Businesses are still not quite grapsing the nettle when it comes to the acute contact social media provides with its customer base, The Drum and PCR are reporting.



The startling figures were unveiled today by research from A.T. Kearney’s annual social media survey, finding that between 5% and 20% of all complaints to many organisations are made through social media.

Suggesting that the majority of complaints are made via email, letter and telephone, compaines regularly see that customers are compensated in some capacity, often with a letter of apology with vouchers or other goodwill attached.

But apparently, businesses seem to be waving aside complaints via Twitter, Facebook and other outlets, but when these messages can be seen by an innumerable amount of people all over the world, it would be churlish to simply deem a social media complaint as a bit of free advertising.

Jim Close, managing director of Datapoint, said: “The delay in the use of social media in the contact centre is understandable, but this must now be rectified if many companies are to protect their reputations and keep their competitive edge.

“Social media tools are for two-way dialogue with customers as well as a (mostly) one-way marketing channel. They differ from more traditional media because often the interaction is globally-visible and there is potential for massive reputational impact. The organisations that learn this lesson the fastest – and use contact centre systems to do this effectively – will be the ones that win the customer retention race.”