Why Social Media is the Future of Customer Service

[Amna Sheikh]

It’s 2017 and isn’t it obvious that all big and small companies have social media presence and offer customer support? Haven’t all of them boarded the social media bandwagon already? Well, yes and no. It’s true that a lot of companies offer social media customer support to some extent and satisfaction but not all of them yet consider it their primary source of customer support.

Who uses Social Media for Customer Support?

Facebook has 1.86 billion monthly active users, Instagram 600 million, Twitter 300 million; in addition to the rapidly growing messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger with nearly 1 billion each.

Everyone you know is present on social media in one way or the other, using one platform or the other or all may be. Since it’s the most accessible medium of contact these days, if anyone has a query or a problem with a particular product or brand they are most likely to share it on social media first and later may drop an email, not a phone call even then.

Looking at these numbers and trends it’d be a shame if some company would still not take social media customer support seriously.

There are a million benefits of social media presence and customer support to both the brands and customers. It's wise to hire 247 live chat operators to provide social media customer support.

Here are some major benefits:

Social Media Breaks Down Language Barrier

Since customer support is considered a cost-centre rather than an investment, outsourcing it to someone else can lead to a number of issues. Traditional customer support is provided over telephones and failure to understand the language and/or accent of the other person on line from either the team or customers’ side can lead to bad customer support experience. On the other hand, social media team does not have to be cautious of this issue since typing your statements eliminates language problems.

Social Media Offers Shorter Wait Times and Faster Responses

"Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold”, let’s be honest no customer likes to hear these words. If one thing that social media has instilled in all of us it is impatience. People in general have become so used to quick responses that when it comes to interaction with a company they expect them to comply in a similar manner and address their query as soon as possible. Social media customer support eliminates wait time for customers. Customers no longer have to sit on the other end of a phone line or chat window, waiting to get a solution to their issue. They can leave their query with the company and check back any time later when they can.

Final Word

Is it worth it for companies to shift their customer support focus mainly to social media? Definitely! Customers prefer spending more time with brands that listen to their issues and needs and solve them immediately. It’s a great opportunity for every brand to grow and become known in the market.