MKT392 SocialMediaMarketingF11

Social media has changed customer service from being a support function to being an extension of marketing.

Social media has changed customer service from being a support function to being an extension of marketing.

Social media has changed customer service from being a support function to being an extension of marketing.

In today’s competitive landscape customer service is more important than ever, and a company’s reputation for satisfying clients has never been so vulnerable. Social Media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can level the playing field enabling businesses of all sizes to interact directly with customers like never before.

The voice of the consumer has never been more powerful, or influential, and has potential to spread virally in an instant. Reacting quickly can often quell negative comments and amplify positive ones. Over 58% of tweeters who have tweeted about a bad experience, have never received a response from the offending company.

Companies now have the option to not only take a phone call, but take a Tweet or a Facebook post, drill down into it, see who wrote it, and respond accordingly. Of course don’t expect social media to replace you customer service department, but instead look for it to increase your overall customer satisfaction.

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Consumers are more connected than ever before. Information is viral and moves at the speed of fingers and thumbs over keyboards and keypads around the world. One customer service misstep is instantly broadcasted to potentially thousands of followers, friends, blog readers, and fellow BlackBerry users.

Does Your Business have a Social CRM Plan? Social CRM applications put the technology in your hands to explore what people are discussing online. As a business owner or salesperson, you can use this information to develop leads that are laser-targeted, prepare campaigns that will deliver solid results, communicate with your potential audience, and develop new products and technologies that consumers are actually asking for.

Do you have a plan for putting this into place? Do you have the tools to gather and analyze the mountains of data that’s available to you through social networks? Do you know what to do with this information once you’ve collected it? Proper planning is vital to delivering adequate customer support through social networking.

Currently, the infrastructure is just not built to accommodate social media, which leads to inconsistent information being dispensed to customers about a product or service. But, Herrell said that doesn’t mean business leaders are unaware of the value social media can play in improving customer relations because there is definitely an awareness out there.