Study: Social Media more important for customer service
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others are becoming more and more interesting from a customer service perspective. This is one of the results of a recent study by Boston Global looking at why consumers follow and unfollow brands on social platforms.
Consumers who want to reach out to brands and resellers for help, are fast in using social media accounts of brands. A quick direct message here, a public tweet there, or simply writing a review on the brand’s account site. Social media is becoming the contact point if companies want happy customers. Especially, when competitors are also on the same social network, the messaging and speed of reaction on engagement is essential for business impact and lead generation.
The study by Boston Global that asked 554 consumers makes clear why consumers follow and unfollow brands. or which content is relevant for them. In terms of content, there are two main reason why Instagram is relevant to consumers: a) to get to know more about products and b) to find information about their main hobbies. The conclusion is that the content of brands need to stick to the main business topics in order to stay relevant and drive business impact.
Furthermore, the study shows that social media helps customer service. Although a direct mail to the company or brand is the first choice, when there is a product question. The second way of approaching a brand on product problems is a direct message on the company page. Active and fast feedback of brands is essential in this case. It retains consumer loyalty, or regains customers that have made a negative product experience. Consumers unfollow brands predominantly as of irrelevant content, too high posting frequency and getting no feedback on direct messages on company pages.
And if you still think, social media is not important for your brand, then you better think twice. The study shows that especially Gen Z and Gen Y want to interact with brands on their social media accounts. Thus, dedicating serious resources to social media activities and leveraging the brand reputation on social platforms becomes an essential driver of business impact. Responding to consumers on social networks is appreciation and should not be underestimated for b2b and b2c companies.
