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I think the bigger issue here is companies (ab)using social media for their services. How did anyone ever think this was a viable customer service solution? It'

I think the bigger issue here is companies (ab)using social media for their services. How did anyone ever think this was a viable customer service solution? It's publicly visible, you do not control the platform, impersonation has always been a risk (Musk made things worse, but the flaws were already there), and at some point you're going to need to share personal info so you're going to need to funnel people to your actual platform anyway! Are these companies now planning to move customer service to Facebook and TikTok, or was this always insane?

smt88 3y ago
This wasn't the companies' idea. You couldn't (and still can't) get customer support from Google and many other customer-hostile companies, so you had to just publicly blast them on Twitter. Their fear of bad PR outweighed their fear of spending money to support users.
- jazzyjackson 3y ago
  It was the companies' idea to make it so convoluted to reach a human that the default became public shaming
- bonton89 3y ago
  Yeah, I remember during one of Mojang's migrations I lost access to my Minecraft account. Nothing happened from my communications through support. The only reason I have a twitter account was to whine at a Mojang representative and it actually resulted in the problem being solved. I hate it.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Dang I need to do that. Microsoft killed my Minecraft account with their forced migration.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    “It just goes to show, if you want to get anything done in this country you have to scream until you’re blue in the mouth.” - The Parrot Sketch, MP
- MetaWhirledPeas 3y ago
  > You couldn't (and still can't) get customer support from Google and many other customer-hostile companies Not to derail you but I have an anecdote. I had an issue with my Google Fi account. Support was a breeze. I completed a web form that said "call me" and within a minute or two I was on the phone with a very helpful human who actually fixed my problem.
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    That wasn't Google's customer support though. IIRC, they initially partnered with Sprint to handle the infrastructure and support (and later one of the other companies, but that was after I stopped caring). That's who you were talking to.
    - MetaWhirledPeas 3y ago
      If they are outsourcing, is it any different than outsourcing software? In the end the person on the line represents Google.
      - withinboredom 3y ago
        Depends. Can they actually represent Google? If you call, saying you cannot access your account, will they help you or just refer you to Google? If you call and ask about AdWords, will they transfer you to an AdWords representative or refer you to Google. White label support is much different than outsourced support.
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - smt88 3y ago
        It is different because literally no other service they offer has even basic customer support. My friend's agency was buying $1M/year of ads and couldn't get his account unblocked after it was flagged for no reason. Google admitted it was flagged by accident and just put him in an endless cycle of "we're working on it" emails.
- itishappy 3y ago
  It wasn't their idea, but it was their choice. They chose to support this, now they're choosing to stop supporting it. Surprise, that's causing even more issues. I understand this was a business decision, I just think it was always a risky one.
arcticbull 3y ago
> How did anyone ever think this was a viable customer service solution? It was pretty great actually, I got far better service from airlines via Twitter (RIP) than I did by phone. It was a pretty well-known approach. They do provide some support through Facebook via Messenger, but it was never as popular. TikTok isn't a great medium for this kind of thing but if it helps them reach their customers, why not? [edit] > ...and at some point you're going to need to share personal info so you're going to need to funnel people to your actual platform anyway! Not in my experience, they just moved to DMs.
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
  > I got far better service from airlines via Twitter (RIP) than I did by phone That's the problem, not the solution. Why the hell was this the case? I guess because it was public. Either way it sucks. Obviously (good) CS should be via a private channel.
  - solarkraft 3y ago
    > Obviously (good) CS should be via a private channel Exactly the opposite. The interaction being public keeps companies (a bit more) accountable and that can do wonders.
  - EGG_CREAM 3y ago
    Customer service issues generally get escalated when someone starts advocating against your company, as there is now a tangible cost involved in not fixing the issue. Companies saw people hurting their reputation on twitter and wanted to be able to respond to prevent and minimize damage. It makes sense that if someone complains publicly, you would want to respond publicly, at least initially.
  - tiznow 3y ago
    Says who? Dozens or hundreds or thousands of people putting pressure on a company to act right when they screw over a customer is good, actually.
    - 3y ago
taco_emoji 3y ago
[flagged]
_Algernon_ 3y ago
The nice thing about funneling people through twitter is that you can discriminate based on following. Is this an influencer who will create a shitstorm if we don't do anything? Better suck up to them. Is it a loner who has no chance of creating a fuss? Just ignore them. Which is why you see people coming to HN to get help when Google inevitably locks them out of their account with no customer support to be found.
hot_gril 3y ago
In 2020-21, some forms of online DMV support were only reachable via Twitter. Here I was thinking I could safely ignore social media, but I had to go make a burner just to get the right number to call about my PNO.
janalsncm 3y ago
That’s not an abuse of the platform. It was one of the main use cases for many people. Getting support from an official account is much more convenient than creating an account on some bespoke platform. And if you’re hung up on the “social media” aspect just know that getting customer support and chatting with your friends are some of the main use cases of the Chinese super apps Musk wants to emulate.
MattGaiser 3y ago
Companies would rather not provide customer service at all to many categories, as many customers statistically are cheaper to churn than serve. So you don’t need to funnel them. In many cases the ideal resolution is they go away.
serial_dev 3y ago
It makes sense to go where your customers are. If I have a question about a product and I see that the company selling it is on Twitter, I'll tag them and ask them. It takes less than a minute and I'll get feedback in an app that I already use. Strangers can also chime on and help me out. Compare this with having to look up their website on Google, then having to track down where their customer service is. Ask a question there, then either have to wait for an email (annoying, often ends up in spam), or I have to keep a tab open just for their customer service chat.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
cfeduke 3y ago
There's some selection bias in here too. People who have had excellent customer service experiences on Twitter aren't taking into account the number of people who did call or email customer service versus the substantially fewer people who used Twitter for the purposes of contacting companies for customer service. Of course a company should have used Twitter for customer support - fewer requests, and the requests that you do handle often convert to free advertising. Win win.
- itishappy 3y ago
  > the requests that you do handle often convert to free advertising This cuts both ways. If you have a well-oiled customer service team working in public, great! But if something major goes wrong one day and you have 3 million people @ing you with no easy way to identify their account in your system and suddenly your hashtag starts trending... that's free advertising too.
jasonlotito 3y ago
> I think the bigger issue here is companies (ab)using social media for their services. How did anyone ever think this was a viable customer service solution? It's publicly visible You seem to think this was the only option for support. Instead, you are arguing for them shutting down an avenue of support that people used and liked. It would be like saying "Good thing they shut down phone support!" You also seem to think that all support happened in public rather than just the initial contact. It was an easy entry way into getting support. And it wasn't companies "abusing" Twitter. Rather, it was companies adopting to users using Twitter as a way to get support. If you don't see that, I don't know what to say.
- itishappy 3y ago
  I think nothing of the sort. I'm currently watching them shut down an avenue of support people use and like, and I think it's because they failed to assess the inherent risks that have always existed with using the service in this manner.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Twitter is the only viable support option with some places. During the pandemic lockdowns, anything somewhat complex involving the California DMV had to start with contacting them on Twitter. I guess cause that's a whole separate intake process that was more nimble than their site.

