Thursday, July 9, 2009

CoTweet Twitter CRM Software Enters Public Beta

Expert marketers understand that responding to customer communications using a customer's preferred platform leads to stronger satisfaction and more positive word of mouth. With the tastemakers who use Twitter at the top of every marketer's mind, finding ways to plug "tweets" into a customer relationship management system has proven both challenging and rewarding. After all, a typical call center environment may house hundreds of service agents. Who in that environment can keep track of a single company Twitter account?

The founders of startup CoTweet hope to answer that question by streamlining Twitter communication across up to six official accounts. Coordinating tweets, replies, and direct messages through a proprietary CRM system, the hosted tool looks familiar to agents who have used comprehensive e-mail and ticket tracking tools. Agents log in to the hosted CRM frontend, review messages relevant to their department or expertise, and create replies that can be broadcast to the entire Internet or simply to a single customer.

CoTweet offers powerful direct marketing tools, as well, allowing agents to schedule tweets in advance. This functionality not only allows public relations teams to embargo announcements, it offers service agents the ability to notify customers of new products or offerings at specific times.

During the service's public beta, companies can sign up for CoTweet for free. New media companies that handle nearly all of their customer communication on Twitter can use the service as a standalone CRM application. However, larger organizations may still require middleware or manual cross-posting of conversations between CoTweet and their existing CRM systems. Best of all CoTweet supports active searches of Twitter feeds, enabling companies to proactively reach out to customers who have posted concerns publicly without contacting a company directly. This quick response to emerging trends can help set companies apart from the competition, especially when using CRM systems to respond to emergencies or to handle other crisis communications.

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