The Rising Trend in Customer Service through Social Channels
As we get started with business in 2015, let’s look to the marketing trends that will prevail this year. One such trend is the increasing importance of customer service and how customer service skills are being integrated into social media. As more consumers take to social media to communicate and complain to businesses, there is more of a need for social media teams to be trained in customer service tactics and techniques.
Mobile Influencing the Rise of Social Media Customer Service Requests
One of the reasons we are seeing this influx of social media inquiries that are customer service related is because of the increase in mobile shopping and mobile browsing. The weekend following Thanksgiving saw mobile search overtake desktop searches for the first time ever. Since so many consumers are already on their smartphone or mobile device, there is an increased tendency for them to use social media apps on those devices to contact those businesses.
- 45% of companies offering web or mobile self-service reported an increase in site traffic and reduced phone inquiries. (CRM Magazine)
- 67% of consumers have used a company’s social media site for servicing. (JDPower)
- 33% of users prefer to contact brands using social media rather than the telephone. (Nielsen)
- 78% of active Twitter users are mobile. (Twitter)
- 81% of active Facebook users are mobile. (Facebook Newsroom)
Increasing Importance of Customer Service
Most companies are beginning to recognize the importance of providing an excellent customer experience and realizing that the success of their business hangs in the balance. Outsourcing customer service and customer support is one of the largest problems when offshore customer service representatives are not properly trained in delivering the type of service that will meet today’s customers’ needs. Why are companies still ignoring the importance of customer service? It is clear that there is a need for improvement:
- By 2020, the customer experience will be more important than any other factor to consumers. (Customers 2020 Report)
- 63% of companies surveyed at the beginning of 2014 said they expect to spend significantly more or somewhat more on customer service efforts than they did in 2013. (Yahoo Small Business Advisor)
- 90% of customer experience decision makers said that good experience is critical to the success of the company. (Forrester Research)
- 66% of consumers around the world stopped doing business with a company in 2013 due to poorly handles customer service experiences. (Accenture)
- Reducing your customer defection rate by 5% can increase your profits up to 125%. (Amazon)
Social Customer Service Statistics
In addition to taking care of one customer’s complaint on social media, you are also showing their network of friends and your own company’s followers how you care and handle problems.
- Customers who receive good care of social customer service are almost 3 times more likely to recommend that brand. (Harvard Business Review)
- 42% of people will post about a good customer experience they had on social media, but many more (53%) will tell their friends about a bad one. (American Express Global Customer Service Barometer)
- Companies that engage and respond to customer service requests on social media can cause an increase in sales because customers will spend up to 40% more with that company when satisfied. (Bain & Company)
- Failure to respond to complaints or problems posted on social channels can lead to a 15% increase in the churn rate of current customers. (Gartner)
Summary and Takeaways for Your Business
There is no ignoring the rising trend for delivering an excellent customer experience and including social customer service in those efforts. However, the way that your company reacts and makes plans for making customer service a priority will make the difference between continued success in the future and increasing profits. Here are 3 takeaways from all these statistics and what your company can do to implement a change in culture for customer service.
Trend #1: Consumers are now expecting quick and efficient responses to their complaints, comments, and issues.
What can your company do? Monitor social media to scale a greater response effort for less using media monitoring tools.
Implement: a policy where the customer comes first and customer service is each employee’s top priority.
Train: employees on how you want them all to deliver consistent customer service to meet the needs of consumers and make them happy, returning customers.
Consumers expect quick and efficient responses to their complaints, comments, and issues.
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Trend #2: More consumers are shopping via mobile and browsing on mobile even while in stores.
What can your company do? Make it easier for consumers to see your site on mobile devices by using a “mobile first” policy and showcase social media channels, encourage customers to contact you in whichever way is most convenient for them.
Implement: a budget for social media and customer service departments in addition to the mobile design requirements that your website will need.
Train: customer service and social media employees to work together to deliver the best customer experience as fast as possible.
More consumers are shopping via mobile and browsing on mobile even while in stores.
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Trend #3: Consumers will leave a company if problems are not addressed and fixed quickly.
What can your company do? Recognize that spending money on customer experience and customer service resolutions will retain your existing customers and make more money for your company. It costs more to obtain new customers than it does to keep existing customers happy.
Implement: a policy where all employees are empowered to resolve customer problems and give each employee a budget that he or she can spend to resolve a problem before having to get approval from a supervisor.
Train: employees how to go beyond customer expectations and retain customers creating customer service advocates that help increase your reach and positive brand reputation.
It costs more to obtain new customers than it does to keep existing customers happy.
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This is a guest post by Elizabeth Victor, Brand Advisor for Isentia Media Monitoring Software. She enjoys sharing tips on media monitoring and analyzing, as well as PR service and distribution topics.
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