Despite the constant call for companies to engage in customer service via social media, it’s rare anyone points out that the people running the social platforms are generally a bit rubbish at servicing customers themselves…
John Batelle writes about the challenge Google faces with the Nexus One – in that it’s not a company geared for customer service. Something that’s not a surprise if you’re a user of Feedburner for example.
I’m fortunate enough to have been introduced to a couple of very wonderful people at both Facebook and Twitter, which means I can get a bit more help than most people. But not only has that been a relatively recent development, but those contacts are only for my work activity (And I’m afraid I won’t be sharing their details, as I suspect they’d be bombarded with emails and probably never speak to me again.)
For my personal accounts I use the same customer service routes as everyone else – and like everyone else, I face a load of impersonal FAQs, contact forms, and seemingly circular links to try and get an answer from anyone to solve my problems…
And yet at the same time, I’m joining everyone else in proclaiming how useful social networks are in solving customer service issues and engaging with people to get them responses.
The only reason that the networks escape a lot of criticism appears to be either down to the fact we’re still sympathetic to the plucky little startups they once were, we’re worried about getting deleted if we complain, or we’re all waiting for the market to evolve to the point where social network customer service is as important to us as changes to the news stream or the way we Retweet.
Until then, we’ll have to live with the fact we’re trying to become open and transparent on networks which do their best to avoid hearing from us…
It's a great point and I prompted me to write a blog post about it (https://bit.ly/6wwqSe). Forget social media or the technology, if a company's underlying attitude towards their customers isn't great, their customer service is likely to be the same as well. Zappos has great customer service, because they strive to put the 'wow' into everything they do with their customers. Get the attitude right, and social media simply allows you to express it.
Funnily enough I had an argument with a well known marketing guru about this just yesterday. I figure customer services and sales are blurring – such that customer services via social media will pay for itself AND make customers happy. Mr Guru disagreed. He felt that large brands have better things to do than engage in endless chatter in the faint hope of converting the odd sale. You decide! I did a post about this a while back too
Cheers. Personally I think there are two reasons in investing in Customer Service:1. As more people experience and expect better customer service, it'll become a bigger tipping point for whether sales increase or not. Especially as advertising etc is ubiqitous and harder and harder to cut through with.2. If you look at the cost of customer service against one odd sale, the Guru is right. But if you look at the cost of customer service against the lifetime value of that customer, plus the value of everyone online that may see that piece of customer service via social media or search terms, and the recommendations that may result, he's utterly wrong.I work with big brands, and I can point to some of the customer service errors which had big implications for the brands in question. And you never know when crap service could become seen by millions, whether it's Jonathan MacDonald videoing someone on the Tube on his cameraphone, or the United Airlines guitars debacle.Big brands are set in stone forever – and if they're not paying attention to Customer Relationship Management and Service, and eventually VRM, then there's a great opportunity for them to be replaced by someone else…
Cheers – totally agree. The online customer service element needs to be part of an overall approach to providing great service in an era when most markets are global and there are endless competitors for consumer spending.It's easier to find great customer service in London shops, for example, than in Peterborough, because more London shopkeepers realise it'll make the difference in repeat custom.
what's even worse is when customer service is outsourced, theres no business school ROI calculable so this makes some perverse sense to some.
It's weird to think people that aren't intrinsically part of your company would care as much as your colleagues about the values, benefits etc which are so important to brands when designing logos, strap lines, mission statements etc…