Twitter this morning is launching a new customer service feature for businesses using its service, which will allow agents to respond to direct messages..
Twitter this morning is launching a new customer service feature for businesses using its service, which will allow agents to respond to direct messages using custom profiles. That is, their names and profile pictures will display when they are engaged in conversations with customers, instead of the company’s Twitter photo and name. The idea is to give these service interactions a more personal feel, so customers know they’re talking to a person and not a bot.
The first business to adopt the new feature is T-Mobile, which has been at the forefront of personalizing the customer service experience, Twitter explained. T-Mobile was one of the first to use customers’ real names and customer service agents’ initials in tweets, for example, and last year it began adding agents’ pictures and names to its tweet replies by linking to custom bio web pages for each of its agents.
Starting today, the account @TMobileHelp will be the first to be able to use the new custom profiles in its Direct Messages (DMs) as well. However, Twitter tells TechCrunch that others businesses will roll out the feature soon.
Customer service agents can also get creative by adding emoji to their Twitter names, which do display in group DM conversations. You can see how this looks in the screenshot below.
There are no limits on how many custom profiles a business can operate, nor does the business have to be of a certain size in order to take advantage of the feature. The only requirements are that the business has a verified handle , is whitelisted. To get on the list, the businesses can sign up on the form here , after receiving verification.
There is no charge to use the feature, nor the API that’s also being made available. Though businesses would need to work Twitter’s partners in order to access the API, of course.
The feature is the latest in a series of steps Twitter has taken to enhance its customer service offerings for businesses, which have also included things like making it easier for customers to Direct Message businesses through more prominent buttons, the ability for businesses to add a “send a private message” button to tweets, automated messages for DMs , a way to display support hours on a business’s profile page , and more.
According to Twitter’s own research , customers who receive responses to inquiries are willing to spend 3 to 20 percent more on an averaged priced item from that business in the future, and 10 percent more, specifically, on telco. (Hence T-Mobile as a launch partner.)
In the telco industry, Twitter says customers are willing to pay $17 more per month for their phone plan if they receive a reply within 4 minutes, but are only will to pay $3.52 more if they wait over 20 minutes. These figures explain why a business like T-Mobile would be so interested in rolling out improvements to their Twitter-based customer service as soon as they become available.
More generally, Twitter says that 77 percent of consumers are likely to recommend a brand after receiving personalized customer support; are 19 percent more likely to feel like they reached resolution; and are 22 percent more likely to be satisfied compared with those who had less personal interactions.
The new feature is live for sign-ups here, and the API is now in private beta.

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AMD is launching three new Ryzen 7 processors on March 2 the will attempt to take the crown for fastest PC processors in the world from rival Intel. AMD’s..
AMD is launching three new Ryzen 7 processors on March 2 the will attempt to take the crown for fastest PC processors in the world from rival Intel. AMD’s new processors are all 8-core affairs, which the company says will best similarly specced rivals from Intel’s Core i line at similar price points ($330, $400 and $500 respectively).
The new Ryzen processors will help bring back “innovation and competition” to the high-end PC market, AMD claims, which means they’re being very humble about their prospects with this lineup. They’re going on sale at 180 retailers worldwide, including via boutique PC OEMs who aim at overclockers and other core hobbyists and pros.
The Rysen 7 processors will be sold individually and in OEM system configurations, and they could help AMD build on some of the momentum in this segment it has achieved with affordable, VR-capable GPUs like the Radeon RX 480. Pre-orders for the new Ryzen processors begin today.

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NASA has discovered seven planets with Earth-like qualities orbiting a nearby star making them among the strongest candidates in the continued search for..
NASA has discovered seven planets with Earth-like qualities orbiting a nearby star making them among the strongest candidates in the continued search for extraterrestrial life among known exoplanets, or planets that exist outside of our own solar system.
These new planets all inhabit another solar system which includes seven planets that have a relatively warm climate, as well as rocky terrain, both of which are promising signs in terms of identifying starting points for the search for both water and life. The planets all orbit TRAPPIST-1, a so-called ‘ultracool dwarf’ star, which unfortunately does not mean that it shares characteristics with Gimli from the Lord of the Rings.
Instead, the TRAPPIST-1 star is just a tenth the size of our own sun, and only gives off around a quarter of the radiant heat. The planets are far nearer the sun, too: the one closest in has a ‘year’ (the time it takes it to orbit the star) of a little over one day, and the one the furthest out completes its own annual cycle in only 20 days.
The TRAPPIST-1 system and its terrestrial planets are a huge milestone because before their discovery, we were basically limited to four candidates – one of which was our own. These new Earth-sized celestial bodies were originally discovered when researchers including lead author of the new study Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège were studying the TRAPPIST-1 star they’d been observing since 2015, and noticed decreases in the star’s brightness, caused by the momentary occlusion of the star by the passage of three of the system’s planets across its surface.
NASA has also been very quick to temper expectations from observers who think this might signal favorable possibilities in terms of the discovery of alien life – the likelihood is slim, and it’s very early yet in terms of figuring out if the planets have other characteristics they share with Earth beyond rockiness and relative warmth owing to their placement in the so-called “habitable zone” of TRAPPIST-1 – like whether they even have atmospheres and the presence of water or other gases like oxygen.
Still, finding this many planet orbiting a star so nearby with even basic Earth-like characteristics is a promising sign, according NASA researchers. It suggests that indeed, as some have theorized, the galaxy could be littered with Earthish planets – far more than we might’ve suspected.

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