I’m sure most companies now use social media as a marketing tool. Hopefully it’s used more as a way to engage customers with your brand rather than to advertise to them. One large part of the engagement will always be responding to customer feedback. Responding to positive feedback is easy, but how are you responding to customer complaints, and who is doing the responding?
If you still need convincing that everybody who uses your corporate social media accounts should be trained in customer service, this post & infographic from Mind Jumpers will give you some idea of the impact good customer service can have.
http://www.mindjumpers.com/blog/2012/08/customer-service-social-media/
Some of the important things to take away from this is:
- 65% of customers prefer to contact companies on social media rather than via a call centre. I can’t see anyone being surprised by this. When you compare the ability to compose a tweet or Facebook post with the joys of getting help from an automated or offshore call centre it makes perfect sense.
- 83% of customers who tweeted a complaint loved it when companies responded. Note that this just says “when companies responded”, not necessarily when the customer received a positive outcome, just a response. It’s because people like to know their complaint has been heard and acknowledged. Of course, a solution where the customer feels the problem has been resolved to their satisfaction is all the better and if you respond but don’t take it further or work on a solution, your customers will not stay delighted for very long.
- People who have used social media for customer service spend 21% more and tell 42 people. That should be all the reason you need, a better ROI and free advertising.
- 60% of companies don’t respond to customers via social media even when asked a direct question. Which means that if you can get a good handle on customer service via social media, you’ll not only be ahead of the field but you’ll give yourself a competitive advantage over all those clients who aren’t using social media as part of their customer service strategy.
So what about you? Do you use social media for customer service? If so do you concentrate on one service (Twitter, Facebook, Google), or use it across the board?
