Too often social interactions simply fail to live up to customer expectations. Comments, messages, and other info make a lot of noise, but fail to deliver any real value.
Extending the ability to deliver customer service across social channels is a strategic opportunity that more and more organizations are turning to, but some key fundamental challenges must be overcome before social service can begin to make an impact to the customer experience.
Social channels present an amazing opportunity for organizations to really engage with customers and potential customers. Social media enables a new way for communication to take place around products and services that has previously not been available for customers and corporations.
5 Biggest Challenges To Customer Service On Social Media
In terms of using social media to really do that with success, this might be a hard promise to keep. Many social interactions between companies and the public simply do not live up to expectations. Sure, companies might have people’s best interests at heart, but why is it that they fail so often to deliver?
Social media is about being able to engage with your audience, and replying in real-time to your customers’ issues and complaints. Well actually, there is a lot more involved than you think. Here is a look at some of the challenges.
1. Interpreting Customer Intentions
It is of paramount importance to know who you are talking to – who is your customer? How do we speak to our customer? Social media is not about broadcasting messages, it is about interaction and feedback.
Companies have a lot of information about people and are not using it correctly. They might be too busy broadcasting rather than try to understand what people are saying.
2. Keeping Up With Demand for Service
Nobody said it would be easy, especially the part of doing it right. That’s one more reason to be prepared. Understanding the nature of social media (high volume information) will help, but very often companies are simply unable to handle customer messages or requests on social channels due simply to how many there are.
Comments, messages, and other info make a lot of noise. It takes a trained ear to figure out what needs to be addressed and what not. Wrong priorities lead to wrong decisions. Not knowing what to do with the input leads to many unanswered messages.
3. Delivering Impacting Messages in 140 Characters
Nobody said it would be cheap. Using free tools to run social media customer service effectively for big brands isn’t the way forward. The right tools don’t have to cost an arm and a leg but should at least be what the people on the job require.
If that means asking them what are the tools that they need and buying said tools for them, so be it. The results will depend on the tools (among other things). It’s all about the tools. Invest in good ones. They will help you save money in the long run.
4. Getting the Right People for Service
Consistency is important across locations (national or international) and hiring enough of the right people to do the job, is a challenge. Can you deliver consistent messages offline and online? Are your conversations with customers on the right track?
You need the right resources to get the job done properly – and I am not just talking about the tools (software etc). You also need different teams to work together – did you ever think that PR and IT would ever work together? Well, you might just have to make them.
5. Integrating Social Channels Into the Call Center
Getting the right information to the right people in customer support is challenging. Try doing this throughout the day and night (social media never sleeps).
The need for online customer service teams to be different from other customer service teams is present (different competences are needed), yet aligning your customer service teams is very important in terms of information-sharing. It is also, a huge challenge!
