Social media is becoming a more valued channel for customer service, but customers aren’t yet as satisfied with their support experiences on Facebook and Twitter as they are with more traditional channels. That’s according to the latest quarterly benchmark report from ZenDesk, based on support and customer service interactions from more than 16,000 clients across 125 countries. In the latest study covering Q3, voice emerged as the top service channel by customer satisfaction (91%), followed by chat (85%) and help center/web forms (83%).
Email (82%) and Twitter (81%) were close behind, with Facebook (74%) the channel with the lowest satisfaction ratings.
The study authors note that the satisfaction skew towards more traditional channels could be the result of differing expectations on the part of customers or simply an indication that service is not yet as strong on the newer channels.
Separate research indicates that it could be a mix of both. It appears that customers expect a quicker response via phone than social, but in turn that they expect responses to be quicker via social than email. While consumers may expect quick responses via social (particularly through Twitter), often their queries on Facebook and Twitter go unanswered.
Meanwhile, the Zendesk study compares median first-reply times throughout the day with service satisfaction ratings, finding that there does appear to be some correlation between the two. As might be expected, median first-reply times are much lower during the workday – and satisfaction ratings tend to climb as those first-reply times drop.
