Commentary
Social Media Customer Service Declines
- by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 2, 2016
Once heralded as the future of customer service, social media has mostly failed to deliver on these bold promises, according to a new survey conducted by NICE Systems and the Boston Consulting Group, who polled 1,704 people around the world about their interactions with financial, telecom, and insurance service providers.
After more than doubling from 16% in 2011 to 36% in 2013, the proportion of respondents who said they turn to social media for customer service issues fell to 29% in 2016, NICE and BCG reported. By contrast, the proportion of respondents who use mobile apps for customer service edged up from 43% in 2013 to 46% in 2016.
Asked why they don’t use social media as a customer service channel, 33% of respondents said it takes too long to address issues; 30% said it wasn’t suitable for complex customer service tasks; 27% said that if they end up needing help from a representative, they would have to start over from the beginning; 26% cited privacy concerns; and 26% said there was no click to chat function.
In line with these results, social media had both the lowest success rates and satisfaction rates, with a success rate under 20% (down from 30% in 2013) and only a few percent of respondents ranking it first or second in terms of satisfaction. On the other hand live reps still dominate customer service, with a success rate of around 60% and 50% of respondents ranking it first or second in terms of satisfaction.
However it’s worth noting that all channels experienced a decline in success and customer satisfaction over the last three years: for example phone reps were down from around 70% success and 60% satisfaction in 2013. Interestingly, NICE and BCG found that the decline was mostly driven by increasing dissatisfaction among younger males (Gen X and Gen Y).
As always, customer service shortcomings have real consequences: fully 78% of baby boomers said they would leave a service provider due to customer service issues, and 54% of millennials said the same.
Erik Sass is editor of Publishers Daily. You can reach Erik at eriksass@gmail.com.
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