Are Customers turning completely to Social Media for Customer Service?

Most Customers are moving away from the traditional channels of Phone, Email to Social Media reporting when they are seeking Customer Service. While Facebook and Twitter are the most common platforms for customers contacting brands through social media, with Gen Z leaning toward Instagram.

     Summary

• Consumers are looking to social media for their customer service needs this holiday season. More than one-third of consumers say they plan on using social media to ask customer service questions more often this holiday season than in 2023, according to a Glimpse and Sprout Social survey released earlier this month.
• Another 3 in 5 respondents say they will use social media as a customer service channel as frequently as last year, according to the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. and U.K. consumers.
• Increased use of Social media for getting customer service is leading to more publicity of the issue among a wider local and global audience.
• Many Organizations are not able to track, attend and close these social media service requests or complaints leading to more publicity of the issues thereby hampering brand image.

     Insight

Frustrated with the slowness and opacity of traditional channels like phone and emails, social media is increasingly becoming a key channel for both customer service interactions and gift inspiration. Organizations must meet shoppers’ customer service needs wherever they are. This can be challenging due to the growing demand for quick, personalized responses.

According to a recent survey, consumers are planning to use various social media platforms to contact brands, with over half of U.S. consumers intending to reach out via Facebook and Twitter. Among Gen Z, more than 60% say they will contact brands through Instagram.

Direct messages are the most common form of outreach, with 70% of consumers planning to contact brands this way. About 40% say they will reach out via post comments, and nearly 30% intend to tag companies publicly.

To address customer concerns effectively across all platforms, it’s important to take a holistic approach to care by implementing centralized tools and ensuring teams can support one another. Some platforms like Trustpilot or Google Reviews enable the handling of public reviews but not complaints or Surveys (for which separate isolated solutions exist).

It is best to use Independent CX platforms like Cechoes.com to integrate Complaints, Reviews, Surveys, and Polls and not just use the data and Analytics individually and in amalgamation but also use AI tools to get deeper insights and quickly evolve to gain customer trust. Cechoes also enable discreet handling of complaints for both customers and organizations with full traceability on both sides. Poll and Survey enables organizations to find out which features are useful to customers and what expectations are not being met. Built-in Review system is useful for both customers and organizations for opinions in the full public domain.

Smart, Secure, Flexible, Futuristic yet easy-to-use platforms for customer-centric Business growth is the key to all Organizations’ growth and survival.