How to Use Social Media for Customer Service

Social media is a significant platform for companies to integrate into their customer service strategy. According to analyst firm Gartner, this trend will continue with at least 35 percent of customer service centers having some form of social media capability by 2013.

Companies interested in social media customer support are looking for methods and strategies to follow. A recently released white paper examines how brands, including Apple, Best Buy, Google, Dell, HP, RIM, and DirecTV, are developing dedicated “social care” channels and which methods are most successful.

Here's a summary of the white paper to help integrators choose a path.

Apple, Google, HP All Do It Differently
Realize that companies are doing things differently and that you need to consider what works best for your company. Few companies offering social media-based customer service apply common practices consistently across all social channels.

For example, Apple customers generate a significant number of Twitter posts about Apple’s customer service, yet the firm does not have an official Apple Twitter channel. Instead, Apple has created a community atmosphere that drives active participation via its online community forum, which allows consumers to advise others on Apple-related queries.

In contrast, HP uses Facebook to provide social care and finds it beneficial that the channel allows detailed posts. There is no character limit, so more complex questions and answers can be discussed.

Google, on the other hand, is getting the most out of using videos on YouTube to serve customers. By using short video snippets, Google is able to deliver information in a visual format that is often easier for customers to understand and replicate than written content. This isn’t surprising given the fact that Google bought YouTube in 2006: the use of YouTube for support provides a perfect way to leverage and link the brands.

The important takeaway here is to select the appropriate channel and ensure you create a strategy that your company can manage and which maximizes ROI.

Use Resources Strategically; Incentivize Participation
Finding ways to encourage consumer and employee participation is crucial to all social media forums.

One of the most valuable resources that a company can make use of is their employees. Best Buy, for example, has empowered employees to actively participate in the company’s social media channels through the launch of Twelpforce, its dedicated social care Twitter channel. The key differentiator for Twelpforce is that it empowers the entire talent pool of Best Buy.

Apple’s new “Support Communities” incorporate social-networking features such as personal profile pages, "liking" an answer, and earning status credentials for the best responses. This adds a unique game-like element to social care (the use of game-play in non-game applications in order to encourage desired behavior) – a tactic gaining popularity. By incorporating elements that incentivize participation in social care, Apple is allowing consumers to support each other in the social platform of their preference.

Consumer electronics companies - both manufacturers and integrators - can use this strategy, which encourages employee and customer participation, to ensure that their designated resources are used most effectively.

View Social Care as a Brand-Building Opportunity
If done correctly, customer support can generate more positive sentiment for the overall brand, by driving positive conversations and improving brand perception.

Out of the brands studied, Apple, Dell, Google and RIM were shown to have the highest positive net sentiment for their corporate brands. Apple has strong positive sentiment in social media, although it slightly trails Dell and Google. By comparison, Apple’s customer support alone has the most positive sentiment of the benchmark companies.

The fact that Apple’s customer support is able to generate an overall positive sentiment is particularly significant given the fact that customer support typically has a lower net sentiment than the brand itself, indicating that customer support is usually a net negative for the brand.