The future of customer experience: social media vs mobile

Social media is one of the most talked about means of communication these days – but how does it fare as a customer insight tool? Can social media really help us to understand what consumers want and need? Rapide, the Moments of Truth company, has recently launched a Thought Bubble looking at the future of customer experience and why it might be better for businesses to be anti-social. Nigel Shanahan, Managing Director at Rapide, provides an overview...

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Everyone uses social media – correct? It’s all we hear about, Twitter this, facebook that - there is even a vague idea floating around that social media is a great way for businesses to interact with customers. The truth is, however, that only a few percent of society actually use social media and so by using it as a business tool we exclude a large percent of our audience. Commentators have said that Twitter and blogs aren’t the right media for interacting with customers, since 90% of people don’t use them. This is the right conclusion – but it’s drawn from the wrong premise.

It’s not about users vs non-users, it’s really all about forward-thinking vs backward-looking. 19 out of 20 customers won’t communicate with you at all before they fall out of your orbit forever, so basing a customer feedback strategy on looking for the 20th customer is like gazing permanently in the rearview mirror – it’s already too late. Put it in a social media context, if only your 20th customer bothers to tweet, what’s happened to the first 19 who may either love or hate your brand? They may have gone elsewhere, they may have forgotten you exist, and they may never be your customer again.

The reason we are going wrong is by thinking of social media as a research method. The word ‘research’ – it conjures up images of clipboards, questionnaires, people stopping you in the street – all those things consumers hate. Research is fundamentally backward looking. Social media would not be something we would describe as backward looking – so maybe the social web isn’t the real problem here; maybe we just aren’t using it effectively.

Anything mined from social media is valuable, but it is not real-time, and it is not a one-to-one communication with consumers. If you want to be successful in business, a two-way conversation with customers is where you absolutely have to be. There is a way to use social media for positive impact on customer service. But it means taking an unconventional stance - being anti-social.

We know only a small percentage of people use social media, but that few percent talk really loudly, and they can make a really big fuss which is heard by a lot of people. Social media doesn’t cover the mass market, only the edge cases. But this is where being anti-social becomes useful. That four percent isn’t the whole crowd; it’s the ‘in’ crowd. It’s not a lot of your market – but we can learn a lot from the 20th customer. If a minority of customers are unhappy, it is very likely the majority probably feel the same, they just don’t have the confidence to shout about it.

In being really effective in engaging with your customers, you need to understand their ‘Moment of Truth’ - that point in the customer journey where the consumer makes a big decision about a brand. Maybe it’s in the check-in queue at the airport, or in the changing rooms of a high street shop. It’s always in a situation where a company can take action at a point of grievance – but many don’t, or can’t, because they lack the right channel – they aren’t in the position to communicate directly with customers.

Here’s the good news – there is one channel that gives customers the chance to let you know how they feel at all times and enables you to act on those comments in a real-time and direct way – the mobile channel.

It’s a simple yet staggeringly effective method of customer engagement. Give consumers the opportunity to text their feedback when they are in the high street store, on the train or checking into their hotel, and you will get honest and timely feedback and a true reflection of how they really feel. Give them the confidence to share their thoughts with you, and by responding directly, by dealing with problems or offering incentives, you will build real relationships.

By building these positive relationships, you create opportunities to turn customers into brand advocates - an invaluable way to keep your customers loyal and increase your customer base.

So how does it work? What if a happy customer could talk to you directly? By using the mobile channel you can engage directly with your customers, and incentivise them to talk to you directly, By offering an ‘always on’ channel, you can get to customers at key moments, and they can always share their view, by text, and get a response – meaning you pre-empt any social media outbursts.

For example, using mobile to respond directly to an unhappy customer and offering a voucher to make up for the unhappy experience could ensure that customer talks to you and stop them from walking away. Similarly, by responding to positive feedback and rewarding happy customers, you encourage them to engage directly, you create an advocate, and they are likely to spread the word.

Research group Infoquest says that customers who are ‘totally satisfied’ will spend three times more with a brand than those who are ‘somewhat satisfied’. This proves the point that acting in the all important Moment of Truth is key to pushing customers from the latter group into the former latter.

And of course, once you have engaged directly with customers there is benefit to taking the communication to the social web. By offering a happy customer an incentive which extends to 10 of their closest friends you can build on developing relationships with your new advocate and also generate a whole new customer base.

This approach works for negative feedback as well. Negative comments can turn into a public disaster, but if an unhappy customer has had a chance to tell you directly how they feel and you can resolve the situation, they no longer have the urge to vent their frustrations on social media.

Direct communication is key to getting connected with your customers. Real-time customer engagement is the ultimate way to triumph in business and protect your bottom line – and let’s face it in today’s economic climate it all comes down to profit. By giving consumers an opportunity to feedback to you directly at the moment of truth – when they make that all important decision as to whether to stay or go – you can save unhappy customers, create advocates out of happy customers and get real insight into what consumers are thinking in those key moments.

This is what we mean by being anti-social. It’s not talking to everyone all the time. It’s about talking to the people who matter when it matters. By using mobile communication in the right way you can open up direct communication with 100 percent of your customers. Heading off negative situations, maximising positivity and improving the future of your business. To me, that is the future of customer experience

For more information on Rapide and to download the ‘Why it pays to be anti-social’ thought bubble

ENDS

Notes to editors:

More about Rapide – the Moments of Truth Company:

Founded in 2000 Rapide have always been innovators in business communication. The company’s passion lies in developing award winning technology to help industry leading clients put customer insight at the centre of everything they do. Rapide’s multi-channel solutions let companies talk to their customers at moments that matter, while its sophisticated text analytics interpret customer sentiment and provide actionable insight. Rapide helps its clients prevent customer churn, respond in real-time to customer feedback and develop profitable relationships that last.

Introducing Rant and Rave:

Rant & Rave is the award winning technology that lets businesses capture the moment and speak to their customers as and when they need to. The Rant & Rave concept is simple - if you give customers the chance to have their say straight away, when they are most engaged with your brand, they are more likely to tell you how they really feel.

Rant & Rave is not a ten page customer satisfaction survey and it’s not a mystery shopper, instead it provides real insight in real-time. Rapide’s clients capture their customer thoughts via text message, voice message and email and ensure feedback is captured at the moment of truth – straight after service delivery. To learn more go to www.rantandrave.co.uk

For more information please contact:
Ally Forbes
Clear Communications
Tel: 01285 626000
Email: aforbes@clearcommunications.co.uk