Social Media Customer Service Tools - Essay Example

? Social Media as a Tool for enhancing Service Executive Summary Most corporate management systems normallyintegrate customer care service within their respective public relations departments. Customer service is undeniably one of the most essential entities in an organization more so if the company is in the business of supplying consumers with products and services. Through customer service, consumers are able to get updates and send useful feedback to the company, a significant interaction that more often than not leads to the delivery of quality goods and services (Gibson, 2012). Over the last few years technological innovations especially in the information communication sector have always shaped the operations of customer care departments in many corporates with many embracing every new technology for instance Google Inc. With the emergence of the new technology came the social media platforms whose intention at the incipient stages was to keep friends and colleagues updated on various trends. Nevertheless, due to the popularity and prevalence of the social media, virtually all companies have transferred their customer service to the social networking sites. The most common social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and Google + with the first two leading as far as the provision of service to customers are concerned. Although the incorporation of social media in customer service poses certain challenges, the benefits enjoyed by both customers and organization far outweigh the perceived problems. This paper evaluates the impact of the use of social media as a customer service tool as a new technological advancement. It analyses an discusses the efficacy of various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and Google + clearly outlining challenges and potential for the same. The paper finds out that social media use in customer service has more benefits as compared to the bottlenecks. Introduction Over the years, customer service has seen significant evolution in terms of the media used and the various communication tools used. Perhaps it would be appropriate to highlight the significance of customer helpline in a corporate environment. Communication is a critical tool for many corporates, as they need to interact with their stakeholders at one time or the other. The most common type of stakeholder that command the attention of most businesses are the customers, who may have varied needs, preferences, and interests due to their diverse backgrounds. Until recently, a vast majority of the corporate world embraced formal communication channel to connect with their customers due to the ethical principles and values upheld then (Gibson, 2012). More often than not, they engaged their esteemed customers over customer toll-free telephone lines, mails, and face-to-face communication that involved verbal conveyance of the message. As time advanced, many companies upgraded to keep abreast of the changing technology using emails to perform customer care services. Although the use of emails as a customer service tool proved to be efficient, the advancement of technology led to the emergence of the social media sites that command great subscription globally with the middle aged not left behind. The introduction of smartphones and other internet-enabled devices has attracted huge interest the recent past, some of whom belonged to the corporate world or are stakeholders in one way or another (Solomon, 2012). Due to the large number of people subscribed to various social media sites, the sharing and dissemination of corporate information has simplified. This has enabled most companies catch up with their customers in the social media pages where consumers can either get information regarding the products and services they use, or may air their grievances in a responsible manner in real time (Carolyn & Parasnis, 2011). According to Gibson (2012), Consumers normally have a myriad of issues that they want sorted by their service or product providers. These may range from complaints, suggestions, to appreciation. It is the duty of the corporates to provide a sustainable and viable customer service to their consumers in order to ensure maximum satisfaction of the customers. Various internet platforms have provided the much-needed forums for customer service but none has gained rapid acceptance than the multiple social media sites. Social media is arguably the most accessed internet platforms in the world with Facebook and Twitter commanding much higher popularity. Virtually all companies with public relations departments have incorporated social media into their customer service in order to relate to their customers in an effective manner (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Various social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google +, Measure Up, and Blogs are among the ones highly used by companies in their quest to reach a broad and diversified clientele. This paper assesses the efficacy of various social media tools in customer service by corporates. It specifically takes closer look at the role of Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube in enhancing a company’s customer service. It majorly delves on the benefits, challenges, complexities, and ambiguities of the use of social media in customer service, reviewing various scholarly literatures on the social media tools in customer service (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Literature Review While many scholars have done several studies concerning social media as a customer service tool, a number of them have elicited varying opinions the prevalence and efficacy of social media tools in customer service. A number of advantages have emerged out of the incorporation of social media in some companies because of the large number of social media users. However, some Scholars have pointed out to the negative side of embracing social media sites for customer services, the benefit notwithstanding. Gibson (2012) elaborately studied the whole concept of customer service emphasizing on its essence within a business environment. He categorically stated in his research that customer service plays a pivotal role in the public relations department of any corporate that values customer satisfaction. According to Gibson (2012), customer satisfaction is a function of efficient customer service as he posits that business enterprises retain a vast majority of customers by attending to every relevant interests and preferences of customers via a structured customer care system. While Bunzel (2010) in his study supported this course, he went further to examine the impact of engaging all the human resource in social media tools to enhance the public relations within the organizations system. He found out that the use of various social media sites in communicating ideas and information in the corporate world boosted the overall organization’s performance. In furthering the use of social media in the customer care entities, Sashi (2012) conducted a study that advocated for more corporates managements to integrate social media tools in their customer service. He referred to the fact that social media had the largest market share of customers, if his Facebook Figures of over 500 million active users were anything to go by. On the same note, Weinberg and Berger (2011) in their study of the impact of social media on customers found out that customers derive