With the Advent of Social Media, many of us have this question – Is there a Social Customer? If yes, Who is this Social Customer? But before we should answer that, we need to understand what is Social Business? Businesses that use Social Media are called as Social Businesses. Social Business includes a lot of information derived from customers, suppliers and partners, and this might be from any means, not just ‘Social’ means. Read more about Social Business.
Many people have this opinion that there is no such thing as Social Customer. They are just traditional customers who have discovered that online social networks and social tools can help them do some old jobs. Functional jobs like searching for information about involving new products, personal jobs like helping others avoid broken services, relational jobs like communing with your peers and social jobs like telling stories to friends. All these jobs existed before online social networks and social tools, but customers had to use other tools to do them. The customer hasn’t really changed, but the tools they use to do old jobs have.
What is Social Customer?
Social customer is the one who uses Social Media. He has lot to say and is connected to all the social networking sites i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Linkedin ..etc. He is Creative, Collaborative, Efficient at curating information and has his/her own relevant opinion. Social customer will first build the relationship with you/your competitor, will engage in meaningful conversation before making a decision/purchase and then chooses which one to support.
According to a survey – 90% customers trust recommendations from the people they know, 70% trusted consumer opinions posted online.
How Social Customer is different than a Normal Customer?
89% tell everyone else about bad experience, 25% use social media to do it -> this is proof of how the social customer is diff. Social Customer will first Listen, Analyze, Relate & then Act contrary to traditional customer.
