As part of our latest six monthly UK Customer Satisfaction Index we asked customers questions about their usage and expectations of social media when they visit organisations’ websites. We found that:
- Having a customer review facility tops the UK consumer’s wish-list of social media tools
- More than 1 in 2 customers currently post reviews of products/services on company websites
- 1 in 4 are less inclined to buy online from a site that uses no social media tools
- Companies are too slow to respond to online complaints
Onsite reviews of products and services are five times more important to UK consumers than a company having a Twitter account and three times more important than offering a Facebook page or group.
So what does this mean for your organisation’s web presence and your use of commenting, complaints and services such as Twitter and Facebook?
Do we need Twitter?
Just 8% of UK consumers expect firms to run a Twitter account, while marginally more (14%) expect to able to interact with brands through Facebook.
However, approaching half (41%) of the British public view an onsite facility to provide reviews of products and service as a standard element of any good corporate website. Indeed, more than half (54%) of consumers use such a facility when it is provided.
As expected, younger consumers are more inclined to demand a Facebook or Twitter facility of the brands they buy from than older groups. For instance more than a fifth (21%) of 18 – 24s expect companies to run a Facebook page, compared to just 13% of the 35 – 54 age group, and barely 7% of the over 55s.
These figures may lead organisations to neglect their investment in Twitter and Facebook. While it’s important that you make it easy for customers to complain (and complain in a managed, public forum) and add reviews to product pages, it should be noted that Twitter and Facebook are becoming increasingly popular as customer service channels. In other words, the future could well be Twitter.
Furthermore, neglecting Twitter and Facebook channels would also mean ignoring a valuable stream of feedback and buzz over your products and services. While we may want to direct all feedback to our own website there’s nothing to stop customers publishing a quick review of their new phone on Twitter. The service provides an easy way to receive alerts whenever particular phrases are used, and provides an immediate, targeted source of feedback information.
Whatever you do, do it quickly
The research also reveals that more work needs to be done to improve the ‘dialogue’ between customers and companies when complaints are made online.
Whilst more than half (55%) of consumers expect a response the same day to an online complaint, only a little over a quarter (29%) actually receive one. Worryingly, 12% report having to wait at least a month for a response.
The findings reflect the general failure of UK businesses to handle complaints effectively. Previous UK Customer Satisfaction Index data showed that three quarters (75%) of UK consumers complain when encountering a problem with goods or services, yet only 15% of face to face and telephone complaints are dealt with on the spot, while more than half (52%) take over a week to resolve, and more than a quarter (26%) remain unresolved altogether.
It’s therefore important that organisations concentrate their efforts on providing timely, satisfactory feedback to customers before their reputation is muddied online, regardless of the channel their customers choose to use.
Note: the next round of UK Customer Satisfaction Index results will be published on Friday, 09 July.
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