CHAPTER 11 Supporting Your Product
Using Social Media To Support Your Product
If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell
6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell
6,000 friends.
— Jeff BezosBig companies have jumped on Twitter and that having support
representatives monitoring and helping people there is a great way to
turn around customers’ negative experiences quickly. When the represen-
tatives actually have power to help on Twitter then they can, in full view
of other customers and potential customers, solve a problem and turn an
unhappy customer about to vent their frustration to Twitter followers
into a happy one.
Twitter was a natural place for us to talk about Perch and to talk to
our customers and potential customers as Drew and I were already ac-
tive there. We use the @grabaperch account to update people on any new
software releases or tutorials and documentation and reply to questions.
We also have a Facebook page and find that while people often like and
share our posts, they tend not to chat or ask questions there as they do on
Twitter.
We see Twitter as a really important way to communicate with cus-
tomers. However, it isn’t always the best place for providing support.
For us, responding to a support ticket often involves posting code.
That isn’t going to be possible in the 140 characters allowed in a Twitter
message. Occasionally, all the person needs is a link to something in our
documentation, and that can be dealt with on Twitter. So it really depends
on what type of response is required.
Twitter can be ideal for quick answers, such as pointing someone to the
right place in the documentation. Providing technical support on Twitter
or Facebook might not be appropriate. By ensuring that people talking