Answering the Social Phone
Earlier today, Michael Arrington rang Comcast on the Social Phone. He did this by posting on twitter:
“Hey Comcast, the internet is really slow this morning, can you guys please give me a call?
He knows that Comcast is listening and answers their “Social Phone”
Is Social Media becoming a new customer support channel? Absolutely, it is.
Some companies have already jumped in and others are just beginning to recognize that the social phones are ringing. In time, I believe it will become a standard practice. Remember when customer support via email was first introduced? It was a harder transition that one might think, especially for larger companies.
There are major differences here, however. Adding email to the customer service mix was just another technology or mechanism by which companies could have private conversations with their customers. This is not the case with the Social Phone. These conversations are public, and that changes everything.
It also flips something else upside down: businesses now line up for customers instead of customers lining up for businesses. Rather than asking customers to do the searching, to find the businesses, to initiate contact, to get in line (or call center queues, etc.), it reverses everything and puts the onus on businesses to listen and respond to customers wherever they are. It is quite revolutionary when you think about it.
Companies who choose to jump in early will benefit the most. Right now, this practice is remarkable. It gets noticed and gets talked about. It represents an opportunity to delight customers with remarkable service. Michael Arrington asked Comcast,
“is this kind of customer service really scalable? i wish it was. you could double my bill and I’d be very happy.”
Meet your customers at their point of need.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. How fast do you think this adoption will happen? What are the major issues that companies are likely to encounter as they wade in?
April 14th, 2008 - Posted in Social Media | |
on May 21st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Marcel,
I had a similar experience as of late with Linked In. I had emailed customer service to no avail but when I posted on my blog, which then made it to Twitter, I had a response from Linked In within 30 minutes. I am not sure if it was a coincidence or not but they sure responded fast the moment I picked up the “social phone” and yelled to the world I wasn’t pleased with Linked In.
on May 23rd, 2008 at 12:09 am
[…] at their “point of need”. Geez..I need to get it down to 3 words like that. Any who..here, here and here..you’ll find the the posts I’m talking about. Super interesting read […]
on August 19th, 2008 at 9:02 am
[…] listening to and engaging with the social web, or what we like to call, answering the “social phone”, quickly face the same challenges. They are expected […]
on August 19th, 2008 at 11:14 am
[…] listening to and engaging with the social web, or what we like to call, answering the “social phone”, quickly face the same challenges. They are expected […]