The Wow! Awards – The missing key to employee engagement and great service?
February 15, 2011Is your marketing both interesting and interested?
February 22, 2011
Anyway, to the piece…..
Introduction
No one would dispute that customer service, whether good or bad, has received a lot of attention via different social media channels over the last few years. However, the question I would like to address is whether social media has revolutionized customer service forever.
Analysis
Yes, it has.
On the one hand, social media has changed customer service forever. This has come through the increase in attention companies are receiving via the ability of digitally adept customers to:
- tweet,
- like on facebook,
- post on forums,
- blog about good or bad customer experiences,
- make Youtube videos about their most loved or hated brands and experiences
- etc etc.
Added to this is the fact that the web and social media is allowing large parts of what would have traditionally been the role of customer service to be decentralized away from the companies into the hands of the company’s customers and other people, via user groups and other forums, where anyone who is willing to help can. This is challenging the traditional business dynamic where power (and information) is held inside a company and is now moving to one that is away from the company into the hands of its customers and users.
A further disruptive influence is the rapid spread of smartphones and the introduction of new social media applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones. These applications allow customers to post questions, comments or thoughts about, and to, companies and their customer service departments from anywhere in the world and at any time.
The influence of smartphones will only continue to grow over time. This was confirmed recently by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who was reported as saying that the number of Twitter users sending updates via smartphones exploded during 2010. He said that by the end of the year “40 percent of all tweets were sent from mobiles, rather than laptop or desktop computers” as compared to only 25 percent in 2009.
All of these elements, are challenging the way that we think about how we respond to our customers, how we organise our businesses, how we deliver customer service, how customers are seeking help and what we need to do, in future, to build better relationships with our customers and stakeholders.
No, it hasn’t.
On the other hand, no, it hasn’t ….not yet and may never do so. Why?
Well, if we look at the question again: has Social Media revolutionized customer service forever?
To revolutionize something you need to change it radically. Right now, although social media may be exerting pressure on traditional customer service functions, how it is viewed, its future role and make up, the function of customer service has not changed radically. Social media is only an additional channel which customers can use to connect with companies.
This was exemplified in a recent story I saw from Fortune called “Can I help you? On Twitter, the answer is no”. In the story, Anne VanderMey, the reporter, put to the test the various channels (Twitter, phone and the web) that companies like Microsoft, Bank of America, Zappos and Delta use to interact with their customers. As the article states, the results were surprising.
The results showed that whilst social media is a channel for contacting customer service in these companies, the most effective method is still the good old phone when it comes to solving our customer service problems.
Why is that?
Well, I believe there are a number of reasons:
- Social media users are still in the minority
- Not everyone is comfortable or will be comfortable with using social media to solve their problems or answer their questions
- Many customers prefer the personal touch that speaking to someone on the phone or face to face delivers
- Customers of different ages, income groups, geographies and industries will have different needs and the use of social media to solve those problems may not be appropriate
Conclusion
Therefore, I would suggest that we need to be careful when gauging the impact that social media has on customer service. The best answer to the question would seem to be: It depends.
Also, just because it exists and has made quite an impact does not mean that suddenly social media becomes the exclusive domain of customer service. It is simply another channel to add into the mix, alongside the other traditional channels. The key is still to understand our customers, how each channel works and works together, how customers use them, and understand which customer service related issue is best dealt with where.
However, social media is without a doubt challenging the way that we think about business as more and more people get comfortable with social and digital technology and its possibilities.
So, in conclusion, has social media revolutionized customer service forever?
- No, not yet
- But, it is currently challenging the way that we think about how we do business and is putting more control in the hands of the customer
Finally, let’s not be lead by technology and think about what possibly could happen but lets focus more on what probably will happen. Let’s listen to our customers, let them lead, all of them, and let’s not be lead by technology and the next new thing.
Let me know what is your take in the comments below.
Disclosure
This brief benefited from input and a great discussion with Guy Stephens. Guy is a champion of the use of social media for customer service. He is a Senior Consultant at Foviance, helping brands define their social media customer service strategy within a context of organisational change. He is an avid tweeter (@guy1067) and blogger (http://beingguy1067.com).
Thanks to Kalexanderson for the image.
25 Comments
Hi Adrian — a nice well balanced argument. One question though. Has social media not revolutionized how we think and what we expect from companies. Is this not where the big change is?
If a company is going to make themselves available to me directly through social media then I expect them to respond and address my needs properly. This makes the company a lot more accountable and they cannot hide behind a sea of nameless faces and passing the bucket anymore.
Cheers
Michael
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your comment. Here’s the issue, I think. For those that are using social media and are interested in it, including companies and customers, then I believe it has. But, what we have to remember is that those customers, commentators and companies are not in the majority and may never be in the majority so we have to be careful about any generalisations that we make. For now.
Adrian
Interesting debate Adrian.
