9 tips and good practice examples to improve customer service quality through the big five social networks and other tools

Many savvy marketers have known for a long time that social media is more than just facebook pages and YouTube channels and that these channels have far more to offer than mere ‘brand awareness’. Engaging a brand’s customers (and developing a stronger relationship with them as a result) has been one of the main justifications for brand’s investing in social media despite it remaining difficult to demonstrate an accurate ROI for social media activities. I believe this is missing the point.

Integrate social media across the whole business

Social media should be viewed more broadly across a business and form part of an organisation's structure. And, as brands and businesses start to recognise the importance of integrating social media beyond the marketing or PR teams,…

5 recommendations for delivering effective social media customer service from Frank Eliason

Frank Eliason is widely regarded as one of the innovators for delivering customer service through social media from his work at Comcast, initially delivered through the @ComcastCares Twitter handle. Eliason shows the importance of the intersection between social media and customer service when he says: “The customer now has control of your brand, and if you really want them to share your marketing message, you must fix the overall customer experience” “Many would say customer service has always been marketing, but the fact is the companies had a much larger control of the message than they do today. Social media has changed that and the customer has gained that control". Now at Citibank, Eliason has continued to give great advice on how to apply social media for customer service, and is author of the book …

Over 44% of adults now using the web to share grievances

Value: [rating=4] Recommended link: Social Media Leadership forum

Our commentary

This report examines the role played by social media within the rapidly changing landscape of customer service. It was commissioned by Natalie Cowen, Head of Brand and Communications, first direct and created by Dr Andrew Currah. The report reminds us how important the web and social media in particular have become to brands. In the Exec Summary, Natalie Cowen says: “Over 44% of adults now use the web to share grievances about products, with companies expected to interact with companies online and get a speedy response” It seems that many companies haven't changed the way they manage customer service in line with this - Dan Bosomworth summarised a survey in the autumn last year suggesting that 95% of customer Facebook posts were ignored by brands. We’re alerting you to this new report, since if…

A round table discussing approaches to managing customer service today

I recently took part in a roundtable on improving the quality of customer service hosted by ISP UKFast as part of their UKFast.tv Round Table series. An interesting example of content marketing. It was good to hear about the increased focus on customer service and how social listening can be used to improve customer service. The main takeaway for me was the fantastic insight that’s available from customer service teams and their reporting software, but how it’s not always fed-back into the customer care or sales-related content on the website. At this point In the clip you can see me talking about the power of customer feedback tools in shaping online services.

Benchmarks on customer service quality for the UK

I was also interested in the customer service benchmarking that Lynne Mills described. Looking at some of the most recent …

A briefing on using Quora for digital marketing

Before I start my mini-rant I have to say I do see the value of online Q&A services. I really enjoy answering questions and reading answers - it's one of the best ways to learn. They can also help in a small way in learning about customer needs and making folks aware of your services.

Buzz about Quora

I decided to write this summary since there's been a massive amount of chatter about Quora in the digital marketing world in the first week of 2011. Like me, you're probably thinking: "what is it", "what makes it different from Yahoo! Answers?" and "how can it help my online marketing?" I think many became aware of it through this widely shared article on the Telegraph and similar stating that "Quora will be bigger than Twitter". I initially picked up on it through a Tweet giving this giving an…

Is Twitter the canary in the coal mine of customer relations?

Despite the buzz surrounding it, Twitter is not the fastest growing customer service option out there. It"€™s understandable if people have that impression but the numbers don"€™t appear to back it up. According to a recent post by Diane Clarkson of Forrester data show the number of online consumers to use Twitter for customer support to be under 1%. (Source: North American Technographics Customer Experience Online Survey, Q4 2009 and US Online Omnibus Q4 2010.) (more…)…

Our interview with Guy Stephens on the past, present and future of online customer service

You may know Guy from his work at the Carphone Warehouse where he was Customer Knowledge Manager or Mars Drink UK Global Online Marketing Manager. I became aware of his passion for building brands through championing customer service when he was at Carphone Warehouse through his Twitter feed and conference presentations. I'm delighted he agreed to talk us through the challenges and opportunities of using social media to deliver customer service since, in my opinion, he is the one of the world's leading thinkers on this topic as his answers to my questions below demonstrate. Today, Guy is a Senior Consultant Foviance and is active in sharing his expertise through various channels: Linked In Group: Where Social Media Meets Customer Service Social media customer service: http://squidoo.com/socialmediacustomerservice Twitter:…

Have you heard of Zappos? They're a US online retailer mega brand largely unknown in the UK - more often referred to as a social media pioneer in marketing circles (for Twitter usage particularly). Yet, dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that a significant strategy is under-pinning their success, and it's not all about social networks. It does however start to become obvious as to why social media know-how is natural to them and necessary to help drive marketing. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos says simply "€œWe pay more attention to our customers"€. It"€™s this simple, profound mentality that has led to Amazon purchasing Zappos for a staggering $1.2bn in Nov 2009. Tony goes on, "€œPeople may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel"€. This is the essence of how Zappos have achieved their phenomenal success. Apparently, it wasn"t…

"€œThe purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer"€ - Peter Drucker With digital marketing in mind, I"€™d add the word "€œinspire"€ to Peter Drucker"€™s quotation. We must create and inspire customers - since inspired customers have a reason to be loyal, to spend more and to talk about your brand, products or services to other potential customers. Customers that feel positively about their experience of interacting with your brand, product or service is paramount to success in a heavily connected digital age - here are a few significant reasons why: "€œBirds of a feather flock together"€, and never before has this mantra been so true, your customer are participating within the audience that you wish to connect with We"€™ve all understood that prior to the Internet an unhappy customer will spread more messages about you to their friends than a happy one - today an unhappy customer gets to…