad at hip customer service.

How Bonobos uses Twitter For Social Care 

 

Customers know to contact the Ninjas, the Ninjas are there for them and they don’t stand for

hogwash.

Customer forgets to order 2 day shipping and gets his order routed to his destination. The

man needs his pants!

While listening for the Bonobos brand on Twitter their ninjas has the

same flare their marketing team had. I did not see any complaints expect

some Europeans wanting to be as stylish as the folks from New York.

@Zappos, Zappos CEO, @Zappos_Service

Zappos is so good at what they do they even scared Amazon, whom

acquired them in 2009 in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Their

customer strategy is flawless it’s a lot harder to get mad at someone on the

other end of the computer when you can put a face to him or her. They

become personable. Tony Hsieh their CEO encourages employees to be

active on social media and leads by example by being one of the most

followed on Twitter with 2.8 million followers. Zappos uses Twitter to

generate over 1200 conversation per month with it’s customers.

How Zappos.com uses Twitter For Marketing 

 

Zappos loves to show off their amazing culture! Who doesn’t love hammocks?!

The best form of marketing is telling stories, not your stories but your customers’ stories.

More amazing culture, I think anyone who loves yoga is jealous of the Glow & Flow Yoga

Event.

How Zappos.com uses Twitter For Customer Service 

 

Zappos Retweeting another great customer service experience

When was the last time you had a customer service call that was so good that you felt

compelled to tweet about it?

Another thing you should takeaway is to show your customers that you are

human. Zappos does a fantastic job with that. I met 15 Zapponians in a

matter of minutes. Lluvia, Brendon, Kim, Franki, Rick, Mary Lee, Chris,

Ashley, Justin, Kristen, Blake, Matt, Kelly, Synna, Courtney and I are all

best friends. You can’t get mad at your best friend for long.

@Nike & @NikeSupport

Nike is just a different beast. Founded in 1964 and earning revenues of

over 25 Billion last year, there are over 100 dedicated handles from

different countries, and every sport in existence repping the Nike Brand.

How Nike uses Twitter For Marketing 

 

Nike does a great job curating their niche brands content and retweeting the best ones.

Not bad with 1.4k favorites and retweets.

Celebrity endorsed marketing was practically invented by Nike. This one seeing 1.3k retweets

and 1.6k favorites.

How Nike uses Twitter For Social Care Conducting a couple hours of investigate work on Twitter that even

Sherlock Holmes would be proud of I found no issues related to products

but most Nike Support tweets were about the Nike Running App.

You never stop we are just trying to keep up, what a fantastic response!!

Nike leads the customer to an online resource rather than to Twitter Direct Message. Typical

for 20% of eCommerce companies.

Customers who experience problems with the app can have their runs entered in manually by

support. Great service!

Twitter was not made for customer service but customers expect it. Even a

quick response leading to another resource does wonders.

It’s crazy how only 32% of the top 100 eCommerce companies had a

dedicated twitter handle. Can you imagine ASOS’s twitter being filled with

customer service complaints?

Starting at $35 a month per agent there are dedicated services including

Salesforce Desk utilized by Bonobos and other top brands that make

Twitter Customer service much more manageable.

So as an eTailer you can get this set up and running this week.

● Create your customer service twitter handle ● Find the fun and spunky staff to handle it ● Define how you will measure success ● Start Delivering Social Customer Service