One way I believe social media has changed customer service is that when a customer posts on Twitter about (good or bad) service the world gets to see it. If they had simply phoned the company it would be a “private” conversation. When a company responds to an issue (either complaint or praise) then again it is seen by a potentially huge audience. Surely that makes a difference in terms of their reputation?
Kate
Hi Kate,
Yea, I believe it does make a difference as it is ‘public’ but only to those that use social, are active in this space, care about this space. Even though the numbers that are in social media are huge they still do not represent everyone. So I would say yes I believe it makes a difference but how much will depend on who the company’s customers are and if they use social media or not.
Adrian
Adrian,
I agree with Michael, well balanced argument. I’m really in multiple camps on this myself, I think the SM is a large influencer of getting people off the fence. People are watching, listening and testing how those channels will help them get what they want. It’s all still very new and as you stated the jury is still out in terms of its revolutionary capabilities.
I believe that SM has raised the bar, and will continue to do that until people realize that the bar can no longer rise. At that point, SM will just be another channel, some will use it well and others will not.
This is evolution at its core!
My .01
Hi Bill,
I believe that you are right that social media is making us really think about how we deliver things as companies to our customers and is giving us another channel option for engaging with our clients. I think that it will revolutionize certain industries and companies over time depending on who their customers are and how they engage with the companies they do business with. One thing that is really interesting is the results of the quick test that the Twitter article mentions in the post where even when we have all of these tools…the good old phone still comes out on top. Is it because we still like, value and appreciate the human touch? I think so.
Adrian
An interesting brief.
It is true that it hasn’t revolutionized customer service. It still is the same principal, people ask for help or complain, we reply and try to help.
There are just more ways of doing it now.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for dropping by and joining the debate. I agree that that it hasn’t revolutionized business yet and I think that that may be the important point……it hasn’t done so yet! I think that it has and is causing us to think about our businesses in different ways and it is not clear what will happen in future. What do you think?
Adrian
Good thoughtful post as always, Adrian. As far as revolution goes, we’ve only seen the first volleys and shouts. Most people think of the transformation based on what they see and experience most directly – social media applications and popular news briefs detailing stories of impact. I suspect that is only a fraction of the change we will see. Add in the power of analytics (text and data mining) and then the power of data aggregators across social media channels – I haven’t seen these written about, but you can be sure they are in the works. Combined we will begin to see integrated awareness of who communicates, how, how often, around what themes, with what frequency, with what impact, and all of that will be cross-tabbed by customers who spend and change spending habits in response to social media.
And then we will see an undeniable revolution in how companies incorporate social media!
Marc
Hi Marc,
Great comment as always and thank you for your kind words.
I think you are right that we have only seen the very start of it so far. Was it Rogers who came up with the adoption/innovation curve that talked of innovators and then early adopters and then the early majority and so on? I think that we are only just seeing innovators right now, particularly in the UK, and you may have progressed into the early adopters in the US but we are still early in the game to know the true extent of the change that we are seeing. Finally, one word of caution in all this. I still believe that we need to be sure that we follow our customers first and not the technology. The technology is making us think and facilitating many conversations but it is not the whole story…..yet and may never be the whole story.
Exciting times.
Adrian
Hi Adrian,
I’m not sure if the ‘S’ shape in Gartner’s traditional hype curve is sufficiently extreme to the map the signal:noise ratio of Social Media! Hyperbole is every day chit chat in this segment.
Your points are of course all well made and to the point. To that end let me contribute a few facts to the debate. Customers that scream via Twitter are a small fraction of the mix. Resourcing levels remain at single digits. Budgets are minute according to Dec 2010 Altimeter research of the top social brands. More to the point around customer service, only 8% of the US tweet. I imagine the UK is similar.
A common trait of all social networks was uncovered in a piece of Nielsen research early last year (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/social-norms-twitter-users-follow-the-797-rule-in-the-u-k/) which showed the good ol’ 80/20 rule at work in terms of who is active and creates most content. Of those that are most active I’m guessing a good proportion are commentators such as ourselves!
So anyone that thinks they are ready to cast their vote…………..
Hi Martin,
I hadn’t thought of the S curve when I wrote about this so thank you for pointing it out. It makes a heap of sense when thinking about the amount of talk vs the amount of action that we are seeing around this issue. Thank also for backing it up with some great data.
I guess what we should realise is that Innovators (we might some of them) have to realise that from time to time in history they have been wrong, thought of a ‘loons’ but also have been seen over time as visionaries. Where’s your money?
Adrian
Social media is revolutionalizing the middle east. I think if social media can revolutionize entire countries, it can change the way people select businesses, etc.
Hi Charles,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. I think you are right that it is helping and having an impact on how we choose who we do business with. However, I believe that we are only at the start of the changes and that is still a lot more to come as the number of people that are users of social media pale in comparison to the overall customer bases of most companies and we shouldn’t get too carried away too quickly. Don’t you agree?
Adrian