I’ve been asked to write about my experiences while providing customer service via Social Media. It’s an interesting topic, in my opinion, but how do I describe the significance of my daily role?

Let’s kick things off with a bit of background. I’m Scott and I’m probably the oldest (longest serving) member of the current roster of Social Media superstars. In this team I helped look after our  initial @BigPondteam account, represented in Second Life, standing at my virtual service desk in my virtual Telstra store, witnessed the implementation of the @Telstra account, managed to log out of my personal account long enough to log into the Telstra Facebook page, and hesitantly dipped my toes into the surface of Whirlpool.

Our team and the service we provide has certainly changed vastly over the last 3 years that I have been here, however I believe that we’re currently in a pretty good place. Over that last 3 years we have gradually built up relationships within the online community and trust with our customers, bearing all to the public scrutiny of the sometimes harsh Social Media realm.

Part of the appeal of working in Social Media is the plethora of personalities and diverse sectors of consumers that I get to interact with, and the above mentioned ‘relationships’ that I get to build up as a result of these interactions. These range from the customer who needs to have every new gadget, constantly asking for the newest software update for their newest Smartphone, to the customer with a brand new Twitter profile, sending us a tweet, asking how to tweet us. It definitely makes the day interesting!

We would like to think of ourselves as a pretty specialised team, and that we can provide a level of both quality and personal service via a really exciting channel. One of the qualities that set our interactions apart from say, a phone call, or an email, is the ‘case manager’ mindset that we have. In most cases, we will be able to follow up your query from start to finish, ensuring that your core issue has been resolved.

A lot of the work that we do is actually done behind the scenes. When we ask you for specific details that need to be sent  to our http://bit.ly/custreq webform,  your details don’t disappear into the abyss, they come through to us. From here we can check your specific details and start the process of resolving your problem! This process includes doing the run around and follow up work for you, if multiple departments and products are involved in the resolution. (Pro Tip: When we ask you to send through your details, be as thorough and in-depth as possible, and include specific account information!)

Hopefully we have been able to have an impact on your impression of Telstra and assist you in the past. You’re going to have to get to like us, as we’re going to be around for a while. We’re expecting big things from our team in the future, and looking forward to you joining us on the ride there!

Have you dealt with our Telstra Social Media Team in the past? Tell us about your experience, good or bad!

Related links:

• We are the Telstra / BigPond Twitter team
• Telstra Twitter
• Telstra News Twitter
• Telstra Facebook page