Back in December I wrote a story about Twitter. At the time, I had just started using the service. In fact, I had exactly zero followers when I posted my story (link here). Today I have around 360 followers who receive my dispatches throughout the day. Meanwhile, I follow some 180 people, including David Knapp, a Bank of America employee who serves as point man for Bank of America's Twitter operation.
Bank of America certainly isn't alone in using Twitter to connect with its customers (Wachovia and Wells Fargo have Twitter accounts), but Bank of America does it well and it does it best.
I was curious to see how Bank of America and its Twitter team keep up with customers (and questions), so I recently contacted David Knapp, senior vice president, national customer experience, to find out.
CreditMattersBlog.com: Is there a benefit to a customer contacting you at Twitter? Do you give more personalized attention? In other words, is there a benefit to talking with David Knapp at Twitter as opposed to talking with Jane Doe in the New Mexico call center?
David Knapp: We see ourselves as another point of contact for customers. We work with an experienced team to research and attempt to resolve customer issues. And we’re able to provide a quick answer or direction if needed.
CreditMattersBlog.com: Why does Bank of America have a Twitter presence?
David Knapp: It provides an opportunity for us to listen, learn, and help our customers in a dynamic social space. Also, we do see social spaces as a potential channel of choice for our customers.
CreditMattersBlog.com: How many questions does Twitter BofA field during a typical day?
David Knapp: It varies, but for the most part volume is significantly lower compared to traditional channels at this point.
CreditMattersBlog.com: Can credit-card customers use the Twitter platform to resolve issues?
David Knapp: At the moment, we are concentrating on helping consumer and small business customers who have questions or issues with our products. In most instances our traditional channels (banking centers and call centers) can help our customers, but if our customers prefer contacting us in this channel we’re here if they need help.
CreditMattersBlog.com: What are the limitations of using Twitter -- from the customer's point of view?
David Knapp: First and foremost, customers should never share account information in unsecured locations. For this reason, we take these conversations offline so that customers can give us details of their issues and we can take the time we need to research and resolve the issues. Availability may be perceived as another limitation. In other words, our call center or banking center associates may be more accessible because of the number of associates working within those channels. But we do check for tweets 6 days a week and respond to serviceable @Replies.
CreditMattersBlog.com: How safe is it for customers to contact Bank of America through Twitter? How does Bank of America safeguard customer information?
David Knapp: As mentioned earlier, customers should never share account information in unsecured locations. Twitter is a public space. While conversations are more private when interacting via a Direct Message, we encourage sensitive customer information (such as last 4 digits of an account number) to be exchanged only once the conversation is taken offline. Also, customers should make sure to only contact us through Twitter at BofA_help. At this time, we do not have a presence in any other social spaces.
CreditMattersBlog.com: You have a life outside of Twitter. What are your normal "Twitter hours?"
David Knapp: I’m not always online; I do have to sleep a few hours a night. But I do go back to the previous day’s sign-off to look for any opportunities to help our customers.
If I was a Bank of America customer, I wouldn't hesitate to contact David Knapp through Twitter (link here). Twitter users who deal with David seem to be quite happy (as evidenced by some of their messages). If you're looking for a customer-service team that cares about customers, David and his group might be just what you're looking for.
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•Read More Bank of America Stories Here
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Have You Visited Bank of America's Twitter Branch?
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9 comments:
How friendly is David? Is he BK friendly? :)
Haha. Not sure if he's THAT friendly, Hk. :)
I would just be concerned about spending time on Twitter that it would make one seem, well, like a twit!
I use Twitter as a news feed. For the most part, not a whole lot of wasted time. No one can called me a twit -- yet.
I am told, though, that people at BofA call David Knapp the "lead twit."
Seriously, how much longer before people try phishing through Twitter?
Companies generally invest a lot of time and effort in a new medium (the cynical me thinks it's more of a way to alleviate the shortcomings of the traditional contact sources... but only to those who know). But with each new element, comes more avenues of attack.
Someone has already tried to scam BofA customers using a different Bank of America Twitter account. David Knapp, as it turns out, stopped the scam in its tracks.
But, yes, as new avenues open up, we'll see more opportunities for scammers.
CMB/ALL,
I Spoke with David yesterday, he took down my information and then I received a call the very next day (today) by a very nice lady. I have two BofA credit cards, a Platinum Plus Visa with a $15,000 CL and a fixed APR or 16.99% and a BofA AMEX with a $3,000 CL and a fixed rate of 7.9%. I pay down 85% of my purchases in full by the end of the billing cycle but generally use my American Express card more often just because I know that if I ever am not able to make the payment in full I won’t be hit with as much interest charges at the end of the cycle.
I requested that my AMEX card’s CL be increased from $3,000 to $5,000 not so much because I planned on making any major purchases in the future but more so because I knew that credit scores are primarily based on utilization and because I have yet to ever ask for a credit increase since I owned the card in 2006, and knowing during the same time Citi increased my CL by $1,500 with the click of a mouse I figured it was a good time to ask. The response back was far from expected, not only was my increase denied, but I later found out that my Platinum Plus card with a $15,000 CL was dropped down to $5,000.
I sent a tweet over to David Knapp, which later contacted me just a few hours after, he just wanted me to explain my situation, which I did and he explained that he would have somebody contact me most likely tomorrow (today) which I was. I explained my situation to the lady and what she did for me was increase my American Express card from $3,000 to $10,000 based on previous usage she saw that I use my American Express a lot more than I ever used my Platinum Plus Visa (mainly because of the high APR) I also mentioned the high APR and that being the main reason behind the less than moderate usage which she was also able to lower my APR down to 14.99% APR fixed; still a tad too high but overall my experience with Bank of America has greatly been changed. I want to thank David Knapp again as well as Candice who I spoke with over the phone today for helping me out the best way that they could. I understand the economic situation and the difficulties that we’ve already been through but this has been a good experience.
I’ve had that Platinum Plus card since 05 which originally was a Student Fusion Visa card and the APR was always around 16.99% never dropping below, after six or seven attempts finally there was an effort to decrease the interest rate for me.
I would also like you all to know, that with my Citi card, I simply contacted them through their online website and asked that the APR be lowered, to which I received an email back no more than an hour later with an approval to be lowered 2% down to 14.99% as well (it was at one point 9.99% but then there was that interest hike around December 2008.
Things are defiantly looking better.
Glenn, looks like things are looking up. David Knapp is great. Glad that he could help you out. Nice to see that my story helped you get some satisfaction.
Once google buys twitter...it's all over the game is changing!
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