Social Customer Service – Survey and Tips for Delivering Better Service
Consumers who have used social media for customer service are more engaged and vocal in speaking about their experiences than the general population, says American Express in May 2012 survey results. This can play to companies’ benefits, but also to their detriment. For example, while these consumers are willing to spend 21% more for excellent service, compared to 13% more for the general population, they are also far more likely to say that they have not completed an intended purchase because of a poor customer service experience in the past year (83% vs. 55%). And while they will tell more people about a good experience than the general population (42 vs. 15), they will also spread the word at a far greater rate about bad experiences.
Consumers who have used social media for customer service made up 17% of the total respondents to the survey. According to a May 2012 survey from Sword Ciboodle, 60% of customer service practitioners support Facebook as a social service channel, and 59% support Twitter. Roughly 9 in 10 respondents to that survey believe that providing customer service over social channels is a good thing for their customers and for their organization.
1 in 2 Looking for Actual Response
Data from the “2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer” indicates that among consumers who have used social media for customer service, the most common reason for doing so was to seek an actual response from a company about a service issue (50%). Other popular reasons included praising a company for a great service experience (48%), sharing information about service experiences with a wider audience (47%), venting frustration about a poor service experience (46%), and asking other users how to have better service experiences (46%).
60% of the group said that companies have improved their response times through social media over the past year. According to a November 2011 white paper from Conversocial which studied the response times of the 10 most loved and hated brands on social media during 5 days in September, most responded to inquiries on their Facebook page within 1 to 4 hours, but none averaged under an hour.
Rudeness is the Most Common Gripe
The American Express survey also finds that 35% of respondents overall (not just social media users) have lost their temper with a service professional in the past year. When these respondents were asked about the irritants most likely to lead them to switch brands this year, one-third cited rudeness, while 26% said being shuffled around with no resolution, and 1 in 10 each cited waiting too long and being forced to continually follow up on an issue.
Other Findings:
- 93% of respondents said that companies fail to exceed their customer service expectations.
- 61% of respondents feel that companies have not increased their focus on providing better service. Of these, roughly one-third believe that businesses are paying less attention to providing good service.
- The average American is willing to wait 13 minutes on hold for customer service, and 12 minutes for in-person help at establishments such as banks, retail stores, or restaurants.
Tips for Delivering Better Service
- Great service starts with the people who deliver it – Motivate and enable your employees to go above and beyond for your customers.
- It’s all about relationships – Good service comes down to forming relationships with customers. Look at customer service as an opportunity to deepen your connection with your customers, not just as a transaction to be completed.
- Make it easy for customers to do business with you – Listen to your customers and use their feedback to improve your product and service.
- Exceeding expectations is easier than you think – Customers aren’t unreasonable and don’t except every problem to be solved instantly. They simply want to be treated like individuals, know that you genuinely care about their issue, and are working hard to address it.
- Listen to your employees – They are closest to your customers and understand the most about what customers want and need. Don’t miss out on their incredibly valuable insight.
- Seek opportunities to make an impression – Understand and act on the notion that every customer interaction is an opportunity to create a connection and to drive customer loyalty and engagement.
About the Data: The American Express data is based on a survey of 1,000 US consumers aged 18 and over. Interviewing was conducted by Echo Research between February 22 and February 29, 2012.
The black swan – a high-impact and hard-to-predict scenario
A black swan is a high-impact, hard-to-predict and rare event that is beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology.
Key Considerations
In a business context, the nature of a black swan is that it represents an event or combination of events that impact the business in a significant manner. Since no one can predict the future, how do we gain an understanding of what we don’t know?
One approach is to use the most critical assumptions underlying the strategy as a context for understanding how much a black swan might hurt. The approach works as follows:
Define your strategic assumptions. These assumptions are management’s ‘view of the world’ for the duration of the strategic planning horizon. They pertain to such attributes as the enterprise’s capabilities, competitor capabilities and actions, customer preferences, technological trends, capital availability, availability of reasonably priced raw materials, sustained business operations, and regulatory trends, among other things.
In effect, strategic assumptions are management’s ‘white swans’ because they reflect management’s view of the environment in which the enterprise will operate during the planning horizon.
For example, as we look at the strategy typical of some financial institutions that had difficulty as a result of the financial crisis, we might sum it up as a strategy of leveraging cheap money to achieve volume and speed in lending to the low-income housing sector. Assumptions underlying that strategy included increasing or stable housing prices, continued availability of cheap money and continued economic growth, among other things.
Develop contrarian statements. These statements negate the strategic assumptions. If the strategic assumptions are management’s ‘white swans,’ the related contrarian statements are potential ‘black swans.’ They frame the impact that could seriously damage the company’s ability to execute its strategy.
Taking one of the ‘white swan’ statement regarding increasing or stable housing prices above, a contrarian statement might be: “The housing market takes a significant dive in all major markets, hitting all segments of the loan portfolio.”
Recognize that not all contrarian statements are black swans. Look for the statements that are likely to have the greatest impact on the company if they were to transpire. These statements should reflect situations that would likely arise from events about which the organization currently lacks sufficient information and that management would likely rationalize after the fact as: “Why didn’t we see it coming?”
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Power of Leaderless Organizations
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations is a 2006 book by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom is an exploration of the implications of the recent rise of decentralized organizations such as Wikipedia, Grokster and YouTube. The book contrasts them to centralized organizations, such as Encyclopædia Britannica, using compendia of knowledge as examples. The spider and starfish analogy refers to the contrasting biological nature of the respective organisms, starfish having a decentralized neural structure permitting regeneration. In addition to giving historical examples of decentralized organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Apaches and analyzing their nature in contrast to centralized organizations, the book considers conflict between centralized and decentralized organizations, including the “If you can’t beat them, join them” solution of creating hybrid organizations such as Citizendium.