Customer Service in the Social Media Age

For services representatives, promoters, and content marketers, the next step in your online branding campaign may be to open up your social media channels for customer service.  This post will serve as a guide to optimizing your social media for high quality customer support.

According to figures from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), the last 18 months has seen levels of overall customer satisfaction fall for the first time since their survey began in 2008. Long-suffering customers who previously felt powerless now feel a greater sense of entitlement, and that sense of entitlement can't be ignored because, as the old adage goes, the customer is always right.

Forging any kind of relationship amid the choppy, fast-moving waters of social media is tricky, and we're certainly well past the stage where a tweeted acknowledgement of our customer complaint is enough.

While the jury may still out as to whether social media provides an efficient customer service channel (according to ICS figures, 26.2 per cent of us have used it but only 6.7 per cent have ever received a reply), some brands use the social media channel to their advantage. At its office in Wythenshawe, Virgin Media employs 30 people working in shifts to provide customer care across Twitter and Facebook.

Did you know that... 95% of Millennials expect brands to have a Facebook presence? Also, 87% of Gen X’ers (30 to 44-year-olds) and even 70% of those ages 45 to 60 think brands should, at the very least, have a Facebook page. While consumers reduced expectations by about 10% for Twitter presence, they dropped expectations even further for Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and Google+. Only about 50% of those polled expect brands to have a presence on all these social media platforms.

Social channels are a sign of a company’s dedication to transparency, accountability and even customer service! Customers recognize this and expect to see a brand engaging with customers on Facebook. Even though “silent” customers may not add comments or likes (basically, VALUE) to a brand’s Facebook page, still... they’re watching.

Brands’ social media channels leave them open to consumer criticism. American consumers know this and therefore have more respect for companies that encourage feedback and respond in a timely and thorough manner.

What do customers want from companies on Facebook? If customers expect a brand to be active on Facebook and possibly two or three other social channels, the next question is, what do they want from companies there?

When brands deliver enrichment on social media, they are rewarded with brand advocates and consumer goodwill. In this era when brands must skip direct selling and rely on brand advocates to market for them, social media channels should only tangentially touch upon a brand’s products and services; instead focusing on customers’ needs.

Are you looking for customer service solutions to help you deal with customer interaction? SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software should be your solutions. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
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Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
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