3C Contact Services Weighs in on Social Media’s Growing Role in Customer Service

Toronto, Canada, August 25, 2015 – 3C Contact Services (www.3CContactServices.com), North America’s premier cost-effective provider of contact center solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, is weighing in on a study on customer service interactions via social media.

A recent article in Forbes shows that an increasing amount of customer service interactions are taking place online rather than in person or over the phone, with 80% taking place on Twitter and the other 20% on Facebook. Using this information as a basis, three professionals spoke on what businesses should and should not do when interacting with customers over social media channels. (Source: Solomon, M., “Social Media Customer Service: 3 Speakers, 12 Best Practices,” Forbes web site, August 9, 2015; http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/08/09/social-media-customer-service-speaking-about-tweeting-an-experts-roundtable.)

“For many companies, dealing with customers via social media is a new, and sometimes intimidating, frontier,” says Damian Reyes, Customer Service Manager at 3C Contact Services. “There are a lot of common social media customer service mistakes that can be easily avoided.”

The article recommends the hiring of agents that have social media savvy and customer service experience. An organization’s social media channels should also include a prompt response to any issues a client may have. The experts also recommend not going on the defensive when responding to complaints.

Other wise practices include following up with customers and remembering to ask beforehand how they would like a response: via e-mail, instant messaging, or a phone call. It’s also recommended that an agent have a customer’s profile to be sure that they are a client and not just someone looking to cause trouble on social media. Clear internal communication is also essential, especially if different departments share the same social media contacts.

Some of the other recommendations include treating a complaint on social media the same as one that the customer would deliver in person or on the phone. Diplomacy is a must too; a tweet or status update can be screen-capped even if it has been deleted. Finally, always thank the customer for bringing attention to any issues.

“An increasing number of dissatisfied customers are turning to social media to vent their frustrations, and these complaints can often go viral—and not in the good way,” Reyes concludes. “By using social media wisely for the purposes of customer service, an organization can avoid any negative fallout.”

3C Contact Services provides its partners with the tips they need to avoid the problems that happen when a company’s social media-based customer service fails. For more information, visit www.3CContactServices.com.