Social Media Equals Social Customer: Managing Customer Experience in the Age of Social Media

by Donnovan Simon

Overview

It’s hard to believe that just ten years ago, few people had even heard of social media. Today it’s a critical part of doing business—and yet many companies still don’t realize the power of connecting with people online. To get the most out of these relationships, it’s important to develop strategies that engage both existing and potential customers.

Author Donnovan Simon, an expert communicator, explores how to get the most out of your social media efforts in this instructional guidebook. You can learn how to

• connect with social customers;
• manage the customer experience online;
• communicate with different generations of consumers;
• measure the success of your social media efforts; and
• prepare for the next generation of customers.

You can build your business via social media. Take ownership of the future and deliver your shareholders and customers the value they deserve with the strategies in Social Media Equals Social Customer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491702338
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/22/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	154
File size:	6 MB

Read an Excerpt

Social Media Equals Social Customer

Managing Customer Experience in the Age of Social Media

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By Donnovan Simon

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2013 Donnovan Simon
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-0232-1

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CHAPTER 1

The Social Customer

We are in an era where systems, processes, and products are being developed to meet the tastes of individuals whose distinctive feature is the fact that they practice social networking. A lot is being invested to understand these new individuals and the implications for business strategies, processes, and practices. The new persona, often described as the "social customer," has become the focus of attention for analysts, marketers, and executives in an attempt to understand this person and guide organizations in the best way to successfully deal with this type of customer.

Who is a social customer?

Do you pay for your coffee using your smartphone? Have you ever felt deprived when you cannot tweet at will? Do you check products online before going to the mall? How much of your shopping is done online? Depending on your responses, you may be a social customer. Social customers actively use social networking technologies and transfer many of the attributes related to social networking to the way they consume goods and services. The social customer is normally:

• Completing business transactions online

• Applying social media language to consumption processes

• Sharing or collecting information related to consumption activities within social networks

• Applying ratings to products and services via social media

• Establishing interactions, where possible, with organizations and other customers via social media

While there are more attributes that are unique to different individuals, in this chapter we will discuss some consistent practices that reflect the persona. Some important distinctions need to be made from the outset to ensure that we appreciate the differences contained in this persona.

1. A social customer is not bound by an age group. While we will discuss the differences between generations, it is critical to accept that being a Millennial does not make one an automatic social customer. In the same breath, many Baby Boomers are strong social customers. 2. The phenomenon is global. Social customers are as prevalent in China as they are in the United States, despite the differences in culture and socio-economic practices. Social customers transcend many of the barriers (age, income, education, geography, etc.) that may have previously impacted personas. Many persons may not consider themselves social customers, or vice versa, but they display all the characteristics of one. This may be due to personal views and the disinclination of some individuals to being lumped in with stereotypes or trends. Nevertheless, the reality is they operate actively in social spheres and behave consistently with other people who choose to operate in a virtual world.

3. The social customer is still evolving. Likely new dimensions of the persona will become important with time as technology and its application continue to influence the way people live and conduct business.

Social customers have consistent attributes, but also differences in how individuals choose to act. This is no different than any other customer segment. Essentially, the category of social customer has many different types. Michael Brito identifies six types in his work The Rise of the Social Customer and their Impact on Business, as follows:

• The Venting Customer

• The Passive Customer

• The "Used to Be" Customer

• The Collaborative Customer

• The Customer Advocate

• The Future Customer

These types can be personified in a many different ways. I reference them to show that as we examine the concept of the social customer, many different behaviours occur that represent segments of the social customer constituency. These different behaviours validate the difficult challenge business leaders are forced to be aware of and respond to. Additionally, the basic personalities of customers remain despite social media. The strategies being devised to address the era of the social customer must reflect an appreciation of the fact that some elements of supporting and delighting customers are standard, no matter the social era. It leaves an important question open for discussion: Are expectations different in the era of the social customer?

Simple and complex responses can be given to this question. The simple response would be that customer expectations remain the same. All customers want to receive value, be treated respectfully, and have issues resolved quickly. In any era, those expectations would standard. However, higher minimum expectations are consistently being set in the era of the social customer. These expectations are products of the powerful voice that social media provides customers and the behaviours associated with social media use. Rachel Tran states that customers have three main expectations of companies using social media, as follows:

• Be fast. A social customer service team's performance can be measured by its response times and the number of queries answered.

• Be useful. First contact resolution from customer service is the key to customer satisfaction. The right tools and processes help companies to get queries to the right team member as quickly as possible so that helpful answers can be delivered through social media.

