Business Blogging Pros

SixApart Uses Twitter to Support its Customers

SixApart is effectively leveraging Twitter to listen to its customers and support them.

A couple of weeks ago I Twittered that I was installing MoveableType.  Not long after that SixApart started following me on Twitter and I received a Direct Message from them "Let us know if you need help with MT".

Well, the following weekend, I was deep in the bowels of the install and it was not going well, the documentation was not helpful, and the Community Forum option was not behaving the way I expected it to.  I expressed my frustration on Twitter and said, "If anyone from SIxApart is reading this please contact me."

Lo and behold, Monday morning I received a call from Anil Dash, Chief Evangelist and VP of SixApart.  He listened as I expressed my frustrations, agreed with some of my points, and offered suggestions or solutions for the rest.  When we finally hung up, I was once more firmly in SixApart's camp.

There are two important topics here, one about social media and the other just plain old customer relations.

SixApart obviously actively uses Twitter to ferret out people having problems with its products. You can do that too.  Tweetscan and Twitter's own search allow you to scan the entire 'tweet-o-sphere' for any mentions of any term you are interested in.  Better yest, both these services can deliver their results as an RSS feed.  That means you can plug them into your RSS Feed Reader alongside your existing blog and news searches.  You should be continuously monitoring the internet in this manner, looking for any conversations about your name, your company name, trademarks, and products or services.

SixApart reached out and listened.  Upon discovering an unhappy customer, they contacted me with genuine concern. And they listened. You should too.  This has nothing to do with blogging, social media, or technology - It's plain ol' good customer relations.  Have a thick skin, reach out to that person, and listen to them.  Commiserate.  Don't make excuses - Admit it when you could have done better.  Make sure they know you are capturing their suggestions and criticisms.

The really important thing about this technique is that it allows you to catch issues and problems that you may not know you have and do so before they go super-nova.  You'd be surprised how many times you can turn an unhappy customer into a fan.  And given enough fans, you can have a following.

SixApart is doing it.  So should you

Re: Will Spam Kill Twitter

I read an interesting post over on Opinionated Markets today titled 'Will Spam Kill Twitter?'.

I've noticed a recent tactic - which I deplore - that works like this:

1. Let's say you make widgets.
2. You do a Tweetscan for 'widget'
3. You follow anyone who uses that term, hoping they follow you back.
4. You can then send them your marketing messages via Twitter.

I'm sorry, but you'll never find me engaging in such a tactic, and you can't hire me to do it for you.

I do think that Tweetscan is a legitimate tool. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your market and reputation. I also think it is legitimate to reach out to a Twitter user who has twittered about a bad experience with your product or service.

I also think it's very legitimate to set up a Twitter account that your customers can subscribe to and get your updates. Then it's THEIR choice.