Why people connect with your brand on Twitter
Customers turn to Twitter for customer service because they are far likely to get a canned response, and much more likely to reach an actual human being. This is great for the customers, but for the business owners, it can be time consuming. This is especially true if you receive negative comments and reviews, because the 140 character limit can inhibit a full explanation.
Fortunately, the creative minds behind MailChimp have created LongReply. LongReply was invented to offer better customer service on Twitter. With it, you can give customers really thorough explanations without being inhibited by Twitter’s character limit.
When the MailChimp gurus gave their product a test run, they noticed that not only were people surprised that MailChimp was indeed offering help on Twitter, but also, they were able to be so thorough in their replies.
Consumers want answers. Now.
People really want to connect and not to a computer or a ticket system. They want answers. Perhaps this is due to our instant gratification culture, nevertheless, they want answers and they want them now. This is where LongReply can help. It is a Chrome extension of Firefox plugin that automatically adds a link to all tweets. It looks just like the regular “reply” button in Twitter, but will say “LongReply.”
When you click on LongReply, it’ll pull up your LongReply account where you can just start writing a good, helpful answer. You will then see a preview of the 140-character version, and be provided a shortened link to the longer explanation.
Bonus: multiple Twitter accounts
LongReply also allows you to merge multiple Twitter accounts together, in a single LongReply account. This way, you can “reply as” any of your connected accounts without the need to switch back and forth. Need to answer as the business page? Go ahead. Need to answer as the customer care group? No problem. Just cluck the “reply as” pull down box and you’re good to go.
The final feature of LongReply is perhaps the most useful: sentiment analysis. You can setup saved searched (just like Tweetdeck), but LongReply does not require real-time monitoring. The sentiment analysis code can alert you when you have angry or happy tweets that need immediate responses. Super helpful if you’re away from your desk and quickly need to see what you’ve missed.
This of course, does not replace a full-featured help system, but it is certainly a useful tool to have; especially if you are just getting started and want to get your feet wet without spending the money for an enterprise-type system.