• Be friendly. Tone of voice is the most important and the most difficult challenge to master for social customer service teams. It's important to deliver genuine, professional help while maintaining the way customers reach out through social platforms.

When we examine the items above, we can see that nothing fundamental has changed in what customers, social or otherwise, are looking for from organizations that provide goods and services. The fact that they may choose to transact via a mobile device, PC, or in person has not changed the basic expectations that rational customers have always had. It is also reasonable to deduce that it should not change the basic offerings that companies should include as part of the products they bring to market. However, customers are demanding more. In upcoming chapters, we will discuss how the social nature of customers drives the desire for increased speed and access, which fuels an increase in expectations. This is where the complexity in the response comes in because while base expectations are unchanged, how customer satisfaction is measured has changed in some areas. The expectation for speed has increased. The expectation for new social support channels, like Twitter, has increased. In a survey reported by SocialBusinessNews.com, 81 percent of Twitter users expect a same-day response to questions and complaints asked through that platform.

The concept of the social customer has global application. Customers in all regions are actively participating in social media and are displaying characteristics common to those attuned to being online. For example, in China the use of instant messaging is a significant part of online activity. Top Chinese Internet provider Tencent reports over 370 million monthly users for their QQ messaging service. According to China Internet Watch's report China Social Media Whitepaper (October 2012), there were over 300 million active social media users in China with over 50 percent of them browsing social media via smartphones. The same trends are being seen in India, Brazil, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The proliferation of social customers globally does not mean they all behave the same way. It is important to understand and accept that cultural norms strongly influence customer behaviour. In a highly litigious and outspoken society like the United States, it is normal for social customers to use social media as part of the process of challenging organizations, including government, or exposing their dissatisfaction with an organization's product or service. On the contrary, although equally or more active in social media, the same does not occur in Chinese culture. Are they all social customers? Yes, but their practices are distinctly different. Why is this important to discuss in the context of this book? Because organizations that operate globally may miss the need to acknowledge the cultural nuances that apply to digital natives and therefore miss opportunities to structure their support systems to deliver the desired experience in each culture.

While many questions still are not completely answered relating to social customers, the reality is that social customers exist in various types and are influencing businesses and business practices globally. Through the data, ideas, and questions in the other chapters, I hope that those people involved in the development and implementation of customer support strategies will add some of these elements to their success equations to equip their teams to be more successful. Success will be determined by the way these customers respond, and it is likely to be consistent with their social media behaviour.

CHAPTER 2

What Customers See and Hear

I came home from work one day to meet my very excited six-year-old daughter Danielle at the door with an urgent need for my credit card. She wanted to purchase the most amazing exercise machine she had seen on the Internet. I was fascinated that she was so sure it was the best thing for me, but also keen to understand who would have marketed such a machine on a site my six-year-old would be on. Sure enough, the machine was there and I got the message. Strategies are being employed in many different ways to trigger the senses of customers and influencers; even if it means reaching the target in an indirect way.

Today's consumer has a luxury of riches in terms of the many sources available to see or hear about a product or service. Information, advice, pricing, competitive comparison, or other details are readily available. Over time, various technologies have been developed to distribute messages to large audiences in short periods of time. Communicating through newspaper, radio, television, outdoor billboards, and other mass media methods can lead to consumers being bombarded yet informed. The arrival of the Internet began an era of transformation in the customers' favour. What started as a way to provide and prove connectivity exploded into a communications phenomenon the world had not previously imagined. Then came mobile telephones. The convergence of devices followed: the pager, address book, and website were available in one gadget. The optimization of devices and networks came next. Today, and who knows for tomorrow, people are inclined to socialize through converged devices and networks.

New technology has made it easier for people to communicate, increasing the ability to reach more people quickly. Consequently, companies have invested significantly to manage the impact of these technologies on consumers. With television, radio, newspapers, and other basic advertising media all converging, customers now have the option to hear and see everything they previously received from multiple sources, on a single device. In effect, a single source of information and communication has been created. The terms radio, television, and newspaper have become nominally inaccurate as they describe sources rather than hardware or communications technologies, which they previously were. If you can tune into the same program on your mobile phone or other devices as you can on your television set, what does that say about television hardware? I can get radio stations on the Internet. Does that make my computer a radio? The same applies to television, which can now be accessed through a mobile phone. Is a mobile phone a television? The social era has transformed mass media methods into simply video, data, and text. TV, radio, and newspaper represent the language of the past.

