Twitter helps brands become more than faceless monoliths to their customers
Next time you seek out customer service through a Twitter message, you may find yourself talking to an actual human rather than a corporate account.
The social network now lets brands display avatars and names of individual employees in direct-message conversations, while still operating through the company’s main profile. The new tool will also more clearly indicate when you are talking to an automated bot.
The feature launched Wednesday with T-Mobile signed on as the only advertiser partner.
The move is grounded in Twitter's market research that shows personalized customer service is around 20 percent more satisfying and productive to consumers than nameless corporate interactions.
Twitter has been playing to its strength as a go-to forum for the airing of consumer praises and grievances with a series of new features meant to make customer service easier on the platform. These tools include "conversational" ads that prompt users with possible responses and brand availability hours.
Topics X/Twitter
Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.
