Nowadays you can find just about any brand on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as so many have jumped on the social media bandwagon to engage and communicate with their customers. However, how many of those embracing social CRM actually have a successful strategy in place?

Up until last week, I had been having so many problems with my mobile network provider Vodafone and had been resorting to the old fashioned call centre for first hand advice and help. However, having been put on hold for hours on end and being transferred to different call centres all over the world I officially gave up and as per usual took to Twitter to let off some steam.

Now I'm a huge fan of Twitter, I use it as a platform to share my views, catch up on news and gossip, and have the odd rant here and there. Many a time, I even mention brands within my tweets, for example @Selfridges when I complain about their miserable staff and @NationalRail for leaving me stranded at the train station for hours. However, not once have any of these brands ever responded to me or acknowledged my tweet.  I was therefore taken by surprise last week when @VodafoneUK decided to reply to my tweet within seconds, after having complained about their call centre customer service.

Within an hour of me complaining, Vodafone had responded to my tweet, sent me a link to email their web team about my issue and acknowledged receipt of my complaint! I then received an email within 24 hours with an apology and resolution to my problem.

Never did I think a simple tweet would be the answer to my problems having spent hours on the phone to eight different call centre advisors, neither of which had helped me. It just goes to show, with a strategy in place and a web team responding to your tweets in real time, any brand can win over their customer... hats off to you @VodafoneUK! 

Shereene