At our recent event Customer Service 2.0 | Proactive and Social, we highlighted and explored the principles behind the move towards social customer services and the impact this is having on engagement and business strategy across multiple industries. We also explored the idea that social media is less about the form of technology utilised and more about the interactions between individuals in this medium.
As the event clearly highlighted, effective communication in any medium (be it social media or otherwise) is multi-faceted and involves using facts, insight and feedback to inform on-going strategy. As such, we wanted to share with you some feedback from the event. We feel this feedback gives a valuable insight into important issues within social media customer service and the varied aims our delegates have, when embarking on their own enterprise-wide social media strategies.
We wanted to gauge perceptions about social customer service, discover what our delegates considered best and worst practice and learn about their current aims. The questions and feedback can be found below:
1. What would you consider most important in social customer service?
43% of attendees agreed that solving customer service issues quickly was key to effective social customer service, whilst 29% ranked having a personable approach as the most important factor. We at 6Consulting agree that these are significant and important issues within social customer service, we also rate extensive product knowledge, an issue 14% of our delegates ranked as their highest priority. 9% of attendees prioritised developing new and interesting content whilst 5% thought that a business oriented and professional approach was the most important issue in social customer service.
2. What would you consider to be the worst social media faux pas?
82% of event attendees considered ignoring those who reach out to be the biggest social media faux pas. Ignoring those who reach out is the antithesis of social customer service; this is an issue which is covered further in our recent blog ‘Six Steps to Bad Customer Service in Social Media’. Whilst the majority of event attendees were in agreement, 9% felt that letting content go stale was unacceptable. Following more people on Twitter than being followed was considered negatively by 5% of delegates; giving the hard sell was also prioritised as a no-no by 5% of attendees.
3. What are the greatest risks of not engaging customers through social media?
45% of attendees said their greatest concern of not engaging in social media was the potential damage to their brand reputation. This is particularly crucial when a significant amount of negative commentary exists around a brand. Though the two are inherently linked, 35% of delegates prioritised having a contingency plan or solution in place for crises over the threat of damage to brand reputation. 10% of delegates worried about being perceived as out of touch with industry best practice and listed this as their greatest concern, whilst a further 10% worried about losing competitive advantage to first mover rivals.
4. What are your organisation’s current aims in social media customer service?
As the event attendees were from a wide variety of organisations the prioritisation of their aims in social customer service was varied. 27% listed becoming a leader in social media customer service as their highest priority, whilst 23% prioritised the cost-effective nature of social customer service as a significant aim for utilising this medium effectively. 18% of delegates listed developing an engaged community as their highest priority, a further 18% wished to cultivate or encourage more positive sentiment through improved customer relations in social media. The final 14% of event attendees listed improving brand awareness as their main aim in social customer service.
We believe this feedback provides valuable insight into the issues surrounding social customer service. Although these issues were prioritised differently depending on the type and nature of our delegates industries, a large majority agreed that ignoring customers in social media is bad practise which could affect brand reputation online.
Do you feel the issues reflect what’s important in social customer service? Feel free to share your thoughts on best and worst practice in the comments section.
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