May 31, 2013
Retail TouchPoints: What Role Does Social Play in Customer Service?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Retail TouchPoints website.
Research indicates that social customer care tools and solutions enable retailers to connect with consumers as well as react to questions and complaints quickly and efficiently.
According to Forrester, merchants that leverage social customer service have experienced a variety of benefits, including:
- Improved customer loyalty (26 percent);
- Increased customer satisfaction (24 percent);
- Reduced support costs and incoming support calls (16 percent);
- Improved agent efficiency (8 percent).
"If you don’t invest in social technology as a way to reach out to, communicate with and support your customers, you really run the risk of being left behind," said Kate Leggett, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research during the recent webinar, "Get Serious About Social Customer Care."
To improve customer service strategies via social media, Ms. Leggett advised that retailers develop a foundation built on four elements:
The Right Data: For some organizations, mobile apps and social channels may be the most effective channels for customer service. But for others, call centers might work best for their customers.
The Right People: A savvy writer would be a good candidate for working in social channels, while an eloquent speaker can find success through phone support. Agents must be empowered with the information they need to track, analyze and respond to cross-channel dialogue.
The Right Tools: Simple issues can be answered swiftly through a "frequently asked questions" section on a web site, but there still are complicated issues that need to be addressed by a customer service representative via phone, social media or email.
The Right Alignment: Customer care strategy and company strategy should be aligned.
Katy Keim, CMO of Lithium Technologies, a software provider, noted that 70 percent of tweets directed to brands are ignored, and 95 percent of customers’ posts on a brand’s Facebook wall go unaddressed. She noted, "Leaving all these queries and requests is like letting phones ring without answering them. Our customers aren’t going to tolerate it for long."
Companies that master the digital support space are gaining free promotion through word-of-mouth, Ms. Keim added. Retailers that have models in place to scale social questions and requests, prioritize inquiries and assign the right people to the right customer service roles will be laying down "a strong foundation for future markets."
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
What beyond responding to tweets and Facebook posts is social customer care all about? What challenges must retailers overcome in delivering top-notch service through social channels?
Poll
The social customer wants a brand or retailer to listen, think and respond. They want the person who responds to be empowered to make a decision and act.
Brands and retailers need to monitor social communication. The analogy of not paying attention to Twitter and Facebook being the equivalent of a ringing phone going unanswered is good. When a brand or retailer does not answer, they send a message that they don’t care.
Retailers and brands need to monitor social channels, they need to listen then engage consumers in a dialogue, and they need to empower front-line employees to act.
Social media has dramatically amplified the voice of the customer. Good companies will embrace these new conversations with their customers. Bad companies will sit and watch.
Senior leaders need to reorganize and invest in the resources to monitor and engage in social customer service. The age of the 1-800 call center was long ago.
As I was perusing the web to find the best way to apply Martha Stewart Precious Metals paint, I ended up at the Home Depot site. In the reviews where people were lamented about streaks in paint and how many coats to apply, I noticed long, thoughtful, paragraph form responses to their questions from a “PatInPaint.” Glancing below the name, I saw the statement,” I am a Home Depot Paint Associate, trained and authorized to help people on the Internet.” I instantly felt better about the advice and tips being given. And so did everyone on the forum.
Most of Pat’s posts started with thanking the customer, acknowledging their frustrations, and a detailed response addressing their issue that included links to other pages, video tutorials, etc. It was awesome, like having a knowledgeable attendant in your living room, taking you step by step. Some conversations were an open dialogue. PatInPaint responded patiently and diligently each time.
Answering customers in real time through social media or community forums should be a natural extension of customer service. It’s an essential aspect in recognizing how consumers purchase. With reports of e-commerce shopping steadily on the rise, and giants like Amazon.com only gaining more market share, organizations have to move swiftly to the next level of communication. It isn’t always on the phone, and people often times are in front of a computer, phone, or tablet and may feel more comfortable voicing a concern via chat rather than a phone call. Retailers just need to make sure agents are as trained and professional as PatInPaint in order to provide the best assistance to consumers, as they are the online face for your brand, in black and white.
Social media is all about ease of communication from the customer to the company. Companies should use social media as a needed communication vehicle.
Retailer challenges include having the social media response time expected by the customer. Customers have real time expectations and retailers need to have the same expectation.
Social customer service is about communication, quick response times, value added information and more. Companies who embrace social service have more touch points with their customers that creates a stronger (and trusting) relationship. The biggest challenge businesses have today is taking the first step to embrace this new way of delivering value to the customer.
Social media speaks to those most likely to be brand apostles—or those who are angriest. Of course, communication with either group is an important opportunity.
Social customer care is about listening and interacting, off script! I, for one, dislike calling it customer service because, if my issue is even the least bit complicated, the person on the other end must go through their script first.
