A Twitter presence is now an integral part of most corporate digital strategies, and many users tweet brands in the hopes of getting a swift response. However, navigating the many business accounts on Twitter can be a minefield for even the most experienced of users — especially as so many larger companies can boast several Twitter profiles.
To help make the situation easier for everyone, Twitter is giving businesses the ability to add even more support information to their accounts. The new options allow brands to tell customers that a particular profile “provides support” when someone searches for a business, mentions it in a tweet, or looks it up in direct messages. Brands can now also display their customer support response times on their profile. Additionally, a bigger direct messaging icon can be displayed beneath a company’s Twitter bio — indicating that the business is available to chat extensively (without character restrictions) via Twitter’s messaging function.
“Twitter users regularly tell us how important it is that they have the choice to communicate about support issues via Tweets or Direct Messages, since sometimes support issues require sharing personal information or longer descriptions of issues,” states Travis Lull, a Twitter product manager.
Brands looking to utilize the new tools can do so via the new customer support settings page on the Twitter Dashboard website. Keep in mind, you must first enable the settings to receive direct messages from anyone in order for the features to be fully activated.
Twitter has been expanding its support tools for businesses of late. Last month the platform launched a direct messaging plug-in for websites as part of its suite of publishing tools. When clicked, the button allows customers to get in touch with a company using the private chat function. It also released a Dashboard app in June that offers suggestions for tweet ideas catered to individual businesses.
