According to American Express’ 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer, one third of US consumers think businesses are paying less attention to providing good customer service in 2012. *
Surprising no?
Especially, as companies are more exposed than ever with consumers able to speak freely to the world about their experiences, all at the click of a button. Customer frustrations are increasingly being voiced on social media platforms, where customers are venting their frustrations to their peer group or even complaining direct to the brand in question.
So why are businesses paying less attention to providing outstanding service?
It seems to me that this issue may be less to do with a lack of attention, and more to do with a dearth of skilled people, appropriate technologies or systems, and most pertinently, a lack of time to adapt to the ever evolving social space. All combined this looks like businesses don’t care…
Implementing social customer service isn’t an overnight job…
It needs careful thought. There are 3 key areas that need to be considered by businesses to ensure that they will be able to provide effective social customer service:
- A skilled team, who have an understanding of ins and outs of social media
- A concrete workflow system – companies have to look for a way of joining up social CRM with pre-existing customer service processes (not always so easy!)
- Metrics and reporting in place – allows for self-assessment and optimisation of processes
It’s more important than ever to provide your customers with a smooth, joined-up multichannel experience. Social needs to be fully integrated in the customer service centre and should never be considered as a separate, side service element. It’s now part of the package – whether you like it or not, so think it through carefully…
Don’t underestimate the importance and VALUE of getting social customer service right. No one else but your customers can be as damming… or on the other hand, as effective at spreading the good word about your company!
