Social marketers save
their brands from the
customer service
apocalypse
Amid halting global supply chains and staffing shortages, many businesses can expect an influx of no-so-happy customers in 2022. Meanwhile, demand for customer service over social has been surging. Social media managers now find themselves in an ideal position to play the hero and steer their organizations through the upheaval.
Social marketers, if you feel like your job description has ballooned over the past year, you're not alone. Spurred on by lockdowns and chaotic shifts in business operations, we’ve seen social marketers take on more responsibility for managing an influx of customer service inquiries.
Anyone expecting this to subside as the pandemic wanes is in for a rude awakening. Massive increases in consumer demand have put the global shipping industry into a chokehold at ports around the world, making it almost impossible for businesses to fulfill orders. Meanwhile, labor shortages are sweeping global markets, leaving fewer workers to deliver bloating orders bound for soon-to-be-disappointed customers.
A customer service
apocalypse is upon us.
And in 2022, social
will be the front line.
Consumers, fed up with waiting on hold, have discovered that service delivered via social is immediate, convenient, and effective. In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they now prefer to message rather than call a business. The pressure on businesses to adapt to as many digital customer service channels as possible is sky-high.
Businesses are beginning to see social as a vital customer service channel, with 59% of respondents in our Social Trends 2022 survey agreeing that social customer care has increased in value for their organization.
“
When you bundle social marketing and social care, you’re actually covering the core outcomes that have a huge impact on customers’ buying experience and your company’s bottom line. That’s the big picture many businesses still aren’t seeing.”
Christoph Neut
Vice President Sales, Sparkcentral by Hootsuite
of marketers agree that social customer care has increased in value for their organization over the past 12 months
Source: Hootsuite Social Trends 2022 Survey
With the pressure mounting, nobody is in a better position to help organizations navigate this shift than social marketers.
Social marketers know the channels better than anyone else.
They’re much more likely to understand which social networks customers are using, and where they’re seeking help from any given business.
Social marketers are closer to the customer.
They have a keen sense of the kinds of recurring issues customers are running up against. They are a key source of insight for many businesses looking to streamline common inquiries and consolidate ballooning support tickets.
In 2022, business leaders will look to social marketers to take a greater role in customer service. Pioneering social marketers will break from their departmental silos to build deeper inroads with customer service teams and take more agency in delivering customer care.
The trend in action
Careem, the largest ride-sharing service in the Middle East, has seen a 350% increase in inbound customer service traffic since the start of the pandemic.
To help streamline engagement with their rapidly growing community of 6 million followers and enable their teams to handle over 400,000 customer conversations every month, Careem’s head of community management, Mohannad Baig, knew something had to be done.
“Managing active, social communities is vital. We rely on our customers to help us improve our business—whether that is our marketing, our services, or our app.”
Careem invested in Sparkcentral by Hootsuite which gave their social teams an easy-to-use workflow to handle engagement across their social channels. The ability to tag and filter messages helped them make sense of a deluge of inbound communication across all of their messaging and social channels.
To help empower the rest of their organization, Careem’s social team uses Sparkcentral to report KPIs, then shares reports with marketing, service, operations, and partner teams to spot issues, find opportunities, and mine for insights.
“Our aim is to simplify life for people in the Middle East. We want to make a difference in people’s lives, and we do that.”
Mohannad Baig
Head of Community Management, Careem
Now make them wonder how YOU did it
Now make them
wonder how YOU
did it
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Test your knowledge
How many organizations agree that social customer care has increased in value for them over the past 12 months?
