Social customer care: Do you ‘get’ your customer?
We spend so much time thinking about call deflection, setting up Live Chat, ROI of Twitter customer service, delighting the customer…
But I’m wondering how much time we think about what the future of customer service could look like? We are living in a period of huge change, where every day we are challenged by things that are new, different, faster, more convenient. Offerings such as - Ushahidi, Zeebox, Google Hangouts, Layar, Facebook verbs, Storify, My6Sense - offer us tantalising glimpses into what that future could look like.
For each of us, these offerings will likely result in different responses predicated on different priorities, different concerns. But whatever your response, whatever your priorities, whatever your concerns, the issue is not whether you ‘get social’, the issue is not one of cost savings, the issue is not one of ROI or a lack of senior management buy-in, but ultimately, whether you or your organisation ‘gets’ your customer.
The future of customer service is not 140 characters. The emphasis on technology has certainly helped many organisations understand more about the potential of asynchronous communications – yet the ‘customer’ doesn’t necessarily operate at the same level of technical competence.
Placing more emphasis on understanding the different ways customers use/need products or services will ultimately create more effective ‘customer service’ – going way beyond the typical post sales service model.
Good post, short and sweet – there is an event in there somewhere *ponders*
Well put.
I read some research yesterday that reported only 35% of complaints get a response. I suspect the other 65% of customers would settle for carrier pigeon if it meant getting their query dealt with properly.
Hello Guy
Well put. And I would like to go a little further with your train of thought. May I suggest that the challenge is:
‘Getting your customer such that he/she gets that you have gotten him/her.’
All the best
Maz
Bob Cratchit and Ebenezer Scrooge had exactly the same issue
As Guy said, Well put
Hi Guy,
Hear, hear! Well said, well put and, I hope, well-timed.
I hope that businesses are listening and understand that the future will not be defined by technology or being ‘social’ as things in themselves but will be defined by our customers.
Adrian