Guest Blog: How to Adapt Customer Service in an Ever Growing Social Media World
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Anna O’Toole writes about the importance of a customer centric approach to dealing with customers, especially with all of the new trends in digital customer service. While technology is great, it’s important to remember to use it for improving customer service and enhancing the customer’s experience! – Shep Hyken
Social media and mobile technology were game changers regarding the way we communicate, not only with each other socially but on a business level as well. Anyone with a cell phone, and that is just about everyone over age 9, has constant access to social media. With the sheer volume of tweets, Facebook posts, Yelp reviews and general searches going on every second of every day, companies have realized they too have constant access to their customer base. With the sheer volume of people online 24/7, how is excellent customer service manageable, much less adaptable?
CUSTOMER CENTRIC APPROACH
It used to be that the business or company had control of how and when customers shopped. That is largely in the control of the customer now with interactive websites being the connective tool. Because of this shift, businesses need to switch to a customer centric approach. Commit to customer success and engage from the get-go. This is done in several ways.
STAY WITH YOUR CUSTOMER
Be where the customers are. While certain social media sites come and go in popularity, key sites such as Facebook remain popular. Be adaptable and engaged on the social media of preference among your base. When a customer tweets, respond with a tweet. Allow interaction to come through chat, Twitter, SMS, voice and email. It seems like a lot but today’s customers communicate in ways as varied as people themselves, with the one thing in common being the phone or tablet in their hands.
CUSTOMER SERVICE BENCHMARK PLAN
Studies show that 72% of customers complaining on Twitter expect a response within 60 minutes. Try to respond in a timely manner and make responses as personal as possible. There is nothing more maddening than a generic response that falls short of addressing the issue.
A VB Insight report reveals that today’s consumers complain about specific brands a whopping 879 million times annually using Facebook, Twitter and other social portals. Some 10% or so complain daily. Is your company prepared to keep up and learn?
INVEST IN THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY
Customer service agents must be able to handle multiple interactions across different channels. Investing in technology that can handle inbound complaints and questions will put your company on top. Think about when you’ve been the customer and needed an issue resolved. Did you enjoy being put on hold multiple times, switched around and possibly lost in the process? Of course not, if anything your frustration level went through the roof. Instead of keeping a client on the line repeating the same information numerous times, be prepared to handle the incoming complaint on the spot.
The latest call center software technology from Bright Pattern Inc., called Rich Contact Experience, allows customer service agents to interact across various channels simultaneously. Think back to the bit about being put on hold and switched around. Wouldn’t it be better if you could talk on the phone with an agent about your issues while sending a screenshot via text or tweet? How much easier this would be than trying to describe what you’re talking about. It’s another in a long line of technology game changers.
Only companies willing to adapt and respond to ever changing nuances among their customers will come out on top. Staying up to date with the latest and greatest trends in digital customer service and investing in the right technology go a long way toward more satisfied customers and improve client retention.
At Bright Pattern, we are advocating a new paradigm of rich contact experience and believe that contact between customers and contact centers will become richer and more complex, dramatically improving the quality of customer service. To make this happen we propose a new approach to arranging agents’ work by distributing to them multiple cross-channel interactions, therefore improving their productivity and utilization.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com. Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:
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