Web 2.0, smartphones and social media created highly connected, mobile consumers who have the power to choose how and when they are spoken to. Consumers enter into brand conversations on their terms, controlling what messages they consume and on what platform they consume them on. Consumers expect brands to communicate the way they do and increasingly consumers are turning to social media when they experience a problem or need answers. Social media platforms gave consumers the power to be heard and technology enabled a ‘now’ mentality. Businesses are competing for relevance now and not adapting quick enough, not responding quick enough and not meeting increasing customer expectations will be the death of many businesses. Are you listening and responding in real time?

The state of social customer service

Almost half of the word’s internet users are active on Facebook and there are 500 million people on Twitter. Mobile devices have seen incredible growth over, worldwide tablet shipments are predicted to grow 70% this year. Smartphones are predicted grow at a rate of 80% over the next 5 years, tablets 300% while the PC declines by 20% in the same time period. Facebook has half the planet as active users and according to NM Incite, almost half of all consumers are using social media for customer support. Many businesses are ignoring Facebook messages, tweets and wall posts which is basically saying to the customer, we don’t care about you. If you can’t have someone monitoring your social presence, you’re not on it for the right reasons. If you’re not providing some real exchange of value, then you will lose out to businesses who get it.

Why your customer service needs to get social

It would be a mistake to think social media is just for the generation Y. The use of social networks by older folk is on the rise. The increase in usage by the 55 to 64 age group of Facebook, Twitter and Google+ is up by over 100%. Consumers of all ages are using social media for customer service whether or not a business is prepared to handle customer service digitally. Here is why you need social customer service. According to McKinsey, businesses who engage in social customer service have been found to increase their margins by up to 60%. It gets better, 36% of businesses won back a customer due to a positive experience on social media and 71% of those who had a positive experience are likely to recommend your brand to others. In an age where social connectedness has bought many businesses to their knees, you can’t pay for that type of influence.

The cost of bad customer service

What is bad customer service? Put simply it is whenever customer experiences do not meet customer expectations. Bad customer service is the result of a company that is unable to manage customer expectations and deliver on their promises and create positive brand experiences. The fact is 9 out of 10 people would pay more for a better service and although 80% of companies reckon their customer service is good, only 8% of consumers think so. What happens when you stuff up? 78% of customers will stop spending with a business due to bad service and approximately 85% of customer attrition is the result of poor customer service. Considering it takes 6 to 7 times more money to acquire a new customer than hold on to an existing one you can see how it would be fiscally responsible to look after the customers you have. Not only that, but 50% of consumers take to social media sites to vent their frustrations and twice as many consumers are likely to share negative rather than positive experiences. Makes you think doesn’t it?

What you’re missing out on

Word of mouth always had the biggest influence on consumer purchase decisions, still does and always will. 78% of consumers are influenced by electronic word of mouth, only 14% trust ads. Managing customer complaints, compliments and queries and actively monitoring your brands presence on social sites allows you to not only provide a more relevant and better customer service experience but is free research and allows you to track trends and brand insights. Good word of mouth on social media sites is good for business and those who are socially devoted find customer service via social media drives ROI. How? Simple really, it’s about them not you and customers want to be served socially. Social customer service builds customer relationships, customer loyalty and advocacy, increasing customer lifetime value. Given that a loyal customer is worth 10 more than your average, you can see why businesses who understand how to manage customer expectations throughout the consumer decision journey will stand to benefit more than those who can’t.

Allocate resources

Research by Socialbakers found that a brands are investing more resources into social customer service and you should be too. You need competent staff to deal with support issues. Consider assigning signatures for brand representatives, make someone accountable, it will get you kudos and increase your credibility. What hours will you have resources assigned to social sites? Technology and changes in customer behaviour mean that this is no 9-5 job and there are no holidays. However, if you absolutely can’t swing it, set the expectations for customers and tell them the times you monitor the platform. Jetstar get it right.

Increase efficiencies

Expectations are high, 32% of customers expect a response within 30 minutes and 42% expect a response within 60 minutes. Slow response rates are because staff are still either finding the answer or waiting on being told how to answer. A mentality shift is required to enable staff to respond on behalf of a brand in real time or the benefits will never be realized. For customer service to be that differentiating factor the response not only has to be quick, it has to be personalized and the information needs to be accurate.

Integrate your efforts

Use blogs, they are one of the most effective engines to deliver detailed information as well as online knowledge bases. 75% of customers would use these online resources if the support channel provided more accurate information. Furthermore 91% of customers would use an online knowledge base if it was customized. All those Facebook posts, messages, tweets and other social mentions are like gold. Combine all that information, track conversations and integrate this information within your organization for effective knowledge management. Tracking conversation history and viewing customer profiles to enable the intelligent use of information and knowledge management is a competitive advantage. Do it prior to responding. Research finds only 15% of companies do this. A digital integrated approach to customer service with increased efficiencies reduces costs and increases profitability.

Take customer service to the next level

It isn’t an option, social media is a requirement for customer support. Social media can turn customer service into a value creating activity from organic endorsement, increase in customer loyalty and therefore lifetime customer value, better protection of your brand reputation and the possibility for collaboration and co-creation of value with your customers. But that’s a whole other blog post. So how good really is your customer service, or how relevant? What are you going to do about it?