People seek the human touch in business every day, yet more and more companies that do service over the phone turn their people onto scripts, people in stores are less helpfuli, companies are less responsive as the true owners of the companies are so far removed from the service levels, they leave the work with the clients to people who are no more invested in their “job” than collecting their next pay cheque.
A dismal picture, and certainly not every experience is like this, however I have to ask myself: why is it that when I think about the most impressive service I have seen in the past few months, it is coming from companies that have oriented themselves towards Social Media?
1. Social Media requires high engagement and attention.
Companies that have committed themselves to this will naturally be more responsive, attentive and therefore will be living in a culture of providing excellent service.
2. Social media tools use public conversation forums.
The fact that everyone can see what you are doing and how you are responding to something is certainly creating a higher standard. Social media people know this naturally, they are confident in their behaviors and are trained to respond (or should be) so they can offer a high level of performance consistently. If not, the nature of social media allows for quick identification of less desirable behaviors and will therefore have to be corrected quickly. This makes for a superior customer service team in comparison to those who work on private networks because their behavior or approach is hidden behind the scenes it can take much longer to identify issues. There is no pressure from the general public on management to address these issues quickly. When you put your reputation on the line, you are going to make sure things are going well.
3. Social Media requires people who have the ability to stay current and adapt.
In order to do well in Social Media, you have to be dynamic, motivated, responsive to changes. Things change from one day to the next, software’s have issues which need to be identified and resolved, new media develops and you have to change with technology in order to deliver your service or products effectively over social media channels. Companies who live in this mindset, will require employees with these skills. These skills translate very well for strong service people.
4. Social media requires attention.
Today’s HR professionals know there is a growing epidemic among employees of “disengagement”. Disengagement costs employers 5 times more than absenteeism.
5. Social media is known for its ability to enable viral behavior.
IOld fashioned service standards have taught us that an unhappy customer can tell 10 others. When the world was smaller and businesses were more local, this could always be a guiding principle to keep your customers happy>; You didn’t want the whole village mad at you right? For a while now, as the world has grown larger businesses operating at local levels, not really using engaged communities as their client bases have taken chances. Why? The word of mouth never really gets back to the company, and people do not see the results of the bad word of mouth spreading – unless of course it gets to the media. The media however is not particularly concerned with local businesses, unless its a major news story. Your customer service representative not returning calls or being rude is not really newsworthy – but it is devastating to the business. Some businesses have grown lazy, their standards have dropped because no one is really listening when something goes wrong. The business is large enough not to be able to pinpoint the lower service levels , and service representatives are not held accountable.
In comparison, anyone using social media knows that bad “press” can go viral, and it doesn’t have to be a major “news” story, all it takes is one person to make a comment and have others join in. This kind of viral spread, which is a true reality for companies using social media actually ensures these companies pay special attention to how they are operating. Sentiment/emotion is easily measured on social media channels, and people are trained to be responsive and ensure public relations disaster do not occur online. The bar is raised for service.
6. Companies using Social media are listening to the public.
Companies who chose to operate in Social media are doing so because they are responding to the changes in the world. They are realizing that the world has become a smaller place, that everyone is accessible, that there is opportunity for growth.
This proactive behavior represents the mindset of ambitious companies. Ambitious companies will ensure that they are investing where they need to to advance. Since relationship management, customer engagement and community building are identified as key factors in success, these companies committed to growth and evolution will be found on Social Media. These are the companies that are also likely to consistently evolve and grow internally as they adapt to our changing environments.
You don’t need to be on social media to have these values and pay the necessary attention to succeed, however it has become evident to me that over the past couple of years, there seems to be a direct correlation between companies invested in providing outstanding service and those taking the risks and investing in using social media as an additional way to connect with clients, build relationships and ensure great service.
Social media mimics the cornerstones of excellent service, and honorable business practices: being reliable, being transparent, offering a quality product, being proud of your name (or company name), listening and being responsive. The behavior is human, the tool used to deliver this personal touch as companies grow is social media.
What are your experiences?
milaspage great post! I might quibble that excelling at Social Media does not always equal great #CustServ as I’d had a few poor service issues despite the famous comcastcares account chatting me up… However, spot on right! Social Media done right is about engagement and good customer service starts out with engagement. I love your six points and would like to extend one and reinforce another.
The public nature of the dialog for customer service has many possible benefits including creating brand advocates and a self-servicing community. If I’m Tweeting WordPress for help many WordPress users and developers may simply jump in and try to help. Fostering these types of interactions and paying attention to key influencers ala seanmoffitt is critical to success and helps out with your strength of Brand as well.
