Lithys 2017: T-Mobile - Surprise & Delight

Lithys 2017: T-Mobile - Surprise & Delight

At T-Mobile, we pride ourselves on consistently being the most socially devoted brand on Twitter and Facebook, and we always strive to push the envelope on personalizing our customer interactions.

 

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Company:  T-Mobile                                            

Entry submitted by: Michelle Mattson (Director, Social Care)

Lithy category:  Surprise & Delight

Social Channels: @TMobile, T-Mobile Facebook Page, and @TMobileHelp

 

As America's Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc. is redefining the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and service innovation. The Company's advanced nationwide 4G LTE network delivers outstanding wireless experiences to 72.6 million customers who are unwilling to compromise on quality and value. Based in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile US provides services through its subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands, T-Mobile and MetroPCS.

 

At T-Mobile, we pride ourselves on consistently being the most socially devoted brand on Twitter and Facebook, and we always strive to push the envelope on personalizing our customer interactions. In February, we were able to work with Twitter and Lithium to surprise and delight our customers by launching custom profiles on Twitter. To put a face to a name, our Social Care (T-Force) specialists’ pictures, their full name, and a few fun facts about them appear to customers when a conversation starts publicly. After moving to Direct Message, the picture icon and full name remains, so customers always know with whom they are speaking, and our specialists are able to further the human connection with a more personalized experience. According to Twitter research, 77% of people are likely to recommend a brand following a personalized customer service interaction. Most importantly, they are 19% more likely to feel like they’ve reached a resolution and 22% more likely to be satisfied compared to those who had impersonal interactions. This shows the road we’ve paved for personalization is important – and necessary – for us to continue our goal to be Famous For Care.


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Our vision, as it always is, was to create a personalized, differentiated experience for our customers while maintaining our focus on resolution. We never want to be accused of sounding like robots, and with this change, we ensured we never will be. With a social team of more than 200, located at seven different sites in every time zone across the country, this was a large undertaking. We had to collect a headshot from every specialist, but we wanted to put our Un-carrier spin on it, so we supplied props and T-Mobile gear to make it fun.

 

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The team filled out profiles for the personal cards and our dev team created a way to package everything together, including supplying a button on the card that leads straight to a Direct Message.  We worked with the Lithium engineering teams to integrate the customer profiles in just over a month, which resulted in a defective-free launch.

 

Customers loved it. The media raved about it. Other brands were jealous. Twitter has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the market as well as brands requesting access to the feature (T-Mobile is currently the only brand doing this). The successful launch partnership has earned a lot of mutual trust and we are well-positioned to continue as a preferred innovation partner with Twitter in future endeavors. The following are media articles reporting on T-Mobile’s use of the custom profiles:

  • Adweek: T-Mobile USA Is Helping Twitter Break In a New Customer-Service Feature: Custom Profiles for DMs
  • TechCrunch: Twitter debuts custom profiles for businesses, so people don’t think they’re talking to bots
  • Marketingland: Twitter’s Custom Profiles signal when DMs with brands’ bots are handed to a human
  • VentureBeat: Twitter tweaks direct messages for brands so they sound more human
  • Digital Trends: Twitter’s customer support profiles show you’re chatting with a human, not a bot
  • Engadget: Twitter tests custom profiles for customer service DMs
  • Mashable: Twitter helps brands become more than faceless monoliths to their customers
  • TheNextWeb: Customer service on Twitter is about to get more human
  • BetaNews: Twitter lets customer support operatives use custom profiles with their direct messages
  • The Tech Portal: Twitter introduces custom profiles for business agents on its platform

Customers have had nothing but positive feedback, and some even let our CEO know how much they love the personal touch.

 

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In the month before the launch, our survey results showed customers would recommend T-Force 9.18 times out of 10. In the month after the customer profiles launched, that score rose to 9.41.

Comments

I am both Surprised AND Delighted with how you are humanizing support with the custom profile cards allowing your customers to see the agents helping solve their issues!  Forget thinking outside the box --congrats on blowing the box up!

 

Thanks for sharing your submission and good luck!

 

Beverly Dunn

awesome feature to put a face and name behind the often less exciting 2 letter initials.