Online customer service

How 16 retail banks handle social customer service

Last week I conducted an investigation into how 20 top UK retailers handle social customer service. It was a fascinating insight into the world of Twitter customer care and revealed just how a consumer’s experience can vary from brand to brand.

This week I’m turning my attention to retail banking. 

Earlier today I interviewed First Direct’s senior communications manager Amanda Brown and learnt some best practice tips as well as guidance on what to expect from aiming a Twitter enquiry towards a bank.

Will I experience the same level of personality as I did with non-banking retail brands? Will I have to be taken to a more secure channel? Will the banking industry just be too busy to answer my question?

Let’s find out…

How First Direct handles social customer service

It matters little whether you’re a shoe retailer or an online bank, if your brand operates a social channel, consumers will want to talk to you on it.

As I discovered in last week’s investigation into how 20 top UK retailers handle social customer service, the most successful brands are the ones that are not only quick to respond, but also genuinely helpful and clearly written with personality.

This is all well and good in retail, where perhaps it’s more acceptable to adopt a more relaxed, fun tone of voice, but how difficult is it for a financial services brand to not only maintain an efficient customer service channel that fully complies with banking regulations that’s also human?

Today I talked to senior communications manager Amanda Brown at First Direct to gain some insight into how the online and telephone based bank handles customers on social. 

How 20 top UK retailers handle social customer service

Last week I took to Twitter posing as an ‘innocent’ customer and asked 20 of the UK’s top retail brands a variety of questions.

They were all pretty simple: “what time does my local branch shut?” “Can I return online purchased items to a high street branch?” “When will this item be back in stock?” Theoretically nothing any social media team couldn’t easily answer.

The purpose of this was to test the speed, responsive and helpfulness of these brands’ social customer service.

I also looked at whether each brand stated clearly that it was available for customer service, if it operated a separate customer service account from the main Twitter channel and whether it published its operating hours within its profile.

Before we get on with the ranking though, a little on the importance of social customer service…

WeChat: the difference between Subscription and Service brand accounts

While researching a previous article on how Western brands are using Chinese messaging app WeChat I was made aware of the fact that there are several different account options open to marketers.

As this was news to me I thought it might also be news to some of our readers, hence the reason for this post.

Brands striking out on WeChat for the first time have the choice of two account options – service accounts and subscription accounts.

Here’s a quick look at the difference between the two…

GOV.UK fixes Reddit user’s bug in just a day

We and many others have made our love for Government Digital Services (GDS) quite clear. 

From its UX, to its style guide, to its place in changing the perception of the web.

However, I thought it worth quickly flagging up an interesting post on Reddit that shows just how far GDS has come and the standards it is setting.

In the post a redditor from the Home Office highlights a poor experience and a developer from the GOV.UK team fixes it within a day.

If you want to hear from Mike Bracken, executive director of digital at GDS, get yourself to the Festival of Marketing in November.

The five words that don’t belong in ecommerce customer service

While ecommerce has come a long way in recent years, it still has a long way to go.

One of the main problems with online shopping is that a certain amount of guesswork is always required before making a purchase.

Customers are never quite sure about the quality of an item, since they can’t touch it like they would when shopping in person.

Instead, they are forced to rely on small photos and glib product descriptions.

Ten lessons Zappos can teach us about staff and customer retention

Founded in 1999 and acquired by Amazon in 2009, Zappos has long been admired for its attitude to staff and customers. 

This focus is all about retention of customers and staff. And it saves the company a fortune on marketing and recruitment. 

Indeed, Zappos can boast customer retention rates of 75%, while staff rates are 85%, figures not many other firms can match. 

Companies are often more focused on acquisition than retention, but Zappos has turned this on its head, looking to market itself through quality of service.

It’s worked too, with Zappos reaching $1bn in annual sales before the Amazon acquisition. 

Here are just a few lessons that can be applied to other businesses…

Six customer service lessons for @British_Airways

In the past month I had a bad experience with British Airways.

In short, I left my iPad on a plane and it took six days for them to find it and charge me for its safe return.

This post is more about the way BA handled my issues both online and offline and how there are a lot of flaws in its customer service and social media management.

I’ll write about my experience as objectively as possible while still providing actionable tips.

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