Tweet.
As early as the 19th century, “tweet” was a charming term in the English language, evocative of the gentle vocal stylings of small birds. Now it refers to the music of a rather different beast, one that, at its loudest, can deafen and defeat businesses. Twitter, among other social platforms, has in recent years become a mighty digital megaphone for many frustrated (or conversely, happy) customers. A Tweet has become so much a part of communication in certain cultures and how they interact with the world that it is not just a noun: It’s a very powerful verb. And, as we’ve seen in now notorious cases (lest we forget the United Airlines incident), it’s become a way for customers to size up and shout about serious blunders in customer service to an ever-growing court of public opinion.
That being said: Social media platforms aren’t solely used for public brand-shaming. In fact, we should regard them with even a smidgen of positivity, as they are unique conversation channels that present pathways towards establishing and maintaining relationships with customers. For those of us invested in improving our customer support offerings, we must acknowledge social media as a remarkable space in which to play. It presents a unique opportunity to offer customer support and service for legitimate customer support questions; that is, it’s possible to have a non-turbulent tête-à-tête on Twitter, Facebook, and other channels.
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The weight social media has on brand affinity and customer satisfaction is constantly growing. Today 
Last week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on how to handle customer service in a crisis. This expert panel discussed what brands can do to ensure that customer service is not compromised during times of stress in the contact center. They touched on social media for crisis management, reducing customer frustration, and so much more! To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets showcasing highlights from the discussion.
One of our goals with the Fonolo blog is to help you stay current on the many aspects of the fast-moving contact center industry. To that end, we’re always on the look-out for new industry research, studies, surveys and whitepapers.
What a strange place Twitter is in. Consider the incredible influence it holds in the daily news cycle. Newscasts and white house press briefings talk about “tweets” with a seriousness that makes it easy to forget that no one outside the early-adopter circles had even heard that word before 2008. Or consider how iOS treats “tweeting” as a system-level communication option, on par with email and text messaging.
The burning questions for the customer service industry today are which channels of communication are currently most relevant, and which will be most relevant down the road. In recent months, the discussion has centered around Facebook Messenger and other messaging channels.Many people are debating whether any of these platforms (Messager, Snapchat, Kik, Line, etc) can “win” the B2C communication platform war. (See 
Good customer service doesn’t just happen. It comes from a number of places – namely a well performing contact center. This utopian call center we’re talking about operates smoothly with certain elements driving its stellar performance. But unfortunately, few contact centers are well oiled machines. With growing customer demands, we need to rethink what the ingredients are to provide successful customer service experiences. Think about the call center like baking a cake; if you miss just one ingredient the entire cake will suffer in quality and taste.
