The rise of Twitter as a customer service tool has been nothing short of stunning. It has become a critical channel of communication.

We're now at the point where complaints via Twitter seem to be given de facto priority over complaints lodged via other media. Companies should be commended for developing the compliance processes necessary to make this channel so vibrant. In some ways, this is the flip-side of Twitter as a marketing tool. Most of the compliance imperative has revolved around marketing and customer prospecting, necessitating elaborate compliance review and checklists. At some companies, for example, prior approval of Tweets is necessary.

When it comes to customer service, the compliance burden generally is not as onerous. But transparency looms as a potential issue. The Harvard Business Review wonders if there aren't some improvements that companies could make. Twitter has been elevated in the customer service hierarchy because there is a potential that the complainer could go public with his Tweets. But you could say the same for other media.

The HBR is surprised that "more firms aren't more proactive about being more transparent about how they handle customer complaints-instead of making it a little too easy for ‘power complainers' to disproportionately shape the public complaint conversation. Why would it be a bad thing for an American Express, Bank of America, Toyota, Home Depot or Tesco to aggregate the contact center, Twitter and Facebook complaints communications and make them available in some meaningful form online? Certainly, Toyota was driven to do so during its recall crisis-and its increased transparency had a positive impact on its public perception."

For more:
- here's the essay

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