This just in… Sword Ciboodle has released results of study conducted by analyst Esteban Kolsky. It confirms what I think many suspected:
- Good news: companies in the US and UK are embracing social channels (59% Twitter, 60% Facebook)
- Bad news: “justification and validation” still challenging for social customer service.
A couple of years ago in my very own social business research, I found Social CRM excitement tempered by ROI concerns. In this study, a healthy 40% said that benefits met expectations. Does that mean 60% failed? No, only 6% said their deployment didn’t meet expectations. The balance (54%) were not sure.
So it seems that companies are pushing ahead anyway, hence the adoption stats are impressive. But if these investments are not “validated” I think there could be some pullback in the future.
In any case, this is a nice piece of work by Esteban and the infographic below summarizes the major findings. One conclusion I’d like to share, which points to the need for integrating “social” into a customer service strategy:
“…unlike engagement offered via more traditional channels, there’s much about social channels that lacks structure, integration and synergy with the broader customer engagement. The traditional communication channels still matter, and companies that crack how to balance the two will set the service standards of today and tomorrow.”
Further reading:
* Social for Customer Service: it’s About the Customers (Esteban’s blog)
* We Are Social:The State of Social Customer Service (Full report, registration required)
Or, you can request the report by contacting Mitch Lieberman (Sword Ciboodle’s VP of Market Strategy) on Twitter. I’m sure he’ll give you great social customer service!
