According to the Guinness World Records website the most responsive corporate account on Twitter is Microsoft's @XboxSupport, which responded to more than 5,000 questions in an average time of 2 minutes and 42 seconds between 12-18 of March 2010.
That’s pretty impressive.
Unlike many companies and individuals adorned by Twitters’ coveted ‘blue tick of verification’ the Xbox Support profile does not subscribe to the convention of being followed by very many and following very few.
In fact they follow 194,020 personal profiles comprised mostly of users they have provided online support to, a willing display of continued customer interaction and a great gauge for customer satisfaction and brand awareness.
Naturally Xbox Support has a substantial Twitter following (280,062 at the time of writing) and although the account is not a direct marketing effort they exploit this figure by publishing plenty of Tweets promoting new games and services, knowing they broadcast to a large audience with a track record of purchasing their products.
Xbox Support’s Twitter team do an incredible job at a huge scale and with more than 20 designated support staff they will have more than ample resources to do so. However their approach should be just as pertinent for smaller organisations.
Social media has not only become a powerful advertising tool for businesses but also an open forum for consumers. Customer service is no longer restricted to shop counters and 0800 telephone numbers so if you’re happy to promote and flog your wares through Facebook and Twitter, you must be prepared to interact with customers online.
Enquiries, compliments and complaints have to be dealt with as they would be on the shop floor. The response must be fast, effective and professional and a tailored procedure has to be in place.
Being reactive and attentive to customers on social media platforms speaks volumes of your organisation and responding to even the most disparaging comment in the right way will improve the perception of your brand.
By interacting effectively through your social media channels you’ll not only be displaying accessibility, humility and transparency to a single customer, but to every potential customer who visits your profile.