Social media has fundamentally changed the world of customer service
and marketing. Customers control the conversation, and the service you
provide can no longer be an unsatisfactory or merely an acceptable
experience. It’s not even enough to provide unique products or services.
Customers have shown that due to bad service, they are willing to
change and will let their friends, family, and fans know about it. An
America Express study shows an astounding 83 percent of customers left
the purchase due to bad service.
The Heart of Marketing panel at the
The Social Shake-Up 2014 (
#tssuheartofmktg)
got to the source of the matter: only when customer service is put at
the heart of marketing will you reach your marketing and revenue
objectives. In fact,
Customer 2020 Report shows that by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
Read on to hear why, and what you can do about it, from
Dan Gingiss, Digital Customer Experience & Social Media, Discover;
Natanya Anderson, Director, Social Media and Digital Marketing, Whole Foods; and
Shep Hyken, customer service expert.
Connect on the Customer Journey
“You know your audience wants human-to-human interaction,” said
Hansen Lieu, Director, CRM Product Marketing,
SAP,
and moderator of the panel. “It can’t be what we used to do—paint a
fantastic image of the content of the product or service, and convince
them to spend money on it. Marketing isn’t relevant anymore because
people don’t trust it. They want the truth. They don’t want us to tell
them what to do. They want us to show them what we said. Customer
service is at the heart of interaction. It’s engagement with the
customer when they’re on the buying journey. Help the customer and
engage and nudge them from one step of the journey to the other. Earn
the right to be on the journey like a friend.”
Gartner and
Forrester research predict that by 2020, 80 percent of the buying
process will occur without any direct human-to-human interaction. That’s
because customers are turning to digital channels to self-educate about
products and services, and they are waiting later in the buying process
to speak directly with a sales person.
However, an April 2013 CMO Council and NetLine
survey
of B2B decision-makers worldwide found the greatest percentage of
respondents (58 percent) said content played a role in purchasing
decisions when it helped them find new solutions to problems. Plus,
eConsultancy
showed 83 percent of consumers require some degree of customer support
while making an online purchase.
The bottom line: you need to know your
customer and be there when they need help on their journey.
Seize the Social Opportunity
Also a
New York Times bestselling author,
Hyken believes we confuse customer service with customer experience:
the new marketing online and in person. He said marketing isn’t telling
anymore. It’s doing and proving, and earning the right to do business
with the consumer.
“At Discover, our tagline is, ‘We treat you like you treat you,’ but I’ve always said the core of the
TV commercial
is saying, ‘Trust us.’ Show beats tell every time. Social is the only
channel where you can demonstrate or publicly show this,”
Gingiss
said. “But you actually have to be good at customer service to be on
social. If not, social will destroy you. People who tweet something
positive to a brand actually expect a response more than those who tweet
something negative.”
A
Search Engine Land
article shared “about 49 percent of local consumers are more likely to
use a local business having read a positive review online.” Therefore,
you must interact with happy and unhappy customers to get more positive
reviews and ROI. Positive reviews influence other customer decisions,
too, such as 90 percent of consumers online trust recommendations from
people that they know, with 70 percent trusting the opinions posted
online by unknown users.
“The way I think about marketing is that it’s not
Mad Men any more,”
Anderson
said. “It’s about supporting the customer through the entire buying
cycle. Inspire them how to use your goods. That’s marketing. Provide a
fantastic purchase experience. That’s marketing. A customer has an issue
or question. That’s marketing. We’re with the customer the whole way,
not just in the store. The whole organization has to get involved to be
with the customer through their entire journey. Social media isn’t just
the responsibility of the ‘social team.’”
According to an Edison
study, 42 percent of consumers expect a response on social media within
an hour. Unfortunately, a typical business hears from only 4 percent of
its dissatisfied customers, while 96 percent don’t voice their
complaints and 91 percent will never come back. If these facts and
statistics don’t prove we need to make customer service a key
initiative, perhaps
others will.
