'Why businesses must maintain their Twitter presence at the weekend'

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From Fresh Business Thinking:

By Marcus Leach

In today's business environment customer service is more important than ever before, especially given that through social media any discontent can be aired publicly to a far reaching audience at any time of day or night.

It is no surprise then that many of the nation's leading companies go to great lengths to ensure they have a strong Twitter presence. Not only does this enable them to gain valuable feedback, but it also allows for conversations with customers, and the ability to deal with complaints a lot quicker.

However, it would appear not all companies maintain their social media presence seven days of the week. Given that many companies operate seven days a week, it is imperative that they maintain their social media not just in the week, but at the weekends as well.

Customer service is, quite simply, essential. Research just released shows that organisations that invest in customer service excellence are likely to receive additional purchases from 53% of customers. Given this it is interesting to see that not all companies engage with all of their customers.

The following blog highlights the downfall of not maintaing a 'seven day a week' Twitter presence, and comes on the back of an original article by Nick James.

An interesting article came out of the Like Minds conference last week. Nick James, after attending the conference travelled home using a First Great Western Service. Unhappy with the service, he tweeted to the rail operator and was frustrated with the lack of response.

We took a quick look at the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Twitter account to see if they were listening to their customers.

The answer was yes, but only some of the time.

The account is actively manned replying more than tweeting, which shows a high level of reactive engagement with their followers. The content of their tweets also showed a high degree of support and engagement with their followers, the word sorry being prevalent in their replies.

However, there is a chance James was tweeting to an unmanned account. First Great Western, like many brands keep firmly to a 9-5 weekday twitter pattern, meaning any tweets sent after these hours are either missed or not picked up until Monday. Sadly most consumers use Twitter as an instant method of communication, the lack of immediate response only heightens their frustration with the company which then leads to more permanent complaints against the brand.

The issue of whether brands should tweet at weekends is borne out by one customer^s frustration, shared across the web. A manned Twitter account could have saved some blushes and delivered a more engaged customer.

[LiskeardRich]

Shouldnt be manned 24/7, but need more than 9-5 monday to Friday!

[matt473]

What times are reasonable and who should carry it out though as even though social media can and has been used well ins ome instances by TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), at some point the media will turn around and say are higher fares paying for someone to reply on Twitter and Facebook all day. 9-5 covers when someone is in the office so not a problem for updates, but who can update out of these hours as all that remains no doubt is the bare essentials in control who if problems occur will no doubt be to busy to reply anyway. Sadly I don't think there is a suitable solution to this unless numerous staff have access to the account, but then that leads to another problem on many different people can have complaints being lost between different people.

[EBrown]

Shouldnt be manned 24/7, but need more than 9-5 monday to Friday!

Actually it's 8am-4pm. Just for some comparison:

GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about): 8am-4pm | No Weekends
FC^▸ (First Class, or Fat Controller, or Football Club, depending on context): 7am-10pm | Same on Weekends
CH: 8am-7pm (Although informally answered til around 1am) | Weekends around 8am - 4pm
VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchise (or, possibly, in a France context, Versement Transport - a payroll tax on employers to fund local transport) ): 8am-6.30pm | Weekends 9.30am-4.30pm
LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise): Early - Late | Same on Weekends
SN: Early - Late |
SW: ~7am - ~11pm | Some Weekend Service

[bobm]

I have only recently signed up to Twitter and my early impressions are mixed.

Used properly it is a quick way of getting a direct answer to a direct question.  However looking through some of the tweets on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) feed as a company I would be more concerned. Too often it is used as a sounding board for things which are not FGW's fault ie signal failures, bridge strikes etc but for those not in the know it makes the company look bad.  I understand FGW are looking to extend their opening hours on Twitter.  I am not sure whether they would be better to add more resources to their email staff and cut down the five day wait for a reply they quote.  That to me is a more personal service and from a company view protects their image better.

I am all for fair criticism where it is due and have no wish to protect FGW from their failings - but if I was at FGW towers I'd be a bit concerned with the perception created with some of the stuff that appears on Twitter.   (and that is before we get to the "Why is my train late" or "Why was the 09:28 cancelled" with even a mention of origin or destination!)

[EBrown]

I am not sure whether they would be better to add more resources to their email staff and cut down the five day wait for a reply they quote.  That to me is a more personal service and from a company view protects their image better.

You won't get a response from SE for a three weeks.
You won't get a response from VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchise (or, possibly, in a France context, Versement Transport - a payroll tax on employers to fund local transport) ) for a month!

GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) are good at responding to emails!

[bobm]

I agree FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are good.  However if they could cut their response time even further it would reduce the need for Twitter.

[EBrown]

You can't cut a response time down to 10 minutes!

Twitter is ideal for updates and general information that people need to know "now".

[bobm]

Twitter is ideal for updates and general information that people need to know "now".

I agree but from a company point of view it doesn't look good when you have tweet after tweet complaining about things which are not FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s fault or within their control.