Delivering Effective Social Customer Service: How to Redefine the Way You Manage Customer Experience and Your Corporate Reputation

Chapter 2

Understanding Social Customer Behaviour

Customers and their use of social networks

“On the business side, people don't take smoke breaks anymore. They take Facebook breaks.”

This simple observation captures just how far our daily habits have shifted. We can now gossip with whoever we please regardless of location, not just with co-located work colleagues as we snatch a hurried mid-morning break.

In fact, nearly 70% of our online social interaction is also location independent. It is now conducted on the move via our smartphone or tablet of choice. In fact the rise of social media and mobility is deeply synergistic. Their interplay continues to reinvent how we go about living our daily lives.

This increasing integration of social platforms within mobile operating systems has made it far easier to share our thoughts, requests and criticisms in the moment. Facebook and Twitter are currently deeply embedded into Apple and Windows mobile devices while Google+ is naturally part of the Android experience. The appearance of Facebook Home, providing an always-active, ever-in-motion, Facebook-centric homepage has merged the social and mobile experience ever closer. The net result of all this integration is to have made social networks both more accessible and convenient for us all.

This evolving behaviour in personal social networking is a profoundly important trend to recognize and respond to for every organization that is intent on meeting their customer experience objectives. ...