Social is not about responding to the customer so much as HOW they respond to the customer. Social media is not conducive to all the back and forth that scripted conversations require. The person at the other end must be able to listen, comprehend, maybe do some research, and then respond on point. Because they are in a public forum where anyone can see and be influenced by the brand, how well they respond is key. And that, my friends, goes a long way!
I don’t understand the preoccupation with the social customer. That isn’t where the money is! If you want to move your business forward, then spend your time working on ways to present yourself to the generation that is retiring now. They have property, they have money and most of them have children and grandchildren they are willing to spend this money on.
Why waste your time selling to 2% of the population who may be social customers? Someone is trying to make a buck by convincing the lazy that they are missing something. The something is irrelevant! Pay attention, move your efforts to the money, not the noise!
I think that apart from providing responses, social customer care is about understanding the customer through this medium. Understanding likes, dislikes, preferences in terms of tastes in music, movies, restaurants, books, sports, and all of that. People on social media like to share with acquaintances and the world. This should ultimately lead to creating a personalized world on part of the retailers. That I think should be the ultimate goal.
Beyond the simple response processes, social interaction between customers and brands is exactly that: interaction. Interaction breeds brand awareness and—provided these interactions are handled well—positive awareness breeds a relationship, and most importantly, loyalty.
Social customer care is a virtual means of managing and maintaining relationships with customers. Challenges include: appearing cheesy or salesy (solution: authenticity), defensive (solution: apologizing), dishonest (solution: transparency), or flaky (solution: instant/prompt responsiveness).
This reminds me of the old SAP joke spun a new way: If Social Customer Care is the answer, what is the question?
I think it helps to organize what you do around things that matter and if there is a social component to it—make that work. Social outreach however usually organizes itself around audiences and that means adding headcount to manage audiences. That is the challenge—managing and paying for how retailers adapt and shift monies from advertising and marketing to Social Customer Care.
The key is alignment. Watching brands whose DNA is not compatable with social media play there is painful. Assuming your brand’s DNA is compatable, you must be active in the space. However, the reason that 70% of tweets and 95% of FB posts go unanswered is because those companies put up Twitter and FB pages without investing in the people and processes to authentically engage with the social participants.
- Ensure your future brand strategy and DNA make you an authentic player in the social space.
- Utilize or hire people with the skills and capabilities to interact in the social space with your customers.
- Develop the systems/processes to ensure customer posts are responded to.
- Evolve, evolve, evolve based on customer feedback and how the social interaction adds to your brand value.
Engaging with customers through social media channels goes beyond simply monitoring tweets and facebook posts. As with most things, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Ultimately, it’s about recognizing that social channels are an important and growing means of providing customer care, and ensuring that all the requisite people, tools and resources are implemented to enable that care. Zel’s example below of how The Home Depot is responding to customer inquiries is a good example of online customer care done right.
Effective social customer care is really just great customer care, delivered through different channels. Doing so requires listening to what customers are saying about your brand, and providing feedback. We all appreciate acknowledgment of our requests and frustrations, and given the immediacy and potential reach of social channels, it is important that retailers invest appropriately to ensure that customers are heard and responded to. Every customer interaction is an opportunity to deliver service, sell product, and increase loyalty, and social customer care is no different. It is an extension of your brand’s personality.
I think one of the major challenges retailers have to overcome with respect to engaging through social channels is that it may not appear to have a positive ROI. However, the investment need not be that significant, and the argument can be made that the cost of NOT engaging through social media is too great to ignore, in terms of potentially negative feedback being left unattended.
Social customer care is about engaging customers on a 1:1 basis to not only solve their problems, but to enlist them in solving the problems of other customers as well.
The challenge to retailers is to give up on the “all knowing, all powerful” positioning that retailers have long embraced and acknowledge that customer experience is actually a social expedition.
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The social customer wants a brand or retailer to listen, think and respond. They want the person who responds to be empowered to make a decision and act.
Brands and retailers need to monitor social communication. The analogy of not paying attention to Twitter and Facebook being the equivalent of a ringing phone going unanswered is good. When a brand or retailer does not answer, they send a message that they don’t care.
Retailers and brands need to monitor social channels, they need to listen then engage consumers in a dialogue, and they need to empower front-line employees to act.
Social media has dramatically amplified the voice of the customer. Good companies will embrace these new conversations with their customers. Bad companies will sit and watch.
Senior leaders need to reorganize and invest in the resources to monitor and engage in social customer service. The age of the 1-800 call center was long ago.
As I was perusing the web to find the best way to apply Martha Stewart Precious Metals paint, I ended up at the Home Depot site. In the reviews where people were lamented about streaks in paint and how many coats to apply, I noticed long, thoughtful, paragraph form responses to their questions from a “PatInPaint.” Glancing below the name, I saw the statement,” I am a Home Depot Paint Associate, trained and authorized to help people on the Internet.” I instantly felt better about the advice and tips being given. And so did everyone on the forum.
