There is a sweeping movement in Business to Consumer (B2C) companies to figure out how to use social media for customer service. Many organizations are experimenting with this, and a few B2C organizations have become very good at providing excellent customer service via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and online communities. What does this mean for Business to Business (B2B) companies? With the strong emphasis on growing customer relationships in B2B, social media is especially valuable for these types of companies. Should they prioritize the use of social media channels to deliver their customer service?
A People-Focused Medium
In the class Marketing via New Media which I teach at University of California San Diego, I ask my students whether social media is a better channel for B2C, B2B, or whether it works well for both. The most common student answers are that social media works best for B2C; this is the channel that most of us easily relate to, since we are all consumers. However, the common factor between B2C and B2B is people. Social media is a people-focused medium which can work well in both realms. This is especially true for customer service, which is (ideally) a people-oriented function within an organization, as social media can help humanize a company and provide a more personal touch point.
Are B2B Companies Willing?
In some cases, B2B companies have been using social media for customer service for quite some time. Online peer-to-peer support communities are prevalent for people who are software developers and engineers, and even manufacturing-oriented companies such as Caterpillar, who makes earth-moving machines, are successfully using them to help answer customer questions. In fact, according to a White Horse survey report entitled "B2B Marketing Goes Social", the adoption rate of social media in general for B2B companies is as high as the adoption rate for B2C; social media is just not utilized as frequently for regular communications. One of the key issues for B2B companies is a lack of executive buy-in. While executives may embrace the sharing of marketing-oriented communications such as press releases via Twitter or a blog, they may be reluctant to have customer service personnel interact with clients via Facebook or Twitter.
Three Key Questions
When considering whether to prioritize the use of social media tools as a customer service channel, B2B companies should ask themselves the following three questions.
First, are our customers using social media in their businesses? Those organizations that are comfortable using this channel for their own customer interactions will most likely be open to receiving customer service there as well. It is also important to do some listening to what customers are saying in your industry via social media; is there an opportunity to deliver unmet customer service needs through social media channels?
Second, are our customers interested in using social media to communicate customer service issues to our organization? Not all companies want to publicly share their questions or concerns. If they are willing to use social media for customer service inquiries, which tools would they prefer? Some businesses block the use of certain social media sites, such as Facebook, within their firewalls; therefore, not every organization will be able to utilize this technology to interact with customer service personnel.
Finally, as an organization, are we able to incorporate social media tools into our customer strategy to create the best customer service experience? Some social media experimentation is fine and to be expected, but for best results "social customer service" needs to be integrated with an organization's existing customer service processes and systems in order to create a seamless experience for customers.
This last question also applies to B2C companies as they move beyond the "revolution" into ongoing, best-in-class customer service organizations that put the customer at the front of the business.
Growing Customer Relationships
At the end of the day, B2B organizations are heavily focused on growing the relationships they have with their customers and clients. Social media can be used by B2B companies to help provide a great customer service experience, possibly in a way that is even stronger than what is being done with the masses in B2C. Of course, all of this depends on the company itself, their plans for incorporating social media tools across the organization, and how well those tools can help them meet their business goals. Listening to the social media conversations of customers, responding in whichever channels the customers prefer to use, and linking the back-end systems to ensure issues are resolved will be critical to the success of an organization's customer strategy using social media - and beyond.