A recent article highlighted that the customer experience is the next competitive battleground yet so many websites simply don't even consider customer service as part of their remit.
According to research published by Zenith Optimedia, 95% of company executives say that customer experience is the next competitive battleground. Given that the web is where most people end up, it should be first on the list of considerations; it rarely is, and yet digital is where true customer service can make the strongest impression.
Monitoring social networks and the occasional intervention on a blog isn't really customer service. Monitoring simply means that you can hear what your customers and potential customers are saying - but are you actually listening? This is digital flirting: people are attracted by the conversation but struggle to turn it into a meaningful relationship with a brand that won't commit. A relationship has stakeholders on both sides, it isn't a one-way thing.
Customer service is, indeed, the next competitive battleground and digital is, in fact, starting to make a difference: live chat facilities really do take the pressure off call centres and, more importantly, give users a seamless and fulfilling brand experience. And some sites offer personalisation allowing users to select the content they are offered and tailor their experience accordingly. It's a start, and sites offering his type of interaction are streets ahead of their competitors.
Not providing digital customer service is akin to a high street shop blocking any interaction with the shop assistants and insisting that people phone in (from the shop) with their questions should your site behave like that? Think about your strapline, your mission statement, your ethos... don't just talk about it, be it. Use the social space to talk to your consumers and listen, and let them know you're listening.
So, is this customer service, customer experience or marketing? Well, it's all three, there's no real distinction; digital has blurred the boundaries between so many traditionally separate areas � your users don't see any difference, nor should you.
Full Article
http://www.figarodigital.co.uk/editorial-article/Amaze/Are-you-being-served.aspx