According to a report on Mashable, a massive 80% of companies plan to use social media for customer service. But, as this recent interchange between the @Cineworld representative and a disgruntled customer revealed, if you don't get it right, it's a very public problem.
Maybe it was because it was late at night, maybe the @Cineworld incumbent had been on the end of just one too many pokes, but when the agent was accused of deleting tweets, enough was enough.
What followed was a lengthy skirmish between the two, during which @Cineworld revealed both a sense of humour and fallibility. I don't think the unhappy customer got the resolution he was seeking, but @Cineworld certainly gained a few fans, and raised the question of what is and is not appropriate when dealing with difficult customers.
Social customer service matters
Social customer service is increasingly under the spotlight, and acknowledged as a very important part of the relationship between brands and their consumers. More and more consumers - especially younger ones - are becoming frustrated with call centres, and with unanswered emails. Complaining via social media offers the chance to vent spleen in the hope that publicly calling out the brand will achieve swift resolution in their favour: as an added bonus, frustrated customers may get others on their side as well.
But it's not a one-way street. The brand stands to benefit too. As e.Marketer.com puts it, the top reasons brands are using social media as a customer service medium are to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, to reduce customer support costs and to drive customer advocacy. Being seen to speedily resolve a problem, to deal sympathetically with consumers and acknowledge fault where it has occurred can result in not only a 'complainant-turned-brand advocate', but in heightened sentiment for the brand overall.
The pressures of social care
There's an increasing amount of pressure on the channels though (as I'm sure @Cineworld will attest). Latest surveys reveal higher than ever levels of expectation - customers expect responses at least within the day on Facebook, and give it just 30 minutes on Twitter. To work properly, social customer service needs to be swift, channel-appropriate and - importantly - consistent: remember that consumers will be able to see how other people's complaints are treated.
Brands are answering more questions, more quickly
Social Bakers has just released Q1 2013 of its Socially Devoted series, which measured the performance of response to questions posted on Facebook and Twitter pages. Its metrics attest to both the increase in size of social care and the improvement in brand responses: during Q1 2013, the volume of questions asked by fans increased by 30%. Also in this quarter, brands managed to answer almost 50% more questions than in Q4 2012. Since June 2012, the average industry response rate has increased from 30% to 60% in Q1 2013.
How are the best brands doing social customer care?
According to a 2012 study of 'customer care sentiment' for 40 top brands by Brandwatch, retail brands are by far the most likely to be well received.
In my next post, I will choose some of SocialBakers' top performing retail brands in the UK and US and examine a recent crop of consumer interactionto see what they are doing right - and, in some cases, wrong.
For more about the impact that social media is making on customer care, download eModeration's free white paper A guide to social media and customer service.