While we unravel that confusion, there is no doubt that consumers are raising their championship belt and proclaiming victory, or at least a sense of triumph because of the power they've acquired. What may have appeared a distant achievement has become mainstream and the power of consumers is reflected in the fact that trillions of dollars are spent globally to reach them. Through various methods, consumers are "seeing and hearing" what different sellers want them to see and hear. The intended reward for the sellers is obvious—more revenue. The gain for consumers is also fairly straightforward—better prices, more, and in some cases, better products. While this all unfolds, connecting with, hearing, and effectively supporting the customer is also changing dramatically. What was a basic element of business has increased complexity significantly. Customer support options have to be constantly monitored, measured, and managed. In many organizations, resources are being assigned new roles to ensure that consumers are being catered to in the way they like and that they are getting the most from the products they invested in. Businesses, their processes, and outlook are also being transformed. Changing customers, with their actions and preferences, are significant drivers to these changes. Social technologies are a big part of the changes. One example of this could be the success of online search engines. People always want to find something on the Internet. In response, the idea of a search tool to help Internet users identify providers of goods, services, or information has been transformed into an extremely successful industry. The search technologies and the Internet are now critical to how customers are supported.

There is no contest when comparing the success of Google to that of the largest media companies. In 2011, Google reported revenues of USD$36.5 billion, which represented a 23 percent growth from the USD$26.3 billion reported in 2010. Many other successful companies are in the business of helping customers find what they need in the "virtual" world. Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all representative of the shift and success in the way businesses are forced to consider how customers see and hear them. LinkedIn, which went public in 2011, has seen revenue grow from $120 million in 2009 to $522 million in 2011. Traditional media organizations (newspapers, radio, and television) are not showing the same trends. The growth of what I call "new media" is positive for a global economy that has had to deal with a range of different shocks and stutter-steps. The fact that social media businesses have become cornerstones of the way people work, interact, and connect is indicative of the value created and offered by these "new media" companies. They have become a core part of people's lives globally. This global impact is reported in numerous surveys relating to the changes caused by these social media sites and their convergence with other technological occurrences.

The significance of the role of these companies and technologies in how news, data, and information are distilled globally can be examined through various lenses. YouTube, which was acquired by Google in 2006, has two billion views daily, with 60 hours of video uploaded every minute. Facebook reaches 73 percent of Internet users in the United States daily. The data continues to astound in terms of the scope and reach of these tools—yes—tools. Users are able to cover almost all areas of the globe with news and information in milliseconds through these tools. To add another perspective, a standard acceptance and expectation is that people should connect using these tools. Recently, American pop star Justin Timberlake, after a few years of not releasing a new album, relied on Twitter to alert the world of the impending release of his new single. No press conference. No press release. No website update or fancy declaration through traditional media. A tweet did it. His post, powered by the social jet streams, was able to break records and had over 400,000 downloads within a day of release. It was not the traditional marketing genius spinning messages and building appealing images. It capitalized on a social media ocean with global reach, powerful waves, and eager recipients.

These "new media" tools have overlapped to ensure that the world is interrelated and interconnected seamlessly. Messages through these channels automatically have a viral feature that can be exploited by both companies and individuals. Social tools are now a significant part of the customer experience cycle. The shift in the structure of how consumers are communicated with has a direct impact on how they are eventually supported. Their engagement begins through the different media that they connect with in the dynamic world of social technologies and contributes to the formation of experiences. The other stages in the customer experience cycle must therefore be in sync to capitalize on the gains made in the engagement phase. The impact of both message and media continue way past that phase. Since the customer experience contributes to business success, we should examine the impact of messages being shared across different media. The entire customer experience should be examined, not just the customer service element. Customers' experiences are being shaped by what they are seeing and hearing all the time. It happens even more as they shift to using social media as a primary source for news, information, and entertainment.
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Social Media Equals Social Customer by Donnovan Simon. Copyright © 2013 Donnovan Simon. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Preface....................     vii     

Introduction....................     ix     

Chapter 1 The Social Customer....................     1     

Chapter 2 What Customers See and Hear....................     7     

Chapter 3 Social Media, Social Customer....................     20     

Chapter 4 How Social Customers Speak....................     35     

Chapter 5 Generation Gaps....................     45     

Chapter 6 Social Customers Equals Higher Expectations....................     55     

Chapter 7 Getting the Social Customer to Stay....................     66     

Chapter 8 Customer Service 20....................     76     

Chapter 9 Customer Experience Management....................     89     

Chapter 10 What Next?....................     100     

Acknowledgements....................     115     

Appendices....................          

Appendix 1 My Survey Results....................     119     

Appendix 2 Description of Top 10 Social Networking Sites...................     123     

Works Cited....................     129     

Notes....................     131