Improving CRM through Twitter Techniques for Small Businesses

Twitter is the most used social media today in marketing products, services and other offerings of businesses in the online market. But aside from using this amazing tool for promotions, it can also be used as a great platform to support customers. Have you been using Twitter in this way? If not, this article would be of good help to use. Learn some ways on how you can utilize Twitter to improve customer relations for your business.

1. Reply Quickly

It’s frustrating for customers to call your hotline number only to hear the voice of the automated machine telling them what to press on the phone to get attended by your customer service representative. Calls cannot be attended to simultaneously as your company is required to have many personnel to take phone calls. In contrast, Twitter feeds can be refreshed in less than one minute. So any complaint posted in Twitter can be replied speedily.

To entertain all concerns and questions posted addressing to your business’ Twitter account, it is advisable to hire one personnel to specially take charge of responding through this media. You can also set a rule—for instance, not letting five minutes pass without answering one tweet from a customer. Eventually, your account and business will be commended for the quickness of your responses.

2. Incorporate Mentions in Your Tweets

Mentioning the Twitter name of your customers acknowledges them wisely enough. This is also helping you in personalizing the Twitter experience and fostering a better relationship with your customers. Inserting the ‘@’ sign with their names will give them an idea that they are interacting to real humans and not some robot.

You can even mention Twitter users you’re not following. Receiving a mention from you will make them feel more important and recognized. As a result, you may gain more followers and more leads converted to customers eventually.

3. Quote or Re-tweet Tweets

Not only can you build greater rapport with your customers via Twitter, but you can also establish relationships with people who are not your customers yet. This is done by quoting or re-tweeting their tweets. When you follow people on Twitter, you have the access to re-tweet them. When you help them with your problems about your niche, they can be more encouraged to follow you back. Hash tags or search trends can provide a lot of help for you in this case. So it’s good to search for products related to your company’s offerings and get in contact with those who tweet about them. Jump in the conversation by trying to sound helpful and leading them to the right direction.

4. Set Tweets as Favorites

Setting your customers’ tweets as favorites in Twitter will give them a glimpse that you are recognizing their feedback. For example, if it’s a complaint they sent across, reply right away in a friendly manner with an apologetic message after setting their tweet as a favorite. This shows that you value their concern more, by not hiding or manipulating the issue at hand. Remember that Twitter is like a big public forum so the least you can do is send mean or aggressive messages to contest at your end.

5. Use the Direct Message Feature to Your Advantage

Sometimes, not all public messages are well appreciated as they might be thought of just for show. In this case, direct messages (DM) can be used instead. They are private messages sent directly to users. In the shortest amount of time, you can be a lifesaver to their problems without cluttering your own Twitter profile. You can choose to reply in public only to problems that are not too grave. This is to help your image stay pleasant.

Conclusion

Competitive advantage is not only gained by being the number one provider of products in your industry. It can also be attained when you showcase outstanding care and concern to your customers. Twitter is one place where you can achieve just that. Because it offers real-time communication and support, you can always provide answers to customers and give them the best resolutions to their problems.