smt88 3y ago

This wasn't the companies' idea. You couldn't (and still can't) get customer support from Google and many other customer-hostile companies, so you had to just publicly blast them on Twitter. Their fear of bad PR outweighed their fear of spending money to support users.

jazzyjackson 3y ago
It was the companies' idea to make it so convoluted to reach a human that the default became public shaming
bonton89 3y ago
Yeah, I remember during one of Mojang's migrations I lost access to my Minecraft account. Nothing happened from my communications through support. The only reason I have a twitter account was to whine at a Mojang representative and it actually resulted in the problem being solved. I hate it.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Dang I need to do that. Microsoft killed my Minecraft account with their forced migration.
- hinkley 3y ago
  “It just goes to show, if you want to get anything done in this country you have to scream until you’re blue in the mouth.” - The Parrot Sketch, MP
MetaWhirledPeas 3y ago
> You couldn't (and still can't) get customer support from Google and many other customer-hostile companies Not to derail you but I have an anecdote. I had an issue with my Google Fi account. Support was a breeze. I completed a web form that said "call me" and within a minute or two I was on the phone with a very helpful human who actually fixed my problem.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  That wasn't Google's customer support though. IIRC, they initially partnered with Sprint to handle the infrastructure and support (and later one of the other companies, but that was after I stopped caring). That's who you were talking to.
  - MetaWhirledPeas 3y ago
    If they are outsourcing, is it any different than outsourcing software? In the end the person on the line represents Google.
    - withinboredom 3y ago
      Depends. Can they actually represent Google? If you call, saying you cannot access your account, will they help you or just refer you to Google? If you call and ask about AdWords, will they transfer you to an AdWords representative or refer you to Google. White label support is much different than outsourced support.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - smt88 3y ago
      It is different because literally no other service they offer has even basic customer support. My friend's agency was buying $1M/year of ads and couldn't get his account unblocked after it was flagged for no reason. Google admitted it was flagged by accident and just put him in an endless cycle of "we're working on it" emails.
itishappy 3y ago
It wasn't their idea, but it was their choice. They chose to support this, now they're choosing to stop supporting it. Surprise, that's causing even more issues. I understand this was a business decision, I just think it was always a risky one.

