The rise of social customer service
Back in 2007, when I saw my first Facebook app, I was struck by a strong feeling that these would be an important way for companies to interact with their customers. I went on to help start the Facebook Developer Garage London and co-founded iPlatform, the UK’s first official Preferred Facebook app development company.
In 2009, with fan pages and Twitter on the rise, the feeling struck again - how companies communicate with their customers was changing, permanently. It was two-way, in public, and it was the future. That feeling led us to develop Conversocial, which launched publicly in July 2010.
As Conversocial got into the wild, we discovered that one of the biggest pain points created by this change in communication was in customer service. Big consumer brands who sold directly to customers (retailers, telcos, financial services, travel etc) were getting direct, real customer service complaints and questions on their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Not just people complaining in public ABOUT them, but people speaking directly TO them - something they can not ignore. The type of issues that lead people to phone in if their problem isn’t solved.
The only way companies can deal with this at scale is to plug their customer service teams directly into Facebook and Twitter. But the public nature of the complaints and responses, specific norms of social media, and the fact that they are in a combined marketing channel make this a difficult step for most companies.
Next week we are sponsoring a Chinwag event on social customer service where reps from Facebook, Nando’s, Marks & Spencer, Cap Gemini and We Are Social will be discussing the challenges that companies face in reacting to this shift. Early bird tickets are only on sale for a few more days.
Find out more about the event here
And buy tickets directly here