maximum satisfaction out of their real-time interaction with customer care departments of various organizations. Besides enhancing the efficiency of a company’s public relations department, Weinberg and Berger (2011) in their evaluation discovered that 60% of the social media users were in one way or another customer to prospective companies. Solomon (2012) conducted a more or less similar study in which he found out that by reaching out to customers through the social media, a company could update up to 25% of its customers at any given time, thus ensuring effective and efficient customer service and feedback. This they claim, promoted the quality of the products and services offered hence winning customers’ trust and confidence in the organization. Social Media Customer Service Tools With technological advancements in the internet, a number of social media sites have emerged, each competing for the same clientele. In the recent past, the high number of internet users has seen the tremendous growth and popularity of major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and, YouTube with most corporates gaining interest in the social media to host their customer service. Social media is arguably the largest marketing forum for any prospective company due to the high number of users (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Over the years, the popularity of social media has increased to the extent that even the mainstream media have adopted some of the social media pages for their advertisements and customer services. Although faced with challenges like ambiguity of the clientele, social media has brought massive benefits to the corporate world in as far as public relations are concerned. Below are some of the social media tools that most organizations exploit in their quest to provide better products and services to their customers. Why Social Media Service Tools are Emerging Technology According to Wrench (2013), technologies such as cloud, Crowdsourcing, and Consumerization have boosted the customer service tools especially through the social media channels that have been emerging rapidly. Indeed, Social networking sites like Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn are recent technologies that have helped redefine the customer service of many corporates. Since the advent of Facebook and Twitter in 2004 and 2006 respectively, many companies have embraced the technologies in their quest to reach wide range of customers. The tools of Social media customer service are new technologies that emerged recently and keep on changing depending on how the social networking sites upgrade their software (Pervaje, 2011). The main reason as to why the social media customer service tools are emerging technologies is due to the fact real-time communication with customers on a wider scale is a phenomenon that came recently with the advent of the social media. In as much as the leading corporates in the worlds have embraced the technology, some organizations are yet to adopt this form of customer service (Wrench, 2013).  Facebook This is arguably the most popular social networking site where users can easily chat and share various files. Unveiled in February 2004, Facebook commanded over fife hundred million users as of July 2010 with an unlimited growth in popularity. Through Facebook, major companies including renowned media houses in the world like CNN and BBC have testified the benefits of embracing the use social media in delivering customer service (Solomon, 2012). By simply signing up a fan page on Facebook, a company can attract various clienteles by luring them to like the page and soon the number of likes escalates due to the interconnections among friends. This tool is efficient and effective in that the corporate can update active users by simply posting their compliment, update, or concern on their Facebook walls. Likewise, active users who would like to post a comment, concern, or suggestion may simply do so by writing on the company’s wall. Thus, in this case, customer service is enhanced and happens in real-time in that a company can offer customer service to as many customers as are logged on their Facebook accounts simultaneously. Facebook is allegedly the commonest tool used by corporates in keeping in touch with their customers as it is easy to use and enables one to share photos, videos, and written text with a huge audience in real-time. In this case, the company presumes its Facebook fans to be its esteemed or prospective customers (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Twitter Launched in 2006, Twitter is a social networking site whose initial purpose was to enable friends to be able to update one another all day long. It is essentially an instant messaging service where a person can update their followers by typing and posting short texts, usually about a hundred and forty characters in length. Although its principal purpose was to inform friends and colleagues of the prevailing trends of the day, it has gained wide usage in the commercial, political, and academic world du due to the dynamics of it use. In the corporate world, most public relations departments have incorporated this social networking site into their customer service where they update their customers in short texts known as tweets. Customers on the other hand, can approve and ‘retweet’ the messages to friends and colleagues thus fulfilling the organization’s objective of delivering instant services to their esteemed customers. In this case, the company presumes its followers on Twitter to be its esteemed or prospective customers (Solomon, 2012). You Tube Perchance another interesting social media tool that some corporates use is the You Tube that involves the creation of online channels where the company can post videos and ask those who subscribe to its channel to view and share the company’s videos on various internet platforms as a way of marketing. The company may also post the video clips with the rationale of informing or updating its perceived customers about the company’s products and / or services. Though Google assimilated YouTube for USD 1.65 billion in 2006, it was at the time the world’s most popular video sharing site. Founded in 2005, You Tube has gained much popularity with hundreds of millions of subscribers streaming, viewing, or sharing videos on a daily basis. By posting useful or fan video clips, companies connect with their customers who in turn view and share the information contained in the clips (Solomon, 2012). Linked In According to Billington & Billington (2012), this social networking site involves posting articles on the Linked In, which individuals on the network can access. Corporates can make use of this site for customer service by joining popular groups that they perceive their customers normally frequent and this way, they can easily connect and interact with customers in matters relating to the organization’s product and service delivery and customer satisfaction. Customers experience the service by simply searching for answers that relate to the corporates mode of business (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Google + Lastly but equally important is the Google + owned and managed by Google Inc. in this social networking site, companies can create circles in their respective profiles where they intend their customers to be part of the circles. After that, they simply post interesting or useful information on their circles so that their