Social media is now the customer service channel of choice for under 25s. Many organisations are struggling to manage the increasing volume of social interactions effectively. In this slide deck we take you through the top 5 trends happening right now and give you practical tips for managing your social customer service.

1. 1

2. Social media is a continually
evolving customer service
channel
Here are 5 key trends you need
to know about…

3. Trend
#1 Social media teams
and technology are
converging
3

4. 4
Businesses are changing the way they
organise internally around social engagement

5. Marketing teams used to be
the headline act when it
came to social media.
5
 They held the social purse strings and strategies were aligned
around what they wanted to say.
 The social contract put the onus on the customer to listen.

6. 6
How
things
have
changed

7. 7
The contract
has been
torn up.
The onus is on brands to
listen - together as a
business - to understand,
and respond to, what a
customer experiences
along the way.

8. 8
When it comes to frontline support

9. Marketing campaigns are only effective if
customer service
teams are prepared
to answer questions and comments
about the campaign.
9

10. To foster closer
collaboration
regular cross-
departmental
meetings need
to be scheduled to
share feedback,
insight and ideas.
10

11. 11
When it comes to technology

12. 12
Organisations are investing in one suite of tools which
can be tailored to serve multiple use cases for
engagement.

13. 13
When it comes to
budget…

14. Customer service teams need to
share budget with
marketing and other key
stakeholders to drive
economies of scale.
14

15. 15
This will also help to stop the silo mentality resurfacing.
If different departments continue to use different tools, social data is
skewed by incompatible listening methodologies, objectives and
outcomes.

16. Where are we at?
Participant feedback Sentiment / Netcall webinar
42%
42%
8%
8%
Where does social customer service sit?
Collaborative Siloed Competitive Other
16

17. Trend
#2 Seeing the bigger
picture
17

18. 18
Customer experience
is the new wealth

19. It’s always better to
understand why
consumers
choose your
brand than hedge
your bets on simply
asking them to.
19

20. 20
You also need to find out why consumers abandon purchasing
decisions or want to jump ship.

21. 21
However ….
Most organisations can’t see the bigger picture and don’t
analyse social data to understand what customers go
through.

22. 22
In reality, data-
driven insight
on social
customers is
still elusive and
brands are
missing
unfettered
feedback.

23. 23
Where are we at?
of brands are not
accurately
measuring the
impact of their
social activities
(Incite Group)
%

24. Trend #3
Hello, is there
anybody out there?
24

25. Improving
response
times is a top
priority for brands
which need to close
the chasm between
what customers look
for and what they are
able to provide.
25

26. Consumers don’t
just talk to one
brand on social
channels.
They shine a light to those
which are quick and efficient
in getting back to them,
putting businesses which are
ignoring comments, or slow
on response times in the
shade.
26

27. Organising
workflow and
simplifying
agent inboxes
will go a long way in
fixing this for
businesses struggling
to keep up. 27

28. …is not investing in
engagement
technology which can
scan, filter, route and
prioritise mentions to
make it easier for
social media teams.
28
One of the
biggest routes
to failure…

29. 29
Where are we at?
The average social
media response
time is 78 minutes
(Dimension Data)
minutes

30. 70% of
consumers expect a
response on social
media within 15
minutes (BT / Avaya)
30

31. Trend
#4 Messaging apps
and chat bots
31

32. Demand for chat
apps is pushing
the customer
frontier
32

33. These apps could
even change the
way mobile
customers and
brands connect
altogether
33

34. Consumers could get
app fatigue and
replace brand apps
with an easy option
like Facebook
Messenger to connect
with businesses at all
points of their
journey.
34

35. Messaging apps are an
always-on
connection and
could even replace live
chat as customers see
them as a quicker
solution to waiting
around on websites for
support.
35

36. Messaging apps are
outpacing social networks
when it comes to monthly
active users (millions):
Messaging apps 3,500
Social networks 2,500
(Business Insider)
36
Just how popular
are these apps?

37. When it comes to channel choice:
 Mobile apps are a top three choice for
customer service for under 55s
 Social media is the number one choice for
customer service under 25s
(Dimension Data)
37

38. Platforms such as Facebook
Messenger, WeChat, Line et al need
to be integrated into the
engagement apps that agents
already use.
This will help to ensure customers
have the best engagement
experience from a single point of
access.
38
To give customers
a consistent
experience

39. What about
chat bots?
39

40. Chat bots are a
potential game
changer.
Facebook has upped the ante on
this by letting businesses drop
chat bots into Messenger. Other
platforms will follow suit.
40

41. Using bots will help
reduce agent-
assisted
interactions but
the outcome as
always depends on
the quality of the AI
brands deploy.
41

42. Businesses will
probably only use AI
for simple enquiries
and FAQs.
In most cases bots will
start a conversation and
then agents will take over
to do the heavy lifting.
42

43. 43
Where are we at?
Of customers talk
to businesses via
chat apps
(Mobile Ecosystem Forum and Mblox)
%

44. 44
Financial services
customers are the
most active users
of chat apps at
22%(Mobile Ecosystem Forum and Mblox)

45. 35%
of chat app users are
not being engaged
(Mobile Ecosystem Forum and Mblox)
45

46. Trend
#5 Customer patience is
running out
46

47. 47
If a consumer
trusts that
contacting a
business is
easy they
won’t
necessarily
turn to
competitors.

48. 48
If customers want to use social channels and support is slow or a
hassle, or they feel like they are being ignored, they are likely to just
give up and go elsewhere, quicker than they can type #poorservice.

49. 49
Where are we at?
Of consumers have
intended to make a
purchase but didn’t
due to bad service
(Convince & Convert)
%

50. 50
80% of
consumers view
getting
through to an
agent quickly
as the number
one priority
for customer
service (tyntec)

51. 51
Customer
experience is the
new capital and
making social
customer care easy
is a wealth creator.

52. Thank You!
Worried about these trends mean for you, or just want to make the service you
provide on social better? Get in touch to see how we can help.
Email: info@sentimentmetrics.com
Web: sentimentmetrics.com
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