City of Edinburgh Council launches customer service Twitter account

The City of Edinburgh Council has launched a dedicated customer service Twitter account.

The new 24-hour, seven-day @edinhelp account will handle customer questions, requests and complaints.

If issues can’t be answered in a tweet, a solution or link will be provided.

As well as responding to enquiries, the account will provide information on issues or delays to services.

It will be kept up-to-date so residents can refer to it to see if the council is already aware of an issue, for example, if there is fly-tipping and a team has already been sent to or a power cut that is being investigated.  

The aim of the new channel is also to make it easier for the council to identify where residents are experiencing problems with council services.

The main account will continue to operate with general messages about council services and what is going on in the city.

This increase in residents contacting the council through social media channels has prompted the council to think about the best way to help people to get the most from its social media accounts.

Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “Social media is part of everyday life and there is no reason why people shouldn’t use it to carry out their daily business.”

The council’s main Twitter account @edinburgh_cc has almost 50,000 followers and receives an average of over 2,300 messages per month.

The new Twitter account is part of a continued drive to encourage residents to increase their online contact.

Channel shift is encouraged by the ‘Save time. Do it online’ marketing campaign, which encourages residents to report issues such as problems with street lighting, pot holes and litter online.

The council’s channel shift strategy, agreed by the Finance and Resources Committee in January 2015, will make estimated savings of £5.9 million by 2017/18.