[zachrip]

I personally don't see this as entirely a negative. If I have an issue usually I can just dm a company on twitter and I don't have to call anyone, deal with phone trees, or be there actively waiting for a response. I know this doesn't work well for folks that don't use twitter and it's definitely not a replacement for proper customer service. I do think it's a good addition to proper customer support, though.

[eganist]

> I personally don't see this as entirely a negative. If I have an issue usually I can just dm a company on twitter and I don't have to call anyone, deal with phone trees, or be there actively waiting for a response. I know this doesn't work well for folks that don't use twitter and it's definitely not a replacement for proper customer service. I do think it's a good addition to proper customer support, though.

Pivoting the angle on your perspective a bit:

"If a customer having a problem with our service isn't technical enough to backchannel us, they're not technical enough to be a viral thorn in our side."

To be clear, this is a process defect, and no company should aspire to build this into their processes as a feature. It's a net negative for absolutely everyone except perhaps you, me, and in the short term, the company. I'd argue it's a long term negative for you and me too as we hawk a service to others based on our current experiences, keeping the product from improving for everyone, including ourselves.

[zachrip]

It could definitely (and is already) be a negative for some people. My hope is that support can become better and more async. By becoming async it becomes less "I get whoever I get when they answer the phone" and more "I get the support I actually need instead of being bounced around". I don't enjoy having to harass a company on twitter, I just hate it less than getting on the phone.

A good example of this is apple card support. You just text the support line. It's great because I don't need to wait on the phone. If someone doesn't have the info I need they can pass it on without me needing to know about it. I can continue my day without making a chore out of something. This is the part I was trying to highlight (not the reduced access to support).

[Sebb767]

I think the downvotes are because the comment you replied to stated

> This is how support is handled these days.

... with an implied all other things are dropped/neglected and you replied with

> I personally don't see this as entirely a negative.

I fully agree with your point that companies being available on social media, but your first comment can be read as supporting that other avenues are dropped and that's clearly a negative. The grandparent clearly replied to that reading of your comment.

[zachrip]

Yeah, I just meant to say that as a user of twitter it's nice to be able to find most companies and message them in one central place instead of dealing with phones, chatbots, etc. I'm definitely not advocating for removing phone or email support.

[namdnay]

i agree with you that async support is great, but chatbots and email have been there for a while. What is infuriating with Twitter is that it's basically one rule for the "powerful" (those who are on twitter and have followers/subscribers/whatever) and one for the others