Back in 2010, a mere 5% of organizations were taking advantage of social media to provide quality customer service to their customers.  As 2014 approaches, the numbers have increased dramatically, with nearly 20% now integrating their social media strategy with customer service.

While a near 4-fold growth shows us that the importance of customer service integration is obviously growing, it’s sad to see that only 44% of customer questions that are tweeted at them are answered within 24 hours and even sadder to know that 56% of customer tweets to companies are ignored entirely (Source: MediaBistro).

These numbers are made even more shocking when you realize how consumers have begun to utilize social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to interact with companies.  What began as a soapbox for businesses to broadcast messages, promotions and campaigns has now evolved into a customer service opportunity, where consumers can publicly voice their questions, opinions and disappointment with a company or product with dire consequences for those businesses not ready to respond.  It is absolutely crucial for a business in today’s word to have integrated customer service with their social media presence, but if you don’t, here is what you should be considering:

Assess Your Goals

Understanding what you should look to get out of customer service integration with social media is a key starting point.  Will you provide solutions through social media along with up-selling techniques?  Will you look to just simply answer questions or spur on further engagement and fan growth through it?  Taking the time to consider the end goal of your customer service integration will give you a better understanding of the direction your business will need to take and how you can best utilize the assets you already have to help you along the way.

What is Your Current Situation?

Do you already have a social media presence?  Are your customers already utilizing these mediums to contact you about your products or services?  How have you handled them in the past and what is your brand’s reputation like because of it?

What Assets Do You Already Have?

Are you utilizing software that can help you track your time spent on social media?  Does it update you when customers leave both positive and negative comments and does it allow you to view the right metrics that will provide key insights into how engaged your customer service is and how well it is being received online.  Beyond technology, you must also consider who from your customer service will be responding.  Depending on the size of your business and the amount of engagement your social media profiles receives, you could be looking at utilizing one employee or dozens.  From there, how much training and product knowledge will be required for these employees before they can begin interacting with customers online and how will you track their interactions?

What once seemed like a simple idea of integration between two of your business functions has since turned into a nightmare for many large companies looking to take advantage of the latest social media trends.  As with any business function, customer service through social media must be traceable and show some sort of return on investment to prove itself useful.  For many who do not fully understand their options for integration, both with the overwhelmingly large amount of choices in technology and with the strategic implementation, turning to consultants who understand what it takes to get your customer service sectors up, running and optimized is most likely your best option.  Contact Eventus today to find out what your options are when it comes to taking advantage of the customer service side of social media today.

If you would like to learn more about the steps you should be considering when it comes to integrating your customer service with social media, download our free guide below and find out everything you need to know.

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