Get Satisfaction's Ear on the Twittersphere

When Michael’s internet went down last month, he vented his frustration on Twitter. And lo and behold, Comcast actually saw his tweet, reached out to him, and proactively worked to solve his problem.

Comcast is unusual in its embrace of the Twittersphere, however, since it actually has someone dedicated to putting out fires there before they tarnish its brand too much. Not all companies have that level of savviness so Get Satisfaction, a network of customer support forums, has started to monitor Twitter for them.

Using Summize’s public APIs, Get Satisfaction now records all of the messages on Twitter that mention brands of supported companies. Did you just complain about your experience on eBay? Go here to see your message seeded as the start of a possible discussion thread.

The system’s meant to help companies respond to customer concerns on Twitter, since all followup messages on Get Satisfaction are tweeted back to the original tweeter. Its also meant to create a public dialog around these messages so that other customers can learn from their peers’ experiences. And since much Get Satisfaction is about customers helping customers, it provides a forum for them to do so in a more purposeful way.

Get Satisfaction is working on additional functionality that records all the tweets centered around an original tweet. So, in Michael’s Comcast case, the company and its other customers could have better tracked the public’s response to his ordeal.