Creating Business Value from Online Customer Interactions

Customer service plays a significant role in the overall customer experience. This survey from over a year ago is an extensive survey on the effects of bad customer service. The outcomes aren’t surprising as 67% indicated that they ended a business relationship after a poor experience with customer service. Of those people, 61% took their business to a competitor. What this boiled down to was an average of $243 in lost business per customer, per year.

The Dehumanization of Customer Service

Businesses have spent a lot of effort in making customer service as efficient as possible by introducing stuff like interactive voice response (IVR), self-service, and resolution scripts. It’s resulted in a poor experience where—as consumers—we have to press a bunch of buttons and wait for a long time before speaking to someone whose goal is to hang up the phone as quickly as possible.

Customer service departments have basically dehumanized customer interactions and it’s pissing people off. Respondents in the aforementioned survey mentioned “human service” and “true conversation” as key improvements for customer service.

Why Customer Flock to Social Media

Social media has humanized interaction and it’s no shocker that it’s become the weapon of choice for the new consumer to get customer service. When asked about the key sources for customer satisfaction, respondents answered:

• Competency
• Convenience
• Proactive engagement
• Personalization

Social media offers businesses the opportunity to deliver customer service in a way that scores better than traditional support methods on the four things listed above. Those who do it well will improve their customers’ experience, leaving competitors further behind.

Why It Isn’t about Social Media

Before you go all gung-ho and move your entire customer service department to the social sphere, think about this: it’s not about social media. People don’t want to use social media for customer service. People want customer service and they turn to social media because they feel that it works better than anything else you’re offering.

As we continue to see increased adoption of social platforms, it’s up to you to understand how shifts in consumer behavior will impact your business.

Creating Value from Online Customer Interactions

Social media is not the band-aid you slap onto customer service to stop the bleeding. With the right mindset, you can generate business value from online customer interactions, within and beyond customer service.

At the Customer Service Seminar, I will show you ways to create business value through online customer interactions by:

• Unleashing your own wave of new consumers;
• Analyzing your online customer interactions; and by
• Throwing away the case studies and best practices

There are only a few seats left, so reserve yours today. I hope to see you then!