Twitter wants businesses to use its platform as much as possible. That is not much of a secret. Today, the company has introduced a brand new feature that will allow agents to communicate directly with potential or existing customers on behalf of their companies.
To facilitate the same, the company has introduced custom profiles that will enable the customer support and other business agents for companies to use their own names and profile pictures, instead of relying upon their company’s Twitter names and profiles while engaging in conversation with a customer.
Announcing the feature, Twitter said
People love reaching out to businesses on Twitter because they can get connected to real people when they need help. Today, Twitter is launching a new feature – custom profiles in Direct Messages – that allows businesses to better emphasize that human element in private conversations, as well as more clearly indicate when a bot is speaking.
Twitter’s move has the potential to enable deeper communication between customers and companies. The company wants business communication to have a more personal feel to it.
I mean you would probably rather communicate your issues with a Brian or a James, as compared to a bot from the same, XYZ company. I know I would, because while I can expect a real human to come up with new innovative solutions to my problem, I wont expect a bot to be able to do much — even if it was actually capable.
The feature is rolling out even as we speak. T-Mobile is the first company that is jumping on the bandwagon. This is no surprise considering that the company had already begun adding links to custom bio web pages for each of its agents in its tweets. Meanwhile, Twitter has promised to introduce it to other companies and their business accounts on its platform as well.
Customer agents can use their real names and can even add emojis to it. The names and emojis are also displayed in direct messages in any communication that takes place between their company and the customer.
Twitter cites its own research behind this move, stating that personal support can create hugebenefits for businesses. The company said that personalized experiences with a human connection can create significant benefits for businesses. According to Twitter’s research, 77% of people showed up as more likely to recommend a particular brand following a personalized customer service interaction on Twitter — that is, when they communicated with a human (or thought they did) as opposed to a bot.
Meanwhile, the custom profile features are available with the new versions of Twitter’s Direct Message APIs. The API’s are currently in private beta, however, you can apply for access whether you are a business or a developer.
If you’re a business looking to enable custom profiles in Direct Messages please let us you’re interested here. Developers looking to build on the new API platform can apply for access here.
