64% of Millennials Say Social Media is an Effective Customer Service Channel
Love it or leave it, brands and organizations just can’t shake customer expectations for social customer service, and from Microsoft’s 2016 State of Global Customer Service Report responses, it looks like those expectations are only set to grow as time goes on and a next generation of customers comes of age.
In a survey of 5,000 consumers across Brazil, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US, 64% of consumers ages 18 – 34 said they view social media as an effective channel for customer service, compared to just 27% of consumers ages 55+.
In a related question, 52% of consumers ages 18 – 34 had used actively social media to ask customer service questions, compared to just 13% of consumers ages 55+.
Whether you do it right like the entertaining response one customer received from travel app that offered up a flight with a layover of half a century, or wrong (lots of examples to choose from as organizations live and learn), customers still expect a response when they connect on social.
In fact, 67% of all consumers in Microsoft’s survey say they expect a response on social media within 24 hours, and again, that percentage only increases for next-gen customers, 78% of which expect a response within a day.
And if you think customers just go to social media to complain, think again. Microsoft’s 2016 survey revealed that more consumers have actually praised a brand on social media (36%) rather than complained about it (29%) – and that held true across all ages groups.
Aided by social listening to pick up trends and sentiment changes, as well as a strong collaboration between customer service and marketing to deliver both reactive and proactive information and responses related to service and support issues, the percentage praising a brand on social media could rise in this channel that just appears to be coming of age.
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Get the 2016 State of Global Customer Service Report
Whether you’re in customer service, marketing, sales, IT – or especially if you’re the CEO, CFO or CDO – you’ll be fascinated by the results revealed by Microsoft’s new 2016 Global State of Customer Service Report which polled 5,000 consumers across Brazil, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US on their customer service preferences and expectations.
The variations based on both geography and age will either confirm or totally change the way you think about, invest in, improve and incorporate customer service as a foundation of your brand or organization.
View Microsoft's on-demand webinar discussing this year's fascinating results. With the on-demand webinar, you'll receive a copy of the full 23-page report.
