Social Customer Care – For the People, by the people

As the headline denotes, Social Media is the best online customer care tool which invites all the issues and complaints with open arms. Not only does it invite but also deals with it more promptly than conventional customer care service. This substantiates the previous discussions which speaks about the shifting attention, as brands devote more to faster turnaround times on customer service requests via social media platforms. A study which collated around 2000 customer responses, speaks how 80% of them got a brand response through social media within 12 hours while the rest who had used other communication channels got a response after 36-48 hours. This shows how social media is the only platform which guarantees a definite response from the brand at the earliest.

Let us take a deep dive to understand the why social media is the leading customer care platform:-

Issue resolution- The main objective of any customer care service is to solve the issues faster and smoother. While customer care help desk can assist us but the long waiting period is a big no. Social media can act as a lighting speed when it comes to solving problems. If it is a minor issue then a single post or tweet helps and if it is a major issue then a brand can initiate a deeper conversation with the customer using direct message on social platforms.

Brand Image- Everything which satisfies a customer gets talked about and so as the Social media channels which helps to get more attention and more leads promptly. One of the most viral platform in Social Media when it comes to quick turnaround of any complaints is Twitter and hence the brand advocacy is at its peak.

Team Involvement – If the team does not understand the significance of helping the customer, they are going to provide sub-par support. Social Media is not only a better platform as compared to the other customer care channels but also helps the team to get a bigger picture of their impact on others

Cost-Friendly – The plus point about social media is it takes less time and less cost as compared to hiring a full-time dedicated call center. And because we have to keep it short and simple on Social media, we have the bandwidth to handle a lot of queries and issues within a less time.

Tracking is Easy – We can easily track all the conversations using our brand name or particular hashtag and get to know the customer sentiment in no time. We can track all possible keywords that is related to our brand and know the discussions and reference about us very easily.

Real Quick – The key to great customer service is the time taken to respond efficiently and effectively. If a customer is unusually upset, then we can reach out by either trying to direct message them or give them a fast way to contact us with a special email address or phone number.

According to Nielson’s 2012 Social Media report, closely half of U.S. customers use social media to put across the questions, share gratification, or to criticize and a third of social media users prefer "social care" to the phone (http://bit.ly/1Gfzkj0). The reality is customer service expectations are increasing year over year and costumers are looking forward to brands creating a flawless and seamless experience that spans from the showroom to Facebook. The “Social Care” model of Social Media is to provide multi-channel support and handle real challenges for B2B & B2C companies. Hence this is the time when we should not just have a Social media presence but actually be a Social Rockstar.

Top B2B News of 2014 on Social Customer Care (http://bit.ly/1vGmsdt):-

vRad offered an additional customer support channel to improve operational efficiencies and provide customers with more flexibility.

Dell set out to deliver personalized customer experiences by leveraging digital communication channels.

RCI needed a cost-effective channel to reduce call center phone calls and service its members over a web-based channel.

In fact, according to the latest Social Customer Engagement Index, less than half the brands online have at least one social channel fully incorporated with traditional customer service processes. Currently, they’re leading the way in social customer service success with a 360-degree view of the customer, improved customer

contentment and brand advocacy. Companies that adheres to social media will gather intelligence to predict issues and spot resourcing and skills requirements. Customer service will be essential in the accomplishment of meeting the demands of the social customer!