BofA is part of a growing number of companies who are already utilizing the wildly popular Twitter tool – becoming the largest financial institution in the world using a social media tool for customer service.

What makes BofA’s use of Twitter so remarkable is that they are using a real person with a real name and an actual photo (not a logo or other avatar). Using the twitter handle @BofA_help, David Knapp is Bank of America’s Twitter Representative. I was amazed and impressed to discover that he is not just a CSR appointed to be the “face of Bank of America” on twitter, but David is actually the senior vice president and market manager for middle market commercial banking. I was also delighted by how genuine and immediate his responses were.

Out of frustration about a recent snafu with my finances, I posted this message to the twittersphere,

“BofA is charging me (long time customer) $350 in NSF fees, for a simple mistake. Maybe it’s time to switch banks.”

to which, within an hour, I received this response,

“BofA_help@kzarecki I work for Bank of America, anything I can do to help?”

The idea that BofA’s Twitter rep proactively goes out to find customers who need help threw me for a loop. This is something we’re not used to any more – Actual “Customer Service”.

I have to admit I was skeptical about any type of a resolution, as I had already attempted to work something out by calling BofA customer service line 3 times. But David Knapp asked me to follow up with my contact info and a description of the circumstances. I figured that it couldn’t hurt to give it one more shot, so I did. The very next morning, I received a phone call – not an email… not a form letter in the mail box… and actual live person, and not a CSR, mind you (I didn’t catch the guy’s name, but I think it was Mr. Knapp’s boss!) called me to say, “I think the right thing to do is credit you back [all but one of the ten $35 overdraft fees].”

Honestly, it almost brought a tear to my eye. Not just because I got most of my money back, but because I didn’t feel like just another no-name customer – all the personal attention made me feel like I was integral to the success of the company and my happiness is important. Seth Godin says in his post about in-bound customer service, “…the goal of every single interaction should be to upgrade the brand’s value in the eye of the caller and to learn something about how to do better, not to get the caller to just go away.” I applaud BofA for putting an actual face and person behind the twitter account and having a real person follow up with a phone call. While I may not be their most profitable customer, the treatment I received made me feel like I was worth a million bucks. Now, THAT is what I call “customer service”.

Tags: Bank of America, BofA_help, Customer Satisfaction, Twitter   Posted Brand Management, blog, internet marketing |