GTBank is known to be very ‘social media’ savvy, and has proven to be a brand that commits a lot – in terms of resources – to developing its social media asset, including a Facebook page of 1.1 million fans, and twitter following of over 32,000.
The bank also recently launched its Instagram account and has a lot of video resources on YouTube via Ndani TV. Don’t let’s even get started on social banking, but then some lapses seem to have been noticed in the way the bank engages on twitter.
So what’s wrong with the screen grab above? Let’s start with how the thread spun. Hassan rants on how GTBank was now becoming UBA in a bad was and perhaps it was high time to move on the next cool bank, Stanbic IBTC.
Unfortunately, the only twitter handle that was mentioned was @GTBank, so it was easy for the ‘twitter account manager’ to have picked it up. As for the other banks, UBA and Stanbic IBTC, they too could have picked it up and done some damage control, or amplified praise by putting in place a search filter with keywords like: UBA, Stanbic, Stanbic IBTC, etc.
Lesson 1: Always be on the look out for keywords relating to your brand, and not just your twitter handle.
Moving on, the fella at GTBank sees the tweet, then replies with some form of auto-response: Hi, thank you for your observation. We remain committed to excellent service delivery.
Lesson 2: Never assume or generalize a complaint. Hassan never said the issue was about service delivery, even thought its almost always that. Instead, ask for the problem and suggest solutions – via twitter, feedback forms, etc.
Poor Hassan had nothing else to say than ‘Glad to Know’, and so the conversation ends. The fella at GTBank may have gone ‘Phew! Danger averted.’, but it would have been better if s/he had ignored the tweet than give an auto-response on what is supposed to be an engaging platform.
For more on Social Media resource, check out our sister site – SocialMeep.com
