We are in an age of artificial intelligence, but even with how far it has come, it seems that chart bots aren’t all that smart. At this point, more and more brands are automating their customer services channels on social networks, such as Facebook Messenger and Twitter. We know that brand bots aren’t able to handle all customer inquiries, which ends up leading to awkward mid-conversation handoffs to a human customer service representative. But Twitter has come up with a way to signal when the switch is being made.
Twitter is coming out with Custom Profiles, which marketers can use to indicate who is sending a specific direct message from a brand’s account. Basically, this is the equivalent of an email signature or Twitter DMs. These Custom Profiles are available to verified brand accounts. These accounts have to apply for access by filling out this form.
Custom Profiles will swap out an account’s default profile photo, which is normally attached to a DM, with a new photo and a line of text that is located below the DM that represents who is behind a specific message. The additional text can include standard symbols and even emojis. But it can’t be any longer than 48 characters. T-Mobile, the first brand to use Custom Profiles, has been attaching the headshot, name and title of its customer service representatives conversing with customers through its @TMobileHelp account.
It seems that Custom Profiles are primarily designed to clear up the bot-to-human handoff that brands like 1-800-Flowers have struggled with. Of course, Custom Profiles can serve other purposes than just the that. An example – a brand could hire a celebrity to overtake its Twitter account and let people DM the celebrity through the brand’s account. This could be a way to oget people used to the idea of privately messaging the brand on Twitter. In this example, using Custom Profiles would allow the brand to signal when those DMs are coming from the celebrity. If the celebrity isn’t involved with that brand anymore, the brand could signal, using Custom Profiles, that the DMs are once again coming from a bot or member of the brand’s social media or customer service team.