Less than 20% of what is now called ‘social customer service’ is actually run by customer service departments. ‘Social’ topics such as ‘peer to peer customer support’, ‘social media monitoring’ and ‘triage management’ are yet to be widely understood processes and competencies within call centre communities around the world. Instead these are issues that marketing teams have been driving for the last few years. Martin Hill Wilson questions whether marketing is the right function to take operational control of customer service issues when they arrive via a social channel.
Let’s start with an obvious question. When does traditional customer service become social customer service? Is this just another piece of marketing spin or a useful distinction?
When does customer service become social?
“The one thing that defines customer service through social media is transparency,” said Leon Paternoster from the Institute Of Customer Service when discussing how a housing association was using social media. That captures the fundamental difference.
It’s not the channel as such that makes an interaction social. Phone, web chat, email and white mail are all channels of communication held in private between the customer and the brand. The process and outcome remain hidden from public scrutiny. However, if all your customer email exchanges were made public for all to see, (imagine a never ending WikiLeaks scoop) and the public reaction is also visible those emails could be then called a ‘social’ communication.
Thus it is when communication takes place via a social platform that any reaction becomes real-time, viral and unexpected in terms of what it turns into and who gets involved.
Why brands are becoming social businesses in a snapshot
77% of UK households are online. 56% of online traffic goes to social sites. We spend 28 minutes of every online hour in social networks. Facebook has 50% while Twitter has 13% of us as participants. Main growth in going online and being social is in the ‘over 50’s group.
That’s makes it one big watering hole.
But if organisations thought they could easily gatecrash this party, there were wrong. Once people are connected in this way they behave differently.
Our online ‘social’ behaviour in a snapshot
We are highly connected. We are also always connected. We learn from each other at the speed of light. We trust each other rather than brands whose trust ratings are at a historic all time low.
Instead of us being passive recipients of broadcasted messages we have a new found voice and collective influence that can tame even the biggest organisation.
Most organisations find ‘social’ troubling
Organisations have always sought to control their image via one way, image enhancing branding. Lone voices of dissent in the form of a small minority of complaints could be brushed under the carpet away from public view. This is one of the main reasons that marketing and PR have been closely involved from the outset. Someone has needed to take control of the online ‘social’ space and who better than the departments who monitor and promote brand image.
Now we are faced with the prospect of getting it right and wrong in full public view. Imagine if from tomorrow morning all your phone calls and emails were rebroadcast live on radio and TV. What kind of an internal fuss would that kick up? How would you brief the team leaders to meet that challenge?
Why then have organisations such as Best Buy and Dell trained thousands of their employees to interact even more with this dangerous sounding ‘social’ customer? Surely that invites trouble! The answer to that is why social customer service exists today.
Martin Hill Wilson
Director
Brainfood Training
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