- between 1982 and 1993 who wield an estimated $170 to $200 billion in annual purchasing power—prefer alternate channels such as chat to traditional phone calls.
- Social is powerful. CCSI research also found that while social media should not be a primary customer support communications channel, it can be crucial as a tool for salvaging customer relationships when they have complaints. The research indicates that social media is not the preferred support method from a customer's perspective (less than 2 percent choose social for initial support), but it does note that social media is the most effective channel for proactively improving customer relationships once they have gone awry. The data showed substantial customer satisfaction increases for customers who had been contacted by a business after expressing grievances via social media (a score of 80, on a scale of 0-100) as opposed to those who were not contacted (a score of 64). Following up after a customer takes to social media also positively impacts customer loyalty (a score of 82 versus 68 if not contacted) and likelihood to recommend (a score of 82 versus 64 if not contacted).
Trending communications channels like chat and social are not meant to wholly replace traditional call center engagement, but they can certainly supplement and even complement the customer service work being conducted by phone. For example, chat can reveal a topic of such detail or debate that it requires a personal conversation in the form of a phone call, which the chat agent can directly facilitate. And businesses can detect issues early on through social discussions and comments and equip their call center agents with new information or messaging to effectively manage related inbound customer inquiries or complaints.
Especially in a marketplace where e-commerce and transactions are so prevalent, customers have come to recognize virtual customer service channels as the "face" of companies they do business with. In return, those channels should reflect the customers that use them, which is why an expansion of the call center model to embrace true contact—via phone, chat, email, Web site, and social media—is an evolution businesses should seriously consider embracing.
Terry Redding is the vice president of marketing and product development at the CFI Group.