There are definitive studies around customer perception and satisfaction improvements after resolution of a problem. It's definitely something that companies should embrace rather than eschew. Fear prevents a lot of companies from acting, but no response at all is about the worst outcome possible.
Marty, fully agree that due diligence on the legal side is an important part of understanding engagement in social. Thanks for that perspective.
The other issue here is that we have to better connect our online mechanisms to our more traditional CS avenues. As you point out, companies are hopping on social media to do surface resolution, but we shouldn't have to resort to social media because other channels are broken or ineffective. Changing the entire scope of CS with a helping of social ought to be the goal.
Thanks, Maren. I think for businesses at scale, they MUST be using systems to track and log the nature of input from their customers on all fronts. That's the only way you see trend lines. And too many companies stop at the gathering of input phase, and don't move into the acting on insight, so one key component is a workflow that carries that information back into the right areas of the company. Thanks for the comment!
As many have said before, Sherry, customer service *is* marketing. And sales. They're all tied together inextricably, and if you do a shoddy job at delivering on the promises you put out there, that's going to damage your credibility. Period. Customer service, responsiveness, all those things are empirical proof that you're attentive to your customers. And it's true that sometimes, being in social media without committing to the investment of time and energy can be worse than never having been present at all.
Trisha, that's a good example. But I'd also counter that we as businesses still do too much talking about our own stuff. Whether or not you phrase it with a "softer" approach, it's still promotional. And sales doesn't have to be driven by shouting "me! look at me! me!" all the time. In fact, as consumers, we don't like to be sold to but then we go to work and push our junk relentlessly. It's an odd balance. And I'm hoping that we can change that. :)
One of the tricks, Mallory, is that today, almost everyone is in sales to some degree. If you have a touchpoint with a customer, you're likely to impact their decision to do business with you. And once businesses start to understand that yes, sales is a dedicated business function, but it's also a pervasive part of business itself. Not the sale or the close or the process, but the *intent* to deliver an experience to customers that makes them feel good about the business relationship. That's a whole different animal and goes much beyond the sales force itself.
We hope so too. Part of the evolution and erosion of sales in that sense is because one to one interactions don't scale well. Relationships take time to build. And both of those things run counter to business growth and being able to do things with speed and, unfortunately sometimes, in an automated way. We want to batch process, yet trust is an individual factor that's not easily sold in bulk.
Obviously we agree that listening is key. :) We're often in such a hurry to tell people what we want them to know that we don't stop long enough to hear what they're telling us they need and are looking for. Being open to input can be enlightening indeed.
Hi Thom, the idea of "constantly present" is an important one, and a fine balance. There's a difference between being present for your own purposes - promotion, awareness for your own business or cause, something that directly impacts you - vs. being present for the benefit of your community. I think the latter is what most businesses need to do more of.
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