The big brands suspend in customer service through the Social Media

A new experiment goes back to show how even the big brands ignore the requests of their customers through social networks. 

This experiment, carried out by Software Advice in collaboration with CIO, was intended to verify the efficiency, quality and speed of the customer service of the major brands of mass consumption. To this end, 14 leading companies were selected as representatives of 7 important sectors, such as fast food, beverages, retail, technology, financial services or personal care. 

The big brands suspend in customer service through the Social MediaFor 26 consecutive days, each of these marks received a tweet, sent from one of the 4 different personal profiles selected to carry out this task; All of them real, corresponding to 4 workers of the company. In the 4 weeks of the experiment, the tweets sent the first and third made an explicit mention of the brand (@ company), while the rest only named it. 

The content of the tweets covered various themes, which correspond to 5 different categories, whose development was supported by experts in customer service through the Social Media Engagor, Conversocial and StellaService; Which could be classified in the following according to their theme: For whose development it was counted on the support of experts in customer service through the Social Media of Engagor, Conversocial and StellaService; Which could be classified in the following according to their theme: For whose development it was counted on the support of experts in customer service through the Social Media of Engagor, Conversocial and StellaService; Which could be classified in the following according to their theme:

  • URGENCY: request for immediate assistance
  • POSITIVE ASPECTS: in the form of gratitude
  • CRITICS, highlighting some negative aspect
  • FAQs or technical questions
  • NEEDS or specific issues

The result is more than disastrous: 

None of the 14 companies responded immediately; Only Pepsi is saved, whose average response time was 19 minutes, followed closely by Mastercard, with 34 minutes. Mention of honor in this section deserves McDonald’s, which required an average of 34 hours and 47 minutes to attend to those requests that he had. 

As for the volume of tweets answered, no company responded to more than a third of the requests sent. Bank of America handled the largest number of messages, with 35%, followed closely by Coca Cola, which interacted in 30% of cases. 

It should be noted that companies with a great trajectory in social networks would not deign to answer a single tuit, As is the case of Starbucks or Apple. Walmart and Visa also gave the silence for answer. It is unthinkable that today a company does not monitor its presence in social networks, not even the name of its brand. In the specific case of Starbucks, it is the third largest Fortune 500 company in the world; In 2012 his account experienced a growth of 61%. 

These data confirm those offered by previous studies:

  • Yet companies do not cater to their customers through social networks, although they are supposed to intend to do so.
  • 73% of brands do not have sufficient resources to offer adequate management of customer service through social networks.
  • The companies do not have a plan for the management of customer service in Social Media, so the response time expands. In 41% of cases they have to find the solution to the doubt that the client poses while 34% expect instructions.
  • In theory this trend will change; This year 53% of companies are expected to integrate this service, and that by 2020, 90% of companies offer customer service through social channels

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