How to Handle Customer Complaints on Twitter Like A Pro (Greggs the Baker Case Study)

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Greggs the baker or just "Greggs" as it is more commonly known, is the UK's biggest bakery chain, with hundreds of stores up and down the country. To help manage some of the ton of feedback they receive, Greggs mans its Twitter feed 7 days a week, and the way it handles customer complaints and queries on the platform is something a lot of other brands - big or small - could learn from, to help keep existing customers happy and help spread good experiences with them. Let's take a look at 6 ways that Greggs is killing it on Twitter...

1. A lot of people ask Greggs the same question - about why their food isn't reheated - so it keeps a preset response handy to reply quickly and easily. The response time here was just 6 minutes.

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2. Greggs reflect the relaxed nature of Twitter in its "tone of voice," responding to complaints with what seems like genuine upset rather than an emotionless corporate speak. Many people might work on replies, but it seems like just one happy-to-help individual.

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3. The above approach is complimented further by a liberal use of emoticons, which make the brand even more personable and helps to convey emotion.

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4. For problems that can't be solved on that require details that Twitter's 140 character limit cannot easily accommodate, Greggs provides an e-mail address for customers to write to.

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5. Greggs doesn't just reply to complaints, but also to nearly all @mentions, and it does so with good charm and humour.

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5. And Greggs doesn't just look for direct mentions of its username either; it picks out and replies to customers who don't use @GreggstheBakers in their tweets.

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Conclusion

As you can see, Greggs handles great swathes of Twitter feedback in a professional, but amiable manner, which impresses customers and keeps them happy and loyal. Do you use Twitter for customer service issues, and do you use any of the strategies listed above? Let me know in the comments below!

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Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

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