Another pubic aspect of Social Media Customer Service is the Digital Footprint you are creating for yourself. On my recent post at DragonSearch found here: http://www.dragonsearchmarketing.com/good-social-media-customer-service-help-your-brand/ I discuss how good Social media Customer Service helps your Brand also by creating a nice SEO footprint for your company.
Great post and interesting to see your thoughts from a whole other angle!
milaspage Spot on. I think you could write a similar article with a reversed headline. It seems that a company that cares to listen to their customers and respond quickly and take care of them have a natural fit in “social media”. If you have over-the-top customer service, and over-servicing each customer is your mission, you absolutely have to have your channels open.
There was a time when you could expect complaints only in person or through snail mail. Then we got phones. You had to take calls. Then we got the the intertubes. You had to take emails. Now we have the social interwebs. You have to take tweets and facebook posts. 🙂
@houseofbrewhouseofbrew Brew! some of us were just talking about you on Twitter! Anna’s doing another great job monitoring Twitter and helping out a meetmeme customer! You guys are GREAT and actually I want to cite twylah as another amazing example of great customer service via Twitter. Kelly is super considerate and responsive; I love interacting with her and Eric.
Excellent point, I think the two go hand in hand, you want to excel in Social Media, you have to be genuinely geared at excelling in customer service. houseofbrew brew, you are one of the most impressive company leaders in this area, meetmeme (Anna) is amazing, and one of the things I really love about how you guys do business is that you genuine involve yourselves and think when you see tweets or get inquiries. You don’t just acknowledge to be polite, but you go above and beyond and give real service by thinking of options, following up to see how things went and taking the conversation to the appropriate method – Direct messages, email, skype, phone, etc. These things are not as easy to accomplish as one may think, you guys are outstanding at customer service, and you’ve really shown me how using social media is not what makes you awesome, its knowing how to use it to continue to deliver the service you naturally want to deliver as a company. Thank you for your comment, and for your great example! 🙂
Fabulous post. Each of your 6 reasons is right on the mark. I’d like to suggest adding 3 more reasons. Reason #7, social customer service drives call deflection while also increasing upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Reason #8, naturally drives more internal collaboration and engagement of other parts of the organization in meeting customer/constituent concerns and needs. To deliver quality social customer service requires organizations to align outward, to the buyer/customers, instead of aligning inward, to each other. Reason #9, social customer care is the next evolution for call centers and customer service groups; master it today and you’ll have a competitive edge tomorrow. Reason #10, social customer service is a core requirement in the overall transformation into a social business or social enterprise.
@janryan
Thank you so much for adding your comments and points! I agree wholeheartedly. In particular with your point #8, it is something I have seen first hand as well as I have integrated social media tools internally. Yammer and Rypple are great examples, which I mention in my post on the 12 Most Powerful Ways to Staff your Company with Star Employees http://ow.ly/8co6x
Loved your feedback and add ins! Thanks for the collaboration 🙂
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Terrific post! @JohnDellArmi and I @davidhain were agreeing only yesterday that social media reputation was becoming the critical standard for customer service and will continue to do so. Recent blogs by jeffbullas about the companies using social media most effectively bear out that the standard bearers are some of the world’s most switched on companies. This trend can only continue and will increasingly apply at a local level, for all the reasons that you and your respondents state.
davidhainjeffbullasjohndellarmi David, Thank you for your comment! Of course, I agree. The trend we are seeing in companies who are doing well in understanding social media are really focusing in on the true values of customer service. You can put up the image of doing great service online, but if at the core the company itself is not engaging with its clients and providing quick response /service then it will ultimately not be able to succeed. I think Social media is probably one of the best things to come along for companies who have these values, its an opportunity for fans to come out of the woodwork and shine for the company, and it is also a great opportunity for a company to review where they are really at. Are they delivering the service they believe they are? Clients can now let them know in a public forum where a response will allow for improvements. frankeliason is currently working on a book due to release in the spring on Customer Service. In his presentation at #BrandsConf, he discussed how social media is now giving an opportunity to seniors in companies to truly get an eye on whats happening with customer service, as we are all increasingly connected. Mentioning that senior management, before now, did not know whats “really happening”, they get the best of news and think all is well.
I believe, now there is a way for us to hear what’s really going on, and address it, improve it, make it strong. This is probably one of the best times for companies to shine and bring services, support and their values forward. @9INCHmarketing Focuses in his book (which I strongly recommend ) on Lagniappe – the little extra, the gift you can give your clients. Link to Stan’s blog> WYPG: How to Win Customers & Influence Word of Mouth http://marketinglagniappe.com
Social Media is opening many opportunities to us as business people to find and offer that extra. Its an exciting time, and I for one am looking forward to finding more ways to engage with clients, and offer them more value!