With the internet available at customers’ fingertips through mobile devices like smartphones and iPads, it’s not surprising to hear that some businesses have tried to reach more consumers through social media. Twitter and Facebook have become the new form of customer service, although according to recent research, it’s not always successful.
While it’s crucial to have comprehensive online customer services available, it’s more important to ensure that consumer inquiries are answered in an accurate and timely fashion. Working with an answering service that specializes in phone, email and text messaging services can provide numerous options for a representative to be put in contact with a customer 24/7.
Reuters reported how in December, Charter – the fourth largest cable company in the U.S.- shut down their social media customer service program “Umatter2Charter.” The main reasoning being that the organization wanted to devote more time to traditional support channels and that monitoring the page was time-consuming – too many questions were going unanswered.
A study by ZenDesk found that only 13 percent of customer service complaints on Twitter got a response. When there was an answer, 37 percent of the time it took over 10 hours for one to occur.
One thing to take into consideration though, is that a majority of the tweets did not have to do with a negative comment or frustration. Nearly 48 percent were just comments of questions about the company. Oftentimes, customers just want to know that their voice was heard, and someone is working hard to meet their needs.
While technology is ever-evolving, working with a live answering service can ensure that a company will continuously be able to answer customers’ questions as quickly and comprehensively as possible. Fast, short responses are not always the solution – it’s ensures that the customer is put first.
