Bank of America Twitter Flop
Brands are supposed to use social media to show their human side, but apparently Bank of America – and the alleged humans that run its customer service Twitter feed – missed that memo.
Now it's not just the clueless activist events leading up to this that were hilarious, but the actual responses by Bank of America.
When New Jersey resident Mark Hamilton wrote an anti-foreclosure message in chalk on the sidewalk in front of a Manhattan Bank of America branch, he was told to leave by cops. So he took to Twitter: “Just got chased away by #NYPD 4 ‘obstructing sidewalk’.” he tweeted under his handle @darthmarkh. (darthmarkh? really man?)
What happened next underscored the world’s third largest bank (according to Forbes) utter lack of a grasp on how the social media platform works:
But wait, there's more!
The immediate and understandable assumption was that the bank’s Twitter feed is run by a bot – a program that automatically replies to tweets that mention it. Bafflingly, this turns out not to be the case. A bank spokesperson explained that real people are, in fact, behind all of the brand’s tweets.
“All of our interactions are personal and handled by a team of over 100 social-media servicing representatives,” the bank wrote in a statement released to Digiday. ”We respond to mentions of the bank to help identify underlying customer issues in addition to direct requests for help.”
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1. Should Commerical Banks REALLY be using @xyzhelp handles on Twitter?
2. What's your opinion on the effectiveness of Twitter for monetary disputes between customers and brands?
3. Is any problem resolution done in a public arena when 99% of the time to get any real progression you have to speak to a rep to relay account details?
I guess I don't really see much wrong with this. Sure it's probably a bot or some really stupid Indian call center people who don't understand sarcasm/spam/hate tweets, but it's nothing too out of the ordinary and certainly doesn't hurt the company in any way.
But to address your questions - no it's a total waste of time. You never know who's behind a Twitter account anyway, so it's not like you can handle a complaint that's anything less than simple over Twitter, and you certainly can't transact...
I'm almost certain interns manage social media profiles for companies. However, they cannot post anything until it is approved by their manager or something of that sort.
I think twitter is almost useless in resolving problems. I see it mainly as a tool for customers or users to express their love or hate for the company in hopes of grabbing the attention of higher ups or at least spreading the word over the internet.
An immutable law--you don't own a house until you pay back the person who gave you the money to purchase it. BOA can't steal anyone's house.
Don't see what's wrong with this twitter exchange other than the repeat.
I don't know enough about the mechanics of twitter to understand what's happened here.
Are you serious? If you buy a house for $400,000 and owe the bank $350,000 the house isn't yours. It's called a LIEN. How do you post on a financial website and not know what a lien is?
You may technically own the house if you have a mortgage on it, but in reality you don't own the home until it's paid off.
You are on the title/deed. The bank has a lien against the title. This is exactly why when you sell a house your loan is due on sale--you have to pay it off instantly at settlement (same day in most states) so that the buyer has the lien released. You CANNOT sell a house that has a lien on it without the lien being released.
So to say that BOA is stealing people's houses is absurd when they hold a lien against the title. Holding title is just semantics if you have a mortgage.
Pretty much a detailed version of what I was trying to say. You technically own the house (it's in your name), but in reality you don't.
I tend to think there's nothing but downside in social media for a major bank, especially on Twitter. A true social media expert would be unable to work within the compliance confines of a regulated financial services company, so you're left with bots and interns (and I'm not sure which is worse).
lol
I've found Tweeting at companies gets you much quicker customer service than calling or emailing, because they're so concerned about posts going viral. I was double charged by Hertz, and after emailing and calling to no avail, I sent one angry Tweet (so all my followers could see) and was refunded by the end of the day.
So if Anthony Wiener sent a picture to BofA, they would respond, anything I can do to help?
Nobody reasonable is saying BOA stole a house, @OccupyWhatever is just a libelious anonymous twitter account.
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