“Responding
to positive feedback is fun, engaging, and builds community,” said
Gingiss. “On the negative side, it’s equally important to address the
core issue, be empathetic, say you’re sorry, and fix it.”
He
suggested, when appropriate, to also mirror how they ask for help. For
instance, a Tweet from a prospective Discover card customer who was
tired of receiving mailers from the company tweeted, “Please get the
hint, I don’t want a Discover card.” The quick, witty response, “Wow, we
must really want you as a customer,” turned the angry tweeter into a
customer.
Talk Table Stakes
“So what’s the implication for customer service and marketing?” Hansen asked the panel trio.
“It’s
interesting how many companies do customer service so poorly,” Gingiss
said. “It should be the table stakes. Customer service can very easily
become a differentiator among many competitors.”
No matter what is
your industry, the table stakes are no longer simply the tools you need
to be capable in your business. Customer experience is just as
important. But are all channels equal in the need to respond?
“Customer
service isn't just for B2C," said Anderson. "Word of mouth is powerful.
Table stakes have gotten much broader. It’s not only call centers and
the telephone. Social is for real. The issue for business is all
channels are equal in terms of the need to respond. Take it seriously
when the customer is coming at you at every possible direction. Make
customer service good in the first place, and then add the social layer.
It’s the easiest place to prove ROI. It’s a wakeup call to businesses.”
Hyken
added that it’s true for B2B and B2C. “There is always going to be a
competitor. It’s rare there’s not someone else doing it, too. Customer
service gives the right to bid and shape bids. If the supplier is B2B,
it de-commoditizes itself. I’m a buyer of services and tools as someone
who manages social tools, for example. We talk more about customer
service relationships with partners. Are they there for us? How do they
support us? Although it’s hard to talk about it on social, we see it
manifest through word of mouth, which is more important for B2B. Service
is table stakes. Service provides the right to re-market.”
If you
wanted a question answered in two to three hours, wouldn’t you wait for
the question to get there in two to three hours? “When you don't reply
to people on social, it's like unplugging the phone,” Gingiss said.
“Would your organization ever do that? We call it First Tweet
Resolution. We want to provide service to customers on the channel of
their choice.”
Determine Damage Control
But
how can you turn a critic into an advocate? When do you respond to
negative comments publicly or solve them offline? When do you get
involved or stand back? The audience asked these questions as the panel
progressed.
“Invite the customer to email if it will be easier to
solve through that channel,” Anderson said. “Never force them to change
channels. Always try to solve the issue where it started. There are some
people in the world that you can never make happy. Vegetarians will
never be happy with Whole Foods because we sell meat. So be respectful,
but at one point disengage.”
Make Customer Service a Culture
"Customer service is not a department, it’s a culture,” Hyken said. “There are
six Ds to creating a customer-centric culture: Define it. Disseminate it. Deploy it. Demonstrate it. Defend it. Delight in it.”
Anderson
said it’s how you change from doing what it takes to doing what is
right. She also offered creative staffing ideas if you have only one
person running and monitoring your social channels. One solution is to
ask employees from other departments or locations to sign up for a
social media shift. This not only offers backup but also helps everyone
in your business understand social.
“Hire the right people,”
Gingiss said. “Social is a great place for really good customer service
people to show off their personality. Ask 10 people the same question
and you don’t get the same answer.”
Case in point: even if it’s
not part of the script, allow employees to show their personality. While
a smiley face icon is often used in email at the end of a message, you
can express your care for the customer with a heart icon, or <3.
Customer
service is not only the new marketing. It’s also the heart of
marketing. Without human-to-human engagement, you’re just another
[insert brand, industry, service, or product here]. Authentic
communication is everyone's job. Help us spread the love by tweeting
from
here.
Source: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/customer-service-new-marketing-turning-satisfaction-roi
Image source: mycustomer.com
