Social customer service is different. Its workflow, competency set, engagement style and risk/opportunity profile need approaches that are distinct from traditional customer service.
This should be seen as an opportunity to advance your organisation’s service ambitions. That’s because you need to be consistently at the top of your game to reduce any risks and reap the rewards from social engagement. In all but the rarest of cases, this means getting better.
Assuming you are well on your way to doing this, something new comes into play – the risk of inconsistent customer experience. In other words, the voice of the brand drifts out of alignment across the engagement channels. Customers notice how the social channel is different in tone and maybe even in its answers from others.
There can be many reasons. Greater autonomy and improvisation within the social team, siloed service knowledge, no visibility of interaction history across channels. Whatever the causes, the response needs to carefully consider if the differences are healthy or damaging and act accordingly.
Social engagement should become a source of rejuvenation and early insight into how digital, social and mobile customer experiences need designing and delivering. Mature learning cultures will already have a plan.
Other competencies in the framework for social customer service excellence can be accessed in ‘Related Content’.
