Three Austria adds Snapchat channel for customer service

Three Austria added a Snapchat channel to its social media presence, saying that it has become the first domestic mobile operator to provide customer services and support on what it described as the most popular social media channel for so-called 'millennials'.

The company said the move has extended its already leading role in social media, including Facebook and Google+. It also noted that while Snapchat -- an image messaging and multimedia mobile application -- is extremely popular in the U.S., it has yet to see significant uptake in Austria.

Earlier in June, Bloomberg reported that Snapchat had 150 million daily users, making it more popular than Twitter by active daily users. Twitter has fewer than 140 million users interacting with the service daily, according to an average of analysts' estimates surveyed by Bloomberg. Twitter most recently reported that it has 310 million monthly active users.

Three Austria said the channel under drei.at has been active since Jun. 10 when it was launched at an event called 3CityWave, and already has a "three-digit" number of followers.

Petra Jakob, head of corporate communications and responsible for social media at Three Austria, noted that Snapchat is the next logical move for the company as it has been successfully established on "all other relevant social media channels from Facebook to Instagram for years."

Indeed, in 2010 the company became one of the first mobile operators in Austria to launch its own customer service channel on Facebook.

Social media has become an increasingly important customer service channel for mobile operators in recent years as it allows them to deal with customers in a more timely fashion and meet the needs of younger and more tech-savvy audiences.

Three Austria noted that it is able to react to customer queries on Facebook within a few hours and reaches "several hundred thousand people a week" via the social media platform.

For more:
- see this Three Austria release (in German)
- see this Bloomberg article

Related articles:
How to retain a mobile subscriber in 5 easy steps
Vodafone UK seeks to stem rising tide of consumer complaints
Three Austria overhauls mobile plans with a focus on roaming
Vodafone reviews Ofcom charges of PAYG billing, marketing rule breaches
Vodafone UK, EE perform poorly in Which? customer service poll as MVNOs shine