Over half (67 per cent) of companies believe social customer service is growing in importance and the most pressing short-term priority for contact centres in the US and UK. However, only 33 per cent of the social customer service solutions being used are selected by the customer service team, the rest being obtained solely for marketing purposes, according to a new Forrester study commissioned by Conversocial.
The research revealed that between 2009 and 2012 the number of customers using Twitter for customer service has doubled to 22 per cent. But people still rate their experiences via telephone, websites, emails, IM/ SMS as being better than social channels, as a result of poor social media management.
Joshua March, founder and CEO of Conversocial, commented: “Businesses need to realise that social doesn’t just sit with your marketing team anymore.
“Social media is a primary customer service channel alongside email, phone and chat. Our platform alone handles more than 200 requests per minute and 275,000 requests a day, so brands cannot neglect these channels. We believe that marketing and customer service departments should work closer together. But this comes through real human relationship – not by siloing social media into a single tool that doesn’t allow customer service to reach its full potential.”
