{"id":16044,"date":"2020-10-02T11:31:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T11:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/?p=16044"},"modified":"2020-10-16T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T13:21:15","slug":"six-trends-in-social-media-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/six-trends-in-social-media-customer-service","title":{"rendered":"Six trends in social media customer service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Customer experience and great customer service is more critical now than ever before. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In our 2020 report, Creating Value From Social Media Customer Service<\/em><\/a>, we identified six key trends that every brand should consider. Some of them appear to contradict each other: automation is increasing, and yet people value the human touch above all else; brands must deliver standardised levels of customer service across markets, and yet consumers want personalised content and services.<\/strong> If you did a bit deeper, those apparent contradictions are, in fact, different sides of the same trends.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a summary of our findings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trend 1: Customer convenience drives how and when brands respond <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability for customers to self-serve is increasing. When a customer has a simple problem, they don\u2019t need live support. This takes the strain off the customer service team, and Gartner\u2019s research shows that 40% of live service responses could be done using self-service. Ultimately, what customers want is a fast resolution to a problem, in the manner (and on the channel) that they choose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trend 2: Automation is improving. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers are happy to use automated tools if they get what they need, when they need it. Retail research from Capgemini shows that consumers believe automation can help to solve in-store issues such as queuing (66%) and finding items (60%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online, retailers are using automation to provide more efficient customer service in the form of chatbots and robotic process automation. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

That might be by linking customer interactions across different channels, for example, so that human customer service teams get a full view of the customer at the point at which they speak to them; or even connecting proactive customer service to sales, so that customer service becomes a profit centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trend 3: For complex problems and personal service, you need skilled humans. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more complex customer service issues, you need skilled humans. Automation will support those people by taking the mundane queries off them, so they can spend more time with the customers who need them. The key skills are good communication, empathy, creativity and problem solving, and critical thinking. Accenture\u2019s research shows that people stop doing business with a company because of poor customer service. The person they deal with matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans can deliver proactive and personalised customer service, too. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

They can express empathy, and override rules to get a resolution to a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trend 4: Customer service continues to move to digital, social and voice-assistant channels <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research from Salesforce has found that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n