The first article, "Social media a missed opportunity for customer service" by Matt Kapko, focuses on the missed opportunity for companies to use social media as a customer service tool. Kapko discusses the missed opportunities for customer engagement, with companies currently responding to only 11% of the people who reach out to them on social media. The article looks at companies utilizing social media primarily as a promotional channel, leaving customers to feel as if they are being ignored. The article also examines the harm caused to brands that do not respond to customers in a timely manner, as a result of a poor customer experience, as well as the benefits of delivering good customer service through social media.
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The second article, "7 Reasons You Need to Be Using Social Media As Your Customer Service Portal" by Jayson DeMers, looks at the benefits to making social media a central part of your customer service strategy. DeMers also believes that social media should be a central tenet of successful customer service and outlines 7 benefits to using social media in customer service. The 7 benefits identified by DeMers are: immediate communication, a more personal brand experience, transparent conversation, encouraging more brand mentions, easy follow-up, social users are more likely to share their experience, and dynamic customer interactions. DeMers also explores the concept of social media's potential as a business development and relationship building tool, as a result of its customer service capabilities.
Based on these two articles, as well as my experience participating in Northwestern University and Coursera's Nurture Market Strategies MOOC, I have developed 3 action items you need to take immediately to ensure your customer service strategy is properly utilizing social media.
Empower customers - Make it easy for customers to find and contact you via social media, and receive a prompt reply.
Enable employees - Give your customer service teams the tools they need to effectively track, monitor and engage with customers via social media.
Improve organizational culture - Encourage a company mindset that supports social media as an effective business tool, not something to be used exclusively for promotional purposes.
Starting now, you need to make social media a central part of your customer service strategy, to better communicate with your customers, before your competitors do.
Evan Robertson in a participant in Coursera and Northwestern University's Engagement & Nurture Marketing Strategies MOOC, part of the Social Marketing Specialization. Evan is passionate about creating positive customer experiences in e-commerce and social media spaces. Connect with Evan on LinkedIn or Twitter.
