Companies can no longer avoid customer complaints and their silence go unnoticed. With social media, everything is public and ignoring a public complaint on social media, is the equivalent of refusing to serve a paying customer in front of the entire world. This post will look at the importance of brands interacting with customers and other companies online and who does it most effectively.
A recent study by Conversocial (2011) found that customers were 88% less likely to buy from brands who they could see ignored their customers complaints on social media. This is a huge percentage of customers means social media management is not a wasted expense. Another study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB uk, 2015) found that 90% of customers would actually recommend a company to a friend after interacting with them on social media. The study also found that successful brand interaction could increase brand loyalty and more importantly, estimated that for ever £1 invested into social media, companies can expect returns of £3.34.
There are several brands that have embraced social media as a customer service method. The airline KLM is one of them. To improve service, they update their Facebook and Twitter cover photos every 5 minutes to show how long customers can expect to wait for a live response.
via Pros and cons of brand interaction on social media | Jamie Onisto’s blog.