In a recent survey by eGain it was found that 5% of 18-35 year olds use Twitter or Facebook before resorting to any other means of communication. Here is another finding from the survey: 47% of UK consumers will go online (email and web chat) to complain about a product or service rather than choose traditional methods of placing a phone call (33%) or writing a letter (17%). Email proved the most popular channel with 3 out of 4 consumers selecting email as a top two preference. It might be the time to consider extending your Social media touchpoints with a specific channel for Social media.

Two examples social media customer service

I live in the Netherlands and I have two Dutch case studies to highlight the importance of setting up social media customer service channels with a great deal of care.

The first one is a famous one, at least here in the Netherlands. It highlights the customer service procedures of telecom provider T-Mobile. In this example, the customer was appalled by the priority treatment he got through social media! Seems odd at first, but read on.

The second example is from the KLM airline. You can find a list of their social media channels here. I was lucky enough to have been recently invited to visit the main KLM support desk operation in the Netherlands. I was very impressed with their service levels, attention to detail, and especially with their quality assurance processes. Their levels of service are evident just by looking at the KLM Twitter stream. Their integration of Salesforce.com is superb in my opinion.

Managing performance levels with social media customer service

Managing the quality and service levels with customer service social media channels is not easy. Manual systems are often deployed. I have spent over 8 years running customer facing social media channels for my company and from experience I can say that you will get a fair number of customer related issues coming through your normal social media channels just because they are there.

It is important that you recognize this fact and make sure that your customer service teams know that you will be sending them the odd inquiry even if they do not officially have a process set up for handling social media customer service requests.

I am an admirer of the Spredfast tool and note that it has a specific report that can be used to track closure rates on customer service issues raised via your social media channels.

Social customer service infographic

I want to end this post with this infographic from oursocialtimes.com. It shows that social media is changing the landscape of customer service! Click it to view a larger version.

Are you making the best use of Social Media with your customer service?

Have you experienced the joy of contacting a company’s customer service team via Social Media? Does your company have customer service social media touchpoints?

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About The Author:
Clive Roach is the social media strategist for Philips Healthcare. He is active with strategy development, activation, governance, projects and educational training activities for all aspects of social media within Philips Healthcare. Clive has been working in the eMarketing area since 1997, and previously held roles in engineering, design and sales. Clive is also practical in addition to his current strategic role. In addition to this blog, he tweets daily on three Twitter accounts, has two Facebook fan pages, Google+, Pinterest, So.cl, Instagram, and participates in many other social networks.
Connect with the author via: Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | So.cl

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Image: jannoon028 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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