Working Three

Major technological breakthroughs can change expectations, behaviours, profit opportunities, and the economic profile of businesses and economies. The introduction of rail, electricity, mass production of cars, telecommunications and the Internet were all profound economic disrupters. Social media has been, and is continuing to be, a disrupter in many ways. It is changing business models, altering communication, and has even been suggested recently that it was instrumental in the uprising sweeping through the Middle East. While these are the items grabbing the headlines there are many other interesting social media stories happening that are quietly changing the way that business is done.

 

One of the business staples that is undergoing a transformation, and one that lends itself to the two way nature of social media, is customer service. Large and small companies alike are experimenting with innovative ways to use use social media to connect with customers to get feedback and provide pre and post sales service – all the while collecting valuable information as they do. As may of these tools have very low barriers to entry to set up all companies are essentially on a level playing ground. The only thing dividing one from another is the approach they take, or to put it another way, how much time they have spent on developing a strategy.

 

One stand out is the Best Buy in America which sells technology and entertainment products. They have developed a distributed system using Twitter. It works like this: A member of the public send in a question like “What is the best 3D TV?” or “Which headphones have the best bass?” and a team of Best Buys employees, known as the Twelp Force (a combination of Twitter and Help) respond with expert advice. What’s more they are actively searching Twitter for questions about the products they sell – even if they are not directed at Best Buy. The brilliant thing about this is that they have had the insight that customer service and customer acquisition are one in the same. To find out more click here.

 

There are many other cases of companies using Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms well for customer service. Take a look at what the big Australian banks are up to for example. There are also many examples of companies that are not doing it well. The difference between success and failure, as with most projects, is management buy in and a well developed and focused plan.

 

A big part of any social media customer service plan needs to be around measurement. Thankfully sentiment is reasonably straight forward to measure in the social media space so building a realistic set of goals for the team on the front lines can be quick to implement and simple to evaluate.

 

Whether your company is a major brand or you are a sole trader, customer service is a vital component of continued growth. Constantly fielding the same questions on the phone can be a drain on resources. So it make sense to direct a significant portion of customer service enquiries towards a public social media space. In doing so your customers may be able to find what they are looking for before they have to ask.

 

Most importantly, taking this approach shows that your company puts a high value customers as people. Just spend a bit of time thinking about how you will do it.