14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter launched a new customer service feature for businesses using its service, allowing agents to respond to direct messages using custom profiles, complete with their names and profile pictures.
What does this mean to the regular Twitter users? Well, let's say you want to contact a restaurant about booking a room for your kid's birthday party. When talking to that particular business, you won't be talking to some nameless, faceless, individual, but rather to an actual person. This creates a stronger bond between customers and businesses because it adds a human touch so it doesn't feel like talking to a bot.
The feature has already been adopted by a few businesses, including T-Mobile, which Twitter explains has been at the forefront of personalizing the customer service experience.
"Years ago, T-Mobile started using customers’ real names and agents’ initials in customer service-related Tweets. Last year, they started adding agents’ pictures and names to Tweet replies by linking to custom bio web pages for each agent. Now, @TMobileHelp is the first account to use custom profiles in Direct Messages, making private conversations more human and personal by showing the real face, name, and title of the care agent who is speaking," Twitter's blog reads.
The more personal, the better
The microblogging platform says they've run a research which revealed that personalized experiences with a human connection can create significant benefits for businesses. In fact, 77% of people are more likely to recommend a brand following a personalized customer service interaction on Twitter. Similarly, 19% are more likely to feel like they've reached a resolution and 22% more likely to be satisfied compared to those who had impersonal interactions with a business on Twitter.
Businesses can enable this new feature in Direct Messages by entering the private beta, which they can do by reaching out to Twitter.