Today, social media forms a significant part of most people’s daily – or in some cases, hourly – routine. So it’s no surprise that more and more people are turning to social media platforms to engage with brands and seek customer support. While this provides a fantastic opportunity for brands that are willing to engage, it does pose a potential threat for those that are not. In providing a product or service, particularly with a digital element, people will most likely discuss it on social media whether you like it or not. In today’s post I’ll be looking at the importance of providing effective customer support through social media platforms.
Why is social media an important part of customer support?
In a recent study, zendesk found that roughly 1 in 5 consumers has used social media at least once to seek a customer service response in the last year. As this is likely to be a growing trend it’s becoming increasingly important to establish and maintain a social media presence.
Interestingly, the demographics of social media users are also changing. While it once could have been assumed that only brands that served millennials needed to focus on social media support, recent research by the Pew Research Centre has proven otherwise. Currently, 64% of internet users aged 50-64 use Facebook and the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the over 65s.
How are consumers using social media for customer support?
According to consumers in the zendesk study:
· 50% used social media to seek help with a service issue;
· 48% used social media to praise a company for a great service experience;
· 47% used social media to share information about the service experience they received with a broader audience; and
· 46% used social media to vent frustration over a bad customer service experience.
When asked about expected response times, the proportion of consumers who expected a response within 2 hours was 53% for Twitter posts and 29% for Facebook posts. Once the expected response time was extended to be within the same day, the proportions increased to 83% and 51% of consumers for Twitter and Facebook posts respectively.
What does this mean for your business?
1. If you’re not already engaging with your customers on social media, it’s definitely time to start listening and responding to what’s being said about your brand.
2. If your customers do not fit into the tech-savvy millennial category, it no longer means that you can simply ignore social media. Now is the time to get ahead of the curve and start supporting your customers as the usage of social media grows, particularly among the 50+ age group.
3. Customers expect you to respond quickly, so it’s important to align internal response time targets with customer expectations.
Part 3
Next week I’ll be providing an overview of the six customer support features to consider including when developing a mobile app.
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