Most of Pat’s posts started with thanking the customer, acknowledging their frustrations, and a detailed response addressing their issue that included links to other pages, video tutorials, etc. It was awesome, like having a knowledgeable attendant in your living room, taking you step by step. Some conversations were an open dialogue. PatInPaint responded patiently and diligently each time.
Answering customers in real time through social media or community forums should be a natural extension of customer service. It’s an essential aspect in recognizing how consumers purchase. With reports of e-commerce shopping steadily on the rise, and giants like Amazon.com only gaining more market share, organizations have to move swiftly to the next level of communication. It isn’t always on the phone, and people often times are in front of a computer, phone, or tablet and may feel more comfortable voicing a concern via chat rather than a phone call. Retailers just need to make sure agents are as trained and professional as PatInPaint in order to provide the best assistance to consumers, as they are the online face for your brand, in black and white.
Social media is all about ease of communication from the customer to the company. Companies should use social media as a needed communication vehicle.
Retailer challenges include having the social media response time expected by the customer. Customers have real time expectations and retailers need to have the same expectation.
Social customer service is about communication, quick response times, value added information and more. Companies who embrace social service have more touch points with their customers that creates a stronger (and trusting) relationship. The biggest challenge businesses have today is taking the first step to embrace this new way of delivering value to the customer.
Social media speaks to those most likely to be brand apostles—or those who are angriest. Of course, communication with either group is an important opportunity.
Social customer care is about listening and interacting, off script! I, for one, dislike calling it customer service because, if my issue is even the least bit complicated, the person on the other end must go through their script first.
Social is not about responding to the customer so much as HOW they respond to the customer. Social media is not conducive to all the back and forth that scripted conversations require. The person at the other end must be able to listen, comprehend, maybe do some research, and then respond on point. Because they are in a public forum where anyone can see and be influenced by the brand, how well they respond is key. And that, my friends, goes a long way!
I don’t understand the preoccupation with the social customer. That isn’t where the money is! If you want to move your business forward, then spend your time working on ways to present yourself to the generation that is retiring now. They have property, they have money and most of them have children and grandchildren they are willing to spend this money on.
Why waste your time selling to 2% of the population who may be social customers? Someone is trying to make a buck by convincing the lazy that they are missing something. The something is irrelevant! Pay attention, move your efforts to the money, not the noise!
I think that apart from providing responses, social customer care is about understanding the customer through this medium. Understanding likes, dislikes, preferences in terms of tastes in music, movies, restaurants, books, sports, and all of that. People on social media like to share with acquaintances and the world. This should ultimately lead to creating a personalized world on part of the retailers. That I think should be the ultimate goal.
Beyond the simple response processes, social interaction between customers and brands is exactly that: interaction. Interaction breeds brand awareness and—provided these interactions are handled well—positive awareness breeds a relationship, and most importantly, loyalty.
Social customer care is a virtual means of managing and maintaining relationships with customers. Challenges include: appearing cheesy or salesy (solution: authenticity), defensive (solution: apologizing), dishonest (solution: transparency), or flaky (solution: instant/prompt responsiveness).
This reminds me of the old SAP joke spun a new way: If Social Customer Care is the answer, what is the question?
I think it helps to organize what you do around things that matter and if there is a social component to it—make that work. Social outreach however usually organizes itself around audiences and that means adding headcount to manage audiences. That is the challenge—managing and paying for how retailers adapt and shift monies from advertising and marketing to Social Customer Care.
The key is alignment. Watching brands whose DNA is not compatable with social media play there is painful. Assuming your brand’s DNA is compatable, you must be active in the space. However, the reason that 70% of tweets and 95% of FB posts go unanswered is because those companies put up Twitter and FB pages without investing in the people and processes to authentically engage with the social participants.
Engaging with customers through social media channels goes beyond simply monitoring tweets and facebook posts. As with most things, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Ultimately, it’s about recognizing that social channels are an important and growing means of providing customer care, and ensuring that all the requisite people, tools and resources are implemented to enable that care. Zel’s example below of how The Home Depot is responding to customer inquiries is a good example of online customer care done right.
Effective social customer care is really just great customer care, delivered through different channels. Doing so requires listening to what customers are saying about your brand, and providing feedback. We all appreciate acknowledgment of our requests and frustrations, and given the immediacy and potential reach of social channels, it is important that retailers invest appropriately to ensure that customers are heard and responded to. Every customer interaction is an opportunity to deliver service, sell product, and increase loyalty, and social customer care is no different. It is an extension of your brand’s personality.
I think one of the major challenges retailers have to overcome with respect to engaging through social channels is that it may not appear to have a positive ROI. However, the investment need not be that significant, and the argument can be made that the cost of NOT engaging through social media is too great to ignore, in terms of potentially negative feedback being left unattended.
Social customer care is about engaging customers on a 1:1 basis to not only solve their problems, but to enlist them in solving the problems of other customers as well.
The challenge to retailers is to give up on the “all knowing, all powerful” positioning that retailers have long embraced and acknowledge that customer experience is actually a social expedition.