Study Finds that Social Media Customer Service is a Strong Opportunity for Most Companies

To say customer service via social media is an “opportunity” is putting it mildly. While consumers have embraced social media with gusto, companies have been much slower to do so, and the potential companies have with this channel is mind-boggling. Along with opportunity, however, comes challenges, and these have scared many companies off.

A new study of social media customer service practices identifies social media as a major new way to improve customer satisfaction, according to Socialbakers, a social media analytics provider. Defining a new standard of “Socially Devoted” companies, the Socialbakers study identifies businesses that succeed with open and responsive social communications. Socially Devoted companies can serve as role models, demonstrating how businesses worldwide can drive customer engagement by adopting more reactive and open social media strategies, said the media analytics company in a press release.

“By defining Socially Devoted companies, we wanted to start a discussion in the industry,” said Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab. “Socially Devoted companies communicate openly, actively respond to fans and make sure customers receive a quick answer to feedback or questions. Socially Devoted companies set a new global standard that other businesses can adopt to improve their social media marketing strategy.”

Many companies are frightened by the immediacy of social media (complaints need to be addressed quickly) and the potential reach the channel has. In other cases, companies have designated the wrong departments to handle social media contacts: marketing or public relations. Successful “Socially Devoted” companies have put social media where it belongs: in the call center, so it can be integrated into other customer service channels.

Some interesting statistics from the study include:

• On average, companies respond to only 30 percent of social media fans' feedback;
• Local companies tend to have higher social media response rates than their global counterparts, with 40 percent responding to customer queries;
• More than 25 percent of global companies have a closed wall on Facebook (News - Alert), meaning users can't post questions or feedback; and
• U.S.-based companies tend to perform less effectively on social media channels than their regional peers.

It's clear from these results that companies – particularly large customer-facing companies – have a long way to go with the integration of social media into their overall customer service strategy. Many of these companies would benefit from social media solutions and the social media modules built into many of today's popular customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.

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