Two schools of thoughts are fighting these days around the following issue: how customers should be treated in social media space. Can customer service/support interactions be automated or the whole nature of social media channels dictates one-on-one personal conversation-based communications.
In order to sort out the pros and cons of each group, let's go back in time and look at the history of self-service.
In 2007 Times Magazine has published the following a story: "10 Ideas That Are Changing the World" with one piece dedicated to customer service. The self-service concept as you can learn from this article was coined back in 1916 by Clarence Saunders. To increase the profits from his grocery store he opened his new revolutionary at that time chain of self-service grocery stores: Piggly-Wiggly. Now we are using self-service options when we do our banking, checking in at the airports, purchasing online - the self-service life becomes a reality. We are moving more and more into becoming almost 100% automated self-service society.
Customer Service went through the chain of different communication channels: from letters, e-mails, phone calls to social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, communities..
Interestingly enough with the introduction of new channels the old ones did not go away. And the challenges stayed the same: how companies can provide CONSISTENT, GREAT customer experiences across all the channels in a COST EFFECTIVE manner.
From a customer point of view the one and only thing that matters to them - how fast their problem gets solved. And to get support they will use all or any of the channels available. Do I care as a customer if I will get automated response to my tweet with the right answer? - NO! As long as it is fast and accurate. Or maybe not - maybe I do want to see a real human interaction, conversation, friendly personalized support. If I do, am I willing to pay extra?
Do you think that there will be an introduction of new paid service-level based customer service options for social media channels? You want one-on-one personalized conversation? - pay for it? In any case, even if companies will opt-in to provide you with "free" human-based personal interactions, the cost of this support will be embedded in the cost of their goods and services. You will end up paying anyway.
What are your thoughts, expectations and views on a future of customer service in a socially-networked world? Will you as a customer accept self-service based support in social space?
Link to original post