customers get the intended updates and comment where necessary. Prospective companies can enhance the customer service process by utilizing launching hangout and chat services that enable customers to closely follow and monitor the business activities and submit useful feedback (Billington & Billington, 2012). Benefits of Using Social Media for Customer Support Astonishingly, a vast majority of the leading companies in the world including small businesses have embraced various social media tools for conducting customer service, each with varied explanations as to the benefits they derive. Perhaps social media is undoubtedly the best a company can use for its customer care service because virtually all consumers visit various social media sites on varying degrees, some customers may be active users with others visiting such sites on occasional basis (Schmidt & Ralph, 2011). The following are the main benefits that corporates derive by actively using various social media platforms to provide customer care services. Marketing and exposure: most business enterprises have realized that the only viable places to engage their customers are the social media sites. Through regular communication and interaction with customers over the internet, companies are able to market themselves and easily get the much needed business exposure (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Enhanced customer satisfaction: the use of social media as a customer service tool has proved to promote customers in that the customers can make real-time enquires and send feedback instantaneously thus enabling them to find answers to their supposed issues and updates promptly (Xevelonakis & Som, 2012). Efficiency of the social media customer service tools: this is because several customers can receive the same feedback or update at the same time and due to the large number of active social media users, the companies can interact with their customers at any time with customer from diverse backgrounds (Carolyn & Parasnis, 2011). Boosting the company sales: when there is constant interaction and feedback between the company and its customers, the company can increase its sales volumes through special offers that can attract attention of a huge number of customers of which some might be potential buyers (Solomon, 2012). Earning customers’ trust: through regular updates and feedbacks, companies are able to win the confidence of many of their customers and other prospective customers by instilling a sense of trust in their customers (Xevelonakis & Som, 2012). Complexities and ambiguities of social media as a customer service tool Despite the fact that social media projects a number of benefits for customer care departments of many corporates, there exist some aspects of ambiguities and challenges facing the same. One them is the anonymity of most ‘perceived’ customers that facilitates most users to post inaccurate and sometimes misleading updates, feedbacks, and comments (Schmidt & Ralph, 2011). Perhaps the ambiguity of using social media to deliver customer service is the difficulty to gauge whether the actively participating users are the actual customers or the percentage of customers that that receive the updates and information about the company’s products and services Sashi (2012). In as much as the freedom of the media is guaranteed, social media has had its fair share of legal ambiguities in that organizations in their quest to deliver service to their esteemed customers, they have to operate in a world that lacks strict adherence to the policies. According to Pervaje (2011), most social networking social networking sites do not provide strict measure to culprits of their policies. This has led to a situation whereby there is little or no control on the usage of the social media tools and most customers have more often than not abused this freedom. Such acts as the perpetration of hate speech, vulgarity, obscenity, and profanity have been commonplace in the social media customer service where suspicious characters, hide under the cover of anonymity to post such items. In many occasions, corporates and individuals have sued a section of the social media companies for outright defamation, an act performed by unscrupulous users. Such legal tussles have sparked controversies over the effectiveness of the use of social media tools for customer service (Pervaje, 2011). Organizations that befit the use of Social Media Customer Service tools Despite the complexities and ambiguities involved with the use of social media tools for customer service, the technology becomes inevitable in information communication organizations and the mass media that need constant interaction with customers to enable the customers to know the latest developments in such organizations. Though ICT companies like Vodafone provide various services to its customers using effective communication channels, the incorporation of social media into their customer service program enhances their ICT systems. When it comes to mainstream media like CNN, BBC, and CCTV, the use of social media tool in customer service is very essential as they are under constant communication with the customers than any other company and timely feedback and comments may help correct potential problems. Another category of organizations that deserves the integration of social media tools into their customer service are the manufacturing companies. These include both product and service providers like the Coca-Cola Company whose main aim and focus in the business is customer satisfaction. Since the companies have to have the assurance that their products and services meet customer expectations, constant communication with the customers through the social media is necessary (Bunzel, 2010).  Conclusion With the new trends technological trends especially in information communication technology, customer care service has taken a new dimension commensurate with the current trends. Customer service, being a focal point of every public relations department in the corporate world, has evolved over the years to keep abreast of the technological advancements. Although the launching of most the social media networking sites was with the intention that such sites would enable friends and colleagues to keep one another informed and updated, the corporate world has since followed suit in engaging their customers. This approach to customer service has its benefits and problems in equal measure. Overall, the use of social media to deliver customer service is both beneficial to the company and the customers. References Billington, M. G., & Billington, P. J. (2012). Social media tools for leaders and managers. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 9(6), 11-19. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1315152992?accountid=45049 Bunzel, T. (2010). Tools of engagement: Presenting and training in a world of social media. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Carolyn, H. B., & Parasnis, G. (2011). From social media to social customer relationship management. Strategy & Leadership, 39(5), 30-37. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878571111161507 Fouts, J. (2009). Social media success!: Practical advice and real-world examples for social media engagement. Cupertino, CA: Happy About.info. Gibson, P. (2012). The world of customer service. Mason, Ohio: South Western Cengage Learning. Huy, Q., & Shipilov, A. (2012). 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