BT chases complaining customers on Twitter

Tuesday, 22 September 2009 09:04

BT is following its customers who complain on Twitter.

The telecoms giant has a reputation for poor customer services and is seeking out customers complaining online via the micro-blogging website since May with a small team of people responding to customer queries.

A reader Lewis Bazley from East London recently Tweeted about problems of getting through to BT's call centres to his band of followers.

The firm's twitter account - BTCare - got back to him within 25 minutes.

"It was a bit odd that BT is following people. It didn't get the problem sorted though - despite a series of direct messages," he said.

He complained he went on to spend 40 minutes the next day speaking to four different teams - to find out his original order had been cancelled, without an explanation.

However, sending a direct Twitter message to the BTCare account demanding a phone call to explain the mysterious cancellation did work, with a representative calling within 90 minutes of the message.

The BTCare profile is now heading to 10,000 tweets, but generally answers simple problems - limited to 140 characters.

BT says its aim is to be a "one-stop shop".

However, the team behind BT Care are now targeting customers directly.

Anyone moaning about their poor BT connection is being found and the firm is trying to solve the problem.

A BT customer from Wales Mike Briercliffe's partner complained about the speed of their broadband connection yesterday and BT got back the same day.

He welcomed the use of Twitter, which he himself successfully uses to promote his own business.

"Quite a lot of businesses monitor the airwaves on Twitter. BT's use of Twitter is quite enlightened," he said.

A BT spokesperson said: "We have found customers to be very responsive as we are able to provide help and answer their questions.

"Some customers are pleasantly surprised to find us on Twitter, others are glad to have been offered help via this medium, and many now proactively tweet @BTCare for help or to ask a question as they have seen us helping others."

She added the aim was for there to be "no need for any customer to be referred to a call centre".

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