using-twitter-for-customer-service

If you're in customer service, you can do a Twitter search for your company to see what people are saying about you. They may be great, or not so great. With a Twitter feed, it gives you a proactive opportunity to thank happy (and viral) customers, and to help unhappy customers.

It allows you to proactively help with returns or shipping issues, and let your customers know that you care.

Marketers use Twitter all the time. Think of all the consumer trust that can happen if customer service is in charge of Twitter.

Zappos is probably the best example with over 450 employees using Twitter. Many of them are in customer service and most likely retain plenty of repeat customers because of their relations with consumers. Many people also follow Tony Hsieh, the CEO, and what he's up to. He personalizes his tweets which makes myself and others feel more personally connected.

A couple of other customer service examples (albeit not e-commerce) -

Comcast Cable is not known for exceptional customer service, but I do follow @comcastcares because I truly believe that if I have a problem with their service, Frank will proactively get back to me.

JetBlue Airways does something similar in proactive customer service. Follow them and they will proactively let you know of flight delays and other news regarding JetBlue airlines.

I think that marketers have done some great things with Twitter, although I think customer service departments can really be the ones to ensure consumer trust. After all, they are the ones who directly speak to their customers.