Last week some much needed research was published on Mad.co.uk, carried out by IAB and Lightspeed, helping brands and agencies have a greater understanding of use and expectations of customer service in social media.
The over-riding discovery was that, despite common beliefs, only a handful of social media users complain about brands on the sites.
In order to carry out this research a survey was carried out on 1,000 consumers in relation to their use of social media. Surprisingly, it unveiled that:
‘Just 2% complain about brands via Twitter, 8% on a forum and 8% via Facebook. The most popular channel for complaining was via the web (44%), followed by the phone (36%) and writing a letter (22%).”
However, it should be noted that the survey also discovered that social media is still very much in the early stages of development as an established channel to voice discontent over a brand or product, and it is expected to expand in the coming future.
Perhaps most insightful was the discovery that out of those using social networks to voice a complaint, it was a common trend for them to expect a much a faster response from the company than conventional channels used to complain.
Mad.co.uk further investigated this phenomenon, looking into how companies are responding to complaints via social media. They discovered that:
‘Brands including Virgin Media, GiffGaff and eSpares have invested in staff and resources to monitor and respond to consumers’ complaints on social media sites and agreed that it requires a faster response time.’
Mad.co.uk spoke to the head of consumer media relations, Asam Ahmed, about this trend.
“Companies must learn to use social media channels in the same way that consumers use the channels, in order to effectively harness the potential of social media in customer service.”
Ahemed continued: “The rate of response does vary for each channel. Sites such as Twitter, which has a natural immediacy, encourage an expectation from users that brands use them in the same immediate way they do.”
Amy Kean, the head of the Social Media Council at the IAB, commented that logic behind these raised consumer expectations on social media was the result of the “immediacy and transparency it allows brands to have.”
Rory Dunne further provided an interesting example of how this new consumer expectation can be capitalised on by companies and brands.
Dunne is the community manager at online white goods and spare parts store eSpares, and he explained that big brands in his industry are frequently not on twitter, which gave his company the opportunity to respond to consumers tweets directed to those companies.
“None of the major manufacturers are on Twitter,” he remarked.
“You would expect them to be but they’re not. Complaints are going unanswered, which enables us to step in and offer people advice and parts instead.”
Despite this research into consumer complaints on social networks, it appears fair to suggest that this is still a relatively new phenomenon.
However, from Rory’s example, which is only one of many, it appears apparent that this is a certain growth area.
This means that companies that are quick to capitalise on it may be able to benefit from improved customer loyalty, more satisfied customers and potentially increase their consumer base by attracting consumers from other less technology savvy companies.
