The Customer Service Paradox: Companies vs. Customer...Guess Who's Right

I was recently at a CRM industry conference where a prominent CEO said that the overwhelming question he is hearing from customers and prospects alike is how can they keep their customers.  At this same event, a great panel of customer service executives was asked if there were any specific things that keep them up at night – without hesitation all five panelists said social media.  

The reason these two things caught my attention is because the answer to the question the CEO kept hearing probably has a lot to do with the thing keeping the panel of customer service executives up at night.  Social channels and how customers are using them to communicate continues to offer both an opportunity to keep them on board longer, and a challenge to be able to effectively engage them with.

While many companies view social media and networks as the domain of marketing and public relations, the biggest impact may be in creating better experiences for customers looking for information sharing and best practices, as well as for service requests and problem resolution.  Social customers today are also looking for a proactive, collaborative engagement with companies – as equals.  They believe they have more to offer to the relationship than just the financial transaction, and want to feel like they are contributing to making the product/service the best it can be. This can transform the vendor/customer relationship – based solely on the transaction – into a partnership where both sides view each other as advocates with mutual trust and respect for each other that goes beyond the transaction.

But the challenge lies with companies who need to view customer service through the eyes of today's socially-empowered customers.  This is why a recent Network Solutions/University of Maryland study caught my attention.  According to the study, small businesses feel that customer service is one of their main competitive strengths in a very challenging business climate.  Ironically, another recent study from American Express found two-thirds of consumers surveyed feel companies aren't doing enough to earn their business – with 28% saying they think companies are actually paying less attention to providing good service.

So, while companies may believe customer service is a competitive advantage, what the customer says and feels is of utmost important, because they will act on those feelings.  Not only will their actions consist of potentially walking away, but also telling everybody within tweeting distance why they are doing so.  And by the time they are done blogging and sharing their story with friends on Facebook, everyone will know what they think of your company and the way they feel they've been treated.

Therein lies the challenge for companies looking to hold onto customers today.  Not only have the means for communicating with customer changed – and continue to do so – the expectations for interacting with customers have also changed.  Yes it's still critically important to be responsive to customer needs to resolve their problems as quickly as possible. But now customers want options that allow them to have a better experience for problem resolution.  Additionally, they want proactive, collaborative opportunities that go beyond the traditional role of customer service.  

The new demands being placed on companies today by customers leveraging social tools and mobile technology is just at its infancy.  It does pose serious challenges to those responsible for creating and extending customer relationships.  But it also offers a great opportunity for those companies who are up for the challenge, as they can create loyal, vocal, long-lasting company advocates...also known as social customers.

Brent Leary - Co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award.  He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, and on the advisory board of the University of Toronto's newly created CRM Center of Excellence. He's been quoted in several national business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Entrepreneur magazine.  Leary writes the Social CRM column for Inc.com, and blogs at BrentLeary.com.  You can reach him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

Note: Brent Leary has been retained by Jacada to participate in the Customer Service 2.0: Access the Experts speakers series. The opinions shared herein reflect the views of the author, and not necessarily Jacada or its employees.

Comments

[Jeff Shuey]

Agreed. Customer Service is a critical component to the success of the organization. Too often a great product or service is undermined by an ill-conceived or otherwise poorly executed Customer Service strategy. I have spoken and written a lot of about another critical element that ties to customer service and to the whole company - Corporate Authenticity.

People sense it and often pounce when they feel a company is not being authentic. Corporate Authenticity is being played out in the Social Media channels. The airline industry is easy to pick on and often is ... think United Airlines at the smashed Guitar, think Jet Blue and stranding passengers on the tarmac (not to mention one off kilter flight attendant deploying an escape chute) and Southwest with their Kevin Smith too fat to fly episodes. Consumers and news agencies pounced on these incidents.

For the most part the airlines responded pretty well. Maybe not as much or as far as some people work like, but respond they did. Overall, I think they kept their Corporate Authenticity intact and people continue to do business with them. While they may not be perfect examples of what Social Media can do for a business they are good examples of what could happen.

CRM and the oft-stated Social CRM are at the center of this effort. We are seeing more and more companies plan their CRM strategies to include Social Media channels. Partially because they have to. Also, because they have found it helps with customer retention and with driving their efforts for corporate authenticity.

[Brent Leary]

Thanks for your perspective Jeff. I agree with you about the airlines. In fact I think they learned from prior episodes, and responded better after each previous instance for the most part. And that's a lesson that many companies appear to be afraid of learning firsthand. But this is an on-the-job situation, as we're all learning as we go. I think customers will award companies that are willing to make missteps if they are open, transparent and willing to learn from them.

Thanks again!
Brent