arcticbull 3y ago

> How did anyone ever think this was a viable customer service solution? It was pretty great actually, I got far better service from airlines via Twitter (RIP) than I did by phone. It was a pretty well-known approach. They do provide some support through Facebook via Messenger, but it was never as popular. TikTok isn't a great medium for this kind of thing but if it helps them reach their customers, why not? [edit] > ...and at some point you're going to need to share personal info so you're going to need to funnel people to your actual platform anyway! Not in my experience, they just moved to DMs.

dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
> I got far better service from airlines via Twitter (RIP) than I did by phone That's the problem, not the solution. Why the hell was this the case? I guess because it was public. Either way it sucks. Obviously (good) CS should be via a private channel.
- solarkraft 3y ago
  > Obviously (good) CS should be via a private channel Exactly the opposite. The interaction being public keeps companies (a bit more) accountable and that can do wonders.
- EGG_CREAM 3y ago
  Customer service issues generally get escalated when someone starts advocating against your company, as there is now a tangible cost involved in not fixing the issue. Companies saw people hurting their reputation on twitter and wanted to be able to respond to prevent and minimize damage. It makes sense that if someone complains publicly, you would want to respond publicly, at least initially.
- tiznow 3y ago
  Says who? Dozens or hundreds or thousands of people putting pressure on a company to act right when they screw over a customer is good, actually.
  - 3y ago

taco_emoji 3y ago

[flagged]

_Algernon_ 3y ago

The nice thing about funneling people through twitter is that you can discriminate based on following. Is this an influencer who will create a shitstorm if we don't do anything? Better suck up to them. Is it a loner who has no chance of creating a fuss? Just ignore them. Which is why you see people coming to HN to get help when Google inevitably locks them out of their account with no customer support to be found.

hot_gril 3y ago

In 2020-21, some forms of online DMV support were only reachable via Twitter. Here I was thinking I could safely ignore social media, but I had to go make a burner just to get the right number to call about my PNO.

janalsncm 3y ago

That’s not an abuse of the platform. It was one of the main use cases for many people. Getting support from an official account is much more convenient than creating an account on some bespoke platform. And if you’re hung up on the “social media” aspect just know that getting customer support and chatting with your friends are some of the main use cases of the Chinese super apps Musk wants to emulate.

MattGaiser 3y ago

Companies would rather not provide customer service at all to many categories, as many customers statistically are cheaper to churn than serve. So you don’t need to funnel them. In many cases the ideal resolution is they go away.

serial_dev 3y ago

It makes sense to go where your customers are. If I have a question about a product and I see that the company selling it is on Twitter, I'll tag them and ask them. It takes less than a minute and I'll get feedback in an app that I already use. Strangers can also chime on and help me out. Compare this with having to look up their website on Google, then having to track down where their customer service is. Ask a question there, then either have to wait for an email (annoying, often ends up in spam), or I have to keep a tab open just for their customer service chat.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

cfeduke 3y ago

There's some selection bias in here too. People who have had excellent customer service experiences on Twitter aren't taking into account the number of people who did call or email customer service versus the substantially fewer people who used Twitter for the purposes of contacting companies for customer service. Of course a company should have used Twitter for customer support - fewer requests, and the requests that you do handle often convert to free advertising. Win win.

itishappy 3y ago
> the requests that you do handle often convert to free advertising This cuts both ways. If you have a well-oiled customer service team working in public, great! But if something major goes wrong one day and you have 3 million people @ing you with no easy way to identify their account in your system and suddenly your hashtag starts trending... that's free advertising too.

jasonlotito 3y ago

> I think the bigger issue here is companies (ab)using social media for their services. How did anyone ever think this was a viable customer service solution? It's publicly visible You seem to think this was the only option for support. Instead, you are arguing for them shutting down an avenue of support that people used and liked. It would be like saying "Good thing they shut down phone support!" You also seem to think that all support happened in public rather than just the initial contact. It was an easy entry way into getting support. And it wasn't companies "abusing" Twitter. Rather, it was companies adopting to users using Twitter as a way to get support. If you don't see that, I don't know what to say.

itishappy 3y ago
I think nothing of the sort. I'm currently watching them shut down an avenue of support people use and like, and I think it's because they failed to assess the inherent risks that have always existed with using the service in this manner.
hot_gril 3y ago
Twitter is the only viable support option with some places. During the pandemic lockdowns, anything somewhat complex involving the California DMV had to start with contacting them on Twitter. I guess cause that's a whole separate intake process that was more nimble than their site.