7 Key Social Customer Service Trends & 7 Key Strategies for APJ Brands

Trust <noun> - firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. "relations have to be built on trust"

Conversocial recently produced a very interesting report entitled The 2015 Social Customer Service Trust Index.

Major European and US brands were surveyed on the use of Social customer service at their company and the expectations of brands when using social media as a customer service channel.

 A number of the findings & analysis should prove interesting to brands that are domiciled in Australia & Asia Pacific who are looking to differentiate themselves by offering innovative service over Social Media.

 7 Key Customer Service Trends

1. 72% of respondents expect a response to their customer service issues from companies in under 4 hours over social
2. 74% expect to have their issue resolved in under 4 hours.
3. 47% of North Americans expect companies to be offering social service 24/7 - 7 days a week compared to just 35% of Europeans
4. 79% of all respondents felt that customer service has a key role to play in social media
5. 60% expect a company to be approachable & friendly
6. An overwhelming 71% of respondents feel it’s important for companies to have some idea of who they are, and any previous social customer service issues they may have had, when engaging over social.
7. 83% of North American & 80% of European respondents expect the person at the other end to really care about their issue 

7 Key Strategies to gain Social Trust

1. Respond to all customer questions and queries over social media in under 4 hours.
2. Work to resolve these issues in under 4 hours.
3. Offer social as a service channel at least in normal business hours, but also look to scale to a 24-7 model if needed.
4. Maintain a balance between both marketing and customer service when utilizing social media as a communication channel.
5. For the majority, maintain a friendly and approachable tone of voice throughout.
6. Consumers don’t want to resolve their issue in public, but they would prefer to stay on social and solve through private messaging.
7. Integrating social into the traditional customer service stack is key to making sure you know who your customers are, and any previous issues they may have had.

 Its clear from this report that Social is the most potent customer service channel today. I would encourage all interested companies in Asia Pacific to have a look the report.

Alternatively, if you would like a good synopsis of the report then also have a listen to this recent EchoJunction Podcast on Social Trust with Paul Johns.

I trust you found this post useful. Feel free to comment if you like and connect with me on LinkedIn.

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