Social CRM For Dummies

Chapter 10

Creating Socially Relevant Customer Service

In This Chapter

• Understanding the importance of social customer service
• Actively listening to what your customer says
• Forming a relationship with the customer
• Choosing social platforms from which to respond
• Using social platforms with CRM software
• Recovering from a customer service disaster
• Dipping into viral communications

With the advent of the web, almost everyone who has surfed online has enjoyed watching an example of bad customer service on YouTube. (Oh, unless you're the company they're talking about.) Stories are legion — a Comcast rep falling asleep on a customer's couch, a bicyclist demonstrating that anyone with a Bic pen can pick a Kryptonite lock (which was touted as unbreakable). Some companies have survived, others haven't. Comcast has completely turned around its customer service as a result of this, but more about that later in this chapter.

We've laughed at the expense of many a company, both large and small, but as any company will tell you, customer service is no laughing matter. Especially now, with the power shift that allows customers to express themselves in real time and with a very broad audience about the latest customer service failures.

In this chapter, you look at the way the customer service function has evolved, from a controllable department into one that can damage a brand's reputation in a heartbeat. You also discover best practices and ways to avoid making the same mistakes other companies ...