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Aug
24
2010

Social Media Must Align with Customer Service for Success

By | Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Strategy

2 Comments

WaitingYou may be doing a great job with social media for your company — creating great content, having conversations and really engaging with your customers.  But, if your customer service doesn’t align with the expectations set by your social media interactions, your success will only be short term.  Eventually customers will experience your customer service and if it doesn’t align with expectations built by social media, all your hard work will be for naught.

Augie Ray, from Forrester, recently had the following experience at the mall:

  • Retailer One:  I spent 15 minutes trying to find someone to offer assistance.  The only employees to be found were behind checkout counters with long lines. I left frustrated.
  • Retailer Two: I walked into a fitting room to try on shirts and found it looking like Hell’s storage room (or an average teen’s bedroom) with deep piles of clothes. I left disgusted.
  • Retailer Three:  I entered Nordstrom and found a store that was clean and staffed.  I got attention and helpful assistance from an employee.  And I spent $250.

Do You Want To Succeed at Social Media or Social Media Marketing? – Forrester Blog

Apparently Retailer One and Two have spent a great deal of time and resources on social media, but not much on their customer service.  The expectations they’ve set with social media don’t match the actual customer experience in their stores, and according to Augie, their sales have suffered because of it:

I don’t think it is any coincidence that since the recession began in December 2007, Nordstrom’s stock (JWN) is down just 10 percent while the stock of the other two retailers is down between 30 and 50 percent.  And while Nordstrom has fewer Facebook fans than the other two retailers, it has more fans-per-location based on it 193 stores.

If you haven’t had a chance to shop at Nordstrom, give it a try sometime.  Even if you don’t buy anything, their customer service really is what every company should strive for. Nordstrom has a social media presence, but its their exceptional customer service that drives their continued success.

What do you think?

(photo by Conor Ogle)

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  • http://bowmanmarketing.com Scott Bowman

    I’ve read a few articles over the past several days that were SM specific, where the marketing departments had done a great job of connecting with consumers, only to have the local in store staff completely blow it by not knowing about specials that had been Tweeted or what to do with Foursquare codes, etc.

    I think part of the problem is that marketing often operates in waves of “campaigns”, when what they really need to do is a top to bottom realignment of their organizations.

  • http://sazbean.com sazbean

    Scott, I think you’re right. Marketing does tend to operate in waves of “campaigns.” But successful social media needs not only an alignment of marketing and customer service but of the entire company. Departments have to work together towards the same goal instead of being siloed apart.