The future of customer service and social media: infographic
According to Zendesk's new infographic, 62% of customers are looking for more support through social media. Compare that to research by MarketTools at the end of 2011 which shows only 23% of US companies provide customer service via Facebook and 12% provide support via Twitter.
This highlights the continued divide between what customers are expecting and companies are giving.
The rise of the social customer
Two weeks ago we presented the findings of a report, commissioned by first direct from social media think-tank ItsOpen, on the future of customer service at the Social Media Leadership Forum in London.
These regular events bring together organisations that have a track record of innovation, success and progressive thinking in engaging with stakeholders through social media.
Customer service, since the beginning of recorded history, has been very simple. It is just about information and the power to control it.
Made.com: a case study of customer service hell?
Almost two years ago we wrote about Made.com, which had just launched after receiving £2.5m of backing from the likes of Brent Hoberman.
Made.com is a bit like Naked Wines for the furniture, in that it bypasses retailers, connecting consumers directly with wholesalers in order to supply “beautiful furniture without the high street markup”. It’s an innovative idea that we liked, and we said it had an excellent chance of success.
However, there’s a problem. I’m one of the people at Econsultancy who receives comment notifications for our blog, and that Made.com post regularly attracts unhappy customers who complain about poor service, faulty products, cancelled orders, the courier company, and – most commonly – the lack of a telephone number on its website. It's been bugging me.
QuBit launches real time customer feedback for website owners
Customer data specialist QuBit has launched a new tool that captures, categorises and analyses feedback from website users in real time.
Called Exit Feedback, this targets people when they’re leaving a site and invites them to provide feedback on their experience in free text. It’s already in place on the websites of Arcadia Group, the BBC, Blackberry and Duchamp.
Online retail delivery: what does Kiddicare get right?
Kiddicare was the winner of the Snow Valley's recent Golden Chariot award for online retail delivery excellence.
So what has Kiddicare been doing right with its delivery policies and processes?
I'll look at this, as well as some highlights from Snow Valley's 2012 Online Retail Delivery report...
How social influences 'Millennials' shopping decisions: infographic
With comScore reporting that ‘Millennials’ (those born between 1981 and 2000) now control $170bn in the US alone, brands that haven’t already woken up to the buying power of this tech-savvy generation must now finally be paying attention. Hopefully.
This 79m strong group (again, just in the US) doesn’t trust what it sees on TV – and 88% are now online. But what part does social play in changing their buying habits?
Presidential first as Obama hangs out on Google Plus
President Barack Obama will be the first president to use Google Plus Hangouts
to chat with voters in a 45 minute open forum after his State of the
Union address tomorrow.
During the session, Obama will answer questions submitted to YouTube, echoing his YouTube town halls of the past, as well as chat live with a select group of questioners.
Closing comments: is it ever a good idea?
Is it ever OK to close comments on a blog, Facebook page or online news article?
It’s a question we often hear, particularly from companies who’ve found, for a variety of reasons, that their online communities have been flooded with posts that they simply weren’t prepared for.
2011 saw some high-profile examples of Facebook page owners taking the decision to block comments.
Why social customer service will come of age in 2012
Social media and customer service would seem to be a match made in heaven. In 2012, more and more brands will commit beyond simply responding to customers on Twitter.
Brands are actively recruiting customers into online communities to help them develop products, give feedback and report issues.
First Direct’s ‘Live’ community discusses openly anything from savings rates to charitable donations, and includes a (very brave) sentiment tracker on the front page to show, live, what people think about the brand (it’s overwhelmingly positive at the time of writing).
Consumer psychology: what makes for a good gift?
Gift-giving, like having an opinion, is something that theoretically everyone knows how to do. But the fact is that most people are terribly, terribly wrong.
Moving towards the final stretch of the holiday season, we reached out to Professor Kit Yarrow, consumer psychologist, to ask her the important questions about magic, marketing, and youth culture that will help keep you and your brand from passing out the literal or figurative equivalent of an inedible fruitcake.
