When we first set up our Twitter account (@HeartInternet), we made a conscious decision not to use it as a support channel. Instead, we decided to focus on discussions, links, contests and announcements that provide value for all our followers.
Other companies have decided to take another approach and offer customer support via Twitter, all to varying degrees. Some make a token effort and promise to chase a ticket whilst others have a dedicated team and fully integrate it into their processes.To help clarify our approach to using Twitter we’d like to explain why we have no plans to use it as a customer support mechanism.
Why don’t you offer support via Twitter?
There are plenty of reasons why we don’t offer Twitter support, including:
The 140 character limit
Security and data protection
It’s not Twitter’s purpose
Details are sparse
What are the benefits of raising a support ticket?
When you raise a ticket, your question or issue can be passed on to the person best positioned to help you. You can refer back to any instructions or advice you’ve previously been given, and our support team can see what’s already been said – all from an easily accessible place.
Our support team is the biggest in the company, and we prefer to have plenty of people on hand to assist you rather than one or two support staff trying to cram answers into tweets to multiple customers, with company announcements and blog links thrown into the mix as well.
But surely Twitter is the fastest way to get in touch?
We know that social media, particularly Twitter, is commonly considered a way to get in touch with companies fast. But as we specifically don’t cut corners when it comes to existing customers, our support team is a faster and more efficient way to get technical answers.
Put it this way – you can reach us on Twitter between 9am and 5:30pm Monday to Friday, or you can reach our support team at any time of day or night every day of the year. Your question won’t be left hanging for days; it will be replied to within minutes.
Who’s behind your Twitter account if it’s not the support team then?
The Heart Internet twitter account is handled by ‘us marketing people’, who are also responsible for Heart Internet on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, most of these blog entries and various other lovely marketing things.Whilst we’re from reasonably techy backgrounds, we don’t have the extensive knowledge and experience that our tech support and system admins have, so we aren’t in the best position to answer your specific technical queries.
On the other hand, we’re happy to discuss the latest things happening in the web industry, run contests and special promotions, tell you about what’s new, take a look at a website or design you’re proud of and even talk about biscuits and zombies. Pretty much anything goes, so feel free to suggest a topic for the blog or tell us about a great tool you’ve found.
Can’t you just try to answer my question on Twitter?
Many of the people who follow us on Twitter are interested in hearing about the latest Heart Internet updates, new features, what’s new on the blog, contests, industry news and so on. We respect that, so we don’t want to force them into reading a stream of back-and-forth support messages involving other people. We’d prefer to get involved in discussions, post links to interesting things and tell you our latest news instead. And we really don’t want to spam your timeline.
On the very rare occasion that you may have a problem logging into your account to raise a ticket, then by all means send us a tweet and we’ll get someone to help you out.
So, how do I raise a support ticket?
Simply fill out the form here and one of our support staff will get back to you straight away.
But what if I’m not sure whether my question needs a support ticket or not?
If you’re not sure about the best way to get in touch with us or if you have a general question, don’t be afraid to ask us on Twitter; we don’t bite and we’ll point you in the right direction. If you have a sales question, you can contact our sales team. Or, just raise a support ticket anyway!
I think they’re all fair points. My first port of call would always be via phone. Unfortunately, Heart don’t do phone support but have always been prompt with email support.
I must admit, email response is fantastic i.e ticketing system.
Just wish they had someone to speak to/work with regarding hostpay.
Not a massive fun of twitter, don’t quite understand it to be honest, but hey.
G.
The support we get via the ‘support ticket’ system is great, works very well. Just keep on doing what you are doing now and I’ll be happy.
OK, I’m not a big twitter user, but I don’t think there is a need for support via twitter.
I can see that sometimes it would be nice to talk to someone, but most of the time I prefer to put my problem/query in writing so I can review it before sending.
HI has always been a good service for me 🙂
But regarding the twitter support i think its just that HI is mainly using twitter for marketing instead of support, they could do support though as its a simple procedure.
If characters are not enough then the user could always just send a private message instead.
I personally like the ticket support system, although it could be improved by probably creating a [email protected] email address where customers can just send direct emails instead of doing it through the website.
Phone support would be awesome though.
Another improvement could be the status update page, when there is a problem its always the same message (well not always, but most of the times), it would be good if they could provide further details to the problem if possible, since sometimes giving an excuse to the customer might not be enough and the majority of customers prefer to know what is really going on/what the problem is. E.g hard drive corruption, hardware failure, deamon misconfiguration, etc…
I know that the above is obscure in a way so that people cannot comment bad things about it, e.g. start posting in forums and other review sites.
But anyways those are just my views on this, I would again strongly suggest an email support system if possible, since email is widely used and could even send from mobile phones and so forth, while processing through the website can be slower and you are forcing the client to login and send the request, then verify (too many steps).
Another note is that HI opened a facebook account, maybe they can provide support though there? I am sure that even other members are able to help out as a community.
Having been in the web business since 1997 one thing is for certain. HI have the best support and response times of ANY company I have dealt with. I would find it difficult to see how HI can improve on their response times.
As regards Twitter, it is definitely not the place for support. As accessing Twitter is either done by a mobile device or via a PC then what’s the problem of logging into ones HI account and getting a support ticket sent in? I am no lover of Twitter, in fact I hate it and it’s just another time consuming medium I can do without. I have enough to be doing as it is!
As for phone support that would be a bad move in so far as much as being time consuming and removing the tech guys ‘n’ gals from the online system, it would be quite a large expense to HI who would then have to up their prices to cover their cost base, and I am sure that the majority would rather enjoy the excellent prices HI offer rather than paying more. Do those suggesting phone support offer their customer support via a phone number? I reckon the majority do not and I probably know why not.
With my customers I always ask them to send a contact number when they request support as if the issue is best sorted by phone I will call them back. So far this I have done less than half a dozen times.
So HI, keep up the top notch support, keen pricing and the innovations you are always coming up with.
HI have been great and their support team are in my opinion the best around; they help even with the most silly things and are very very fast in answering; Always polite and have a good sense of humour (well they must have with some of the questions I ask)
Phone Support: Yes it’s a good Idea BUT how many people would abuse the system for stupid questions: And I think that by the time you ring, wait in a queue, they would have answered your support ticket:
Twitter Support: NO NO NO!!!
Forum: I think that a Forum just for resellers would be great and could help the support guys by saving time answering Silly questions: we could help each other with HostPay, etc ect,
THREE CHEERS FOR THESUPPORT TEAM….They do not get enough praise IMO……What about putting a face to the support guys..”Meet the HI Support team”
Not having telephone support is a good thing since it would be tied up by customers wanting help with hostpay, scripting and other general hand holding. Much better in my opinion to provide this sort of support through a text based system so a customer can read the replies in their own time and refer back to them in the future.
As someone who advises a variety of companies on marketing and support services via social networks, I can understand not using Twitter as a customer service tool if the right systems and procedures aren’t in place. After all, most companies simply use it to monitor, respond, and point someone to the correct phone number, contact form or email address.
But I do think it’s ridiculous and disapointing that there’s still no information or reassurance following the major service outage last night, which meant that the this site went down, and with it, the contact form and phone number details, along with all of my sites and those of at least a number of other people. Twitter might not be the right choice for HI to provide Customer Support, and my experience of support tickets has been very, very good, but it is a place to communicate when something is affecting a number of customers in a serious way and has removed all other info channels.
Thanks for your comment Dan. Our web hosting status page (https://www.webhostingstatus.com) is always available and kept up to date in the extremely rare circumstance that other channels are not available. It’s a central point for both customers and resellers to refer to and is accessible to everyone rather than just Twitter users.