Eversource has been actively using social media to connect with customers, employees, and the larger online community for over a decade. One of the keys to success is the Social Customer Care team dedicated to answering questions and helping customers with everything from reporting a low-hanging tree branch to solving a tricky billing issue. Customer service reps from Eversource’s New Hampshire Call Center have monitored social media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for power outage issues since 2012, but in 2016, the company launched a pilot program that expanded full social customer care to regular business hours. Prior to that, responses were covered by the Media Relations team responsible for all Eversource social media. The pilot was a tremendous success and the company created full-time positions to staff its new Social Customer Care team.

Kim Seifert was one of the employees on the daytime pilot, and she enjoyed working on social media so much that she eagerly joined the full-time team. Kim has been with Eversource since 2006, and prior to the pilot, worked with customers over the phone. We spoke to Kim about the unique aspects of social care and what it’s like to use Facebook and Twitter professionally.

What made you interested in social media and want to join on the Social Care team at Eversource?

I was looking for a new challenge and knew that working on this team would give me the chance to communicate with customers in a different fashion and develop my writing skills. It sounded like a unique opportunity to get a foot in the door to the future of customer service. Social media has become a very popular way to talk to companies, and I wanted to learn more about that.

Last year, we received over 73,000 inbound messages on social media. Why do you think more people are writing in to us these days?

I think many of our customers feel it’s more convenient to send us a message on Facebook or Twitter—rather than engage in a phone conversation—especially when they just need a quick answer to a question. We respond pretty quickly. Even if it may not be the final answer, you’re going to get a response that we’re looking into it and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. So there’s a little bit more instant gratification than having to wait on hold while someone researches the issue.

How is working with customers over social media different from over the phone?

I find that customers who write in through social media tend to get to the point faster, ask more direct questions, and they expect faster resolutions. The thing that’s interesting is that social media interactions can extend over a period of time, because depending on the question, you might have to go back and forth several times to arrive at the solution. This isn’t always immediate like a chat service; because on social, people can choose to respond at a later time if it’s more convenient, so that’s much different from a phone conversation. I’ve also found that it seems like customers don’t always expect a response online, so they may be a little bit pleasantly surprised when they receive one.

It’s been almost three years since the pilot. Have you observed any changes in customer interactions over that time?

I would say the subject matter has changed. We get a lot of account-specific questions regarding credit or payment issues. “Will my account be OK if I make a payment on this day?” “Can I make a payment on this day instead of that day?” Whereas we used to get a lot more general things, like when I first started there were a lot of tree trimming questions. We still get those, but now it’s less general and more account-specific.

It sounds like this is pretty personalized; are you using any automated responses to speed things up?

No, it’s important to us that we make an effort to give individual answers to individual customers. I think people on the other side of the conversation can sense that, and I think they can even sometimes sense the type of person they’re speaking with.

Has working on the Social Care team changed your opinion on what customer service is, or has the potential to be?

I’ve always tried to go above and beyond for my customers to get them what they need as fast as I can. But I think it’s pushed me a little more towards excellence in customer service because of the public face of social media. It’s not just person-to-person, it’s person-to-person-to everyone else who looks at our social media page! So I want to leave a good impression with not only my customer but all of our customers that might be following along.

What’s the coolest part of your job?

The coolest thing is that I’m not on the spot and worrying about whether I will or won’t say the wrong thing when responding to customers. When I respond on social media, I have time to be thoughtful about my answer and it’s a little easier to put myself in the customer’s shoes, because I’ve interacted with companies through Facebook myself and I know what I’d like to hear. So I try to portray that in my responses.