Taxes and Twitter a great combination for H&R Block
Time 13:04
Early adopter companies are making inroads in using social media to achieve tangible business goals.
The H&R Block income tax services brand is quickly building on its brick-and-mortar foundation by effectively using social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter.
Amy Worley is the director of digital marketing for the venerable tax service corporation, and with a supportive senior management team, she’s giving H&R Block a nimble, personable face for online users.
The key to their effectiveness is being a part of the community. Worley and a small team monitor Twitter and offer suggestions through H&R Block’s Twitter profile. Amy has been on Twitter for nearly a year. She understands how it works from being an active member of the community. Her team has developed a quick action approach to people that tweet about H&R Block or taxes and offer a response.
Whether it was me tweeting today or Robert Scoble, who tweeted that he was in an H&R Block office a while ago, the company has responded in quick Twitter fashion. It had the same quick response when I tweeted today with Chris Brogan about filing taxes at the 11th hour. That has little to do with technology and everything to do with customer service (or potential-customer service), both listening and reacting.
The agency 360i worked on this program with H&R Block.
It’s the same approach on other communities in which H&R Block is a participant. Enjoy this podcast.
I’ll feature more of this and other social media practices at the NewComm Forum sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research in Sonoma, California, April 22-25.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm and is filed under corporate marketing, social media.
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April 5th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Quick responses on Twitter may be tedious but can pay off big for a company trying to name brand. I think you have definitely the right approach because social media is going to be huge in marketing campaigns in the next few years. All the best with H&R Block.
Jeff Harrison
Website: Voice Over
April 6th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
I think we can all agree that social media marketing can be of tremendous benefit to brick and mortar businesses and from your post it appears H&R Block has the right person handling their campaign. I agree with your statement that it “has little to do with technology and everything to do with customer service (or potential-customer service), both listening and reacting” and would also like to suggest that it goes a long way in developing the know, like and trust factor as well.
April 9th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
In a world where almost everyone goes online, it’s essential for any IT company to reach out to its customers through Twitter or Facebook, I think having this arm improves customer satisfaction more than individual interaction does. With H&R Block’s case, I’m certain more customers are inquiring through social media than through phone or email.
April 14th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for the podcast.. always find it interesting and helpful.. thanks again
July 22nd, 2011 at 8:07 am
Social Media has definitely developed into an essential part of customer service and companies should take advantage of this. I have tried all the different methods of inquiry before (mainly email, phone and live chat) and have found responses to be extremely slow or unintelligible. Finally, with facebook and twitter we can have clear and fast communication between businesses and customers.