More than a year ago, I was talking to existing clients and prospects alike about social media as customer service tool. Far too few expressed an interest at the time, which frustrated me to no end. Twitter wasn’t as mainstream as it is today, and clients were just beginning to toy with the idea of Facebook fan pages. Not to mention the infancy of corporate blogs and useful open-to-public forums. 2009 was the year social media became a mainstream corporate expectation. Thought leaders were already in the space, but the vast majority of businesses weren’t convinced social media was worth the time.
All that has obviously changed. It’s not an issue now of “if” but “how”. And the possibilities of customer service via social media are becoming more obvious to the masses. But with the possibility of social media based customer service comes the question: “what are we about to really get ourselves into?”
Diane Clarkson mentioned three questions that demand answers in her Forrester blog post yesterday:
- Do we have clearly articulated objectives?
- Do we have a solid cross-functional implementation plan?
- Are our metrics aligned with our goals?
Retail Has it Easy
But I propose that the #1 challenge will be that of implementing change initiated from social web interactions. For example, it’s easy enough for a retail company to issue a refund or a gift card to an unsatisfied customer. Someone tweets about how ticked off they were that their new shoes came in the wrong size and you publicly apologize and offer to make it right plus throw in a $15 gift card for a sweet pair of socks. Just to thank them for their patience. Score. You probably just won back a customer.
Or Does It?
Sounds easy enough in principle. But what about the dollars and cents of refunds, returns, and incentives? A customer service based SMM approach requires the company to have allocated the budget for personnel, the budget for outreach, and the means of funneling the incentives and outreach to the customer in an uber-timely fashion. And then there’s typically got to be some sort of metrics to determine that this approach has been profitable to the company.
And that’s just retail. What about large manufacturing companies dealing with complaints or negative statements? They have no direct channel to the public via products or services. How does a Fortune 1,000 change internally to accommodate public complaints? Those are very large ships with very small rudders.
Talking Heads Accomplish Nothing
Implied is the challenge of being more than a talking head in the social space. If all you are empowered to do is empathize, you won’t get far with most people. They may appreciate that you exist out there to show some small level of concern, but the companies who will REALLY knock it out of the park are the ones with a flexible structure in place to accommodate changes recommended by the end user.
Consultants Can Save Your Bacon
This is where third party consulting can play a major role. If you’re on the verge of implementing a social customer service initiative, I strongly recommend you take a step back first, bring in a third party consultant, and ask them to review your strategy with a fine-toothed comb. If there’s going to be a breakdown between departments, it’s better to discover this before you go public and start promising to make things right that you can’t actually deliver.
