January 8, 2013
I love to talk about social customer service. I think it’s fascinating and incredibly pertinent in our digital world. It also still amazes me how brands and retailers are still missing a trick! I’ve experienced this slow uptake for myself recently; waiting nearly 2 months for a replacement washing machine was certainly enough to make me take to Twitter. Sadly the slow, inadequate response that I received from the whitegoods retailer in question only made me madder.
This brings me on to an interesting whitepaper from Conversocial that I came across today, which looks at the current state of social customer service. Killer stats – not to be scoffed at!
Are you one of the 88% who would be less likely to buy from a brand having seen complaints ignored online? A quick, efficient response on social media no longer impresses, it’s simply expected.
Furthermore, when you look at the outstanding growth stats from 2012 (see below), there’s no denying social customer service is continuing to swell at an exponential rate. It makes you think about the resource implications and how the upscaling of social customer service teams will need to be a priority for many socially active companies in 2013.
297% growth in the number of replies brands sent on Facebook and Twitter Tweet
393% growth in the number of replies brands sent out on Twitter Tweet
“Social media as a core engagement channel will have to be treated as business critical” – I certainly agree with this statement. 2013 looks set to be the defining year in which those who are getting it right really start to see the benefits. So, I’ll round off with this final graph which serves to emphasise WHY brands should bother with social customer service – pure and simple, it makes customers happy!
To download the full whitepaper ‘Evolving Social Customer Service’ visit this link.