{"id":1594,"date":"2019-07-02T12:51:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T16:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog3.canny.io\/wordpress\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:04:55","slug":"social-media-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/social-media-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tackle real-life social media customer service obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"

eMarketer research reveals that 46% of customers want to solve a problem when they’re engaging with a brand on social media, and 39% are looking to give feedback<\/a> about a product or service.<\/p>\n

It looks like companies intent on keeping social media<\/a> in the marketing department alone are missing out on a huge opportunity\u2014the chance to give the people what they want.<\/p>\n

It’s understandable that Marketing is reticent to relinquish control of social media accounts outside their department.<\/p>\n

But really, every communication with a lead or customer is a marketing opportunity, so anyone on the front lines with customers is already marketing for your company every day.<\/p>\n

Instead of worrying about all the things that could go wrong with social media out of Marketing’s complete control, set up a process that helps mitigate any potential problems and allows customers to reap the benefits of interacting with your service and support teams on social media.<\/p>\n

To help ease you into what may be an uncomfortable transition, we looked at some of the most worrisome outcomes marketers envision when getting customer service involved in social media.<\/p>\n

And then, we found examples of the brands that have successfully overcome those obstacles, and what you can learn from them.<\/p>\n

Take a look, and see how you could implement social media as a customer service avenue<\/a> based on their examples.<\/p>\n

Obstacle 1: mixing customer service messages and marketing messages<\/h2>\n

Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to brands opening up their social media accounts to customer service is the mixed messages to fans and followers.<\/p>\n

If your social media accounts are set up to serve content that fosters discussion among people that like you, do you really want to expose them to the seedy underbelly of your support and service issues?<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at how fashion retailer Asos resolved this common problem.<\/p>\n\"\"\n\"\"\n

See that first Twitter account? It’s called ‘ASOS Here to Help,’ and it was set up as an entirely separate entity from ASOS’ “marketing” Twitter account\u2014the second image shown above.<\/p>\n

ASOS also has a similar division set up on Facebook, with one page dedicated to customer service, and the other to marketing messaging.<\/p>\n

This lets you neatly separate conversations between customers who are unhappy or have questions for sales or support and leads who are following your account for education and information.<\/p>\n

Sure, there will be spillover; a customer may find the Asos.com Twitter account first and tweet their problem there.<\/p>\n

But, it’s easy enough to address the issue by responding using the Twitter account specifically built to handle customer service questions, and the conversation can continue between those two accounts.<\/p>\n

And many third-party services like Hootsuite and CoTweet can make the collaboration between two accounts easier through the use of assigned tweets.<\/p>\n

Obstacle 2: dealing with sensitive information<\/h2>\n

According to a report<\/a> from Javelin Strategy & Research, most Americans are reticent to mix personal financial information with social networking.<\/p>\n

The report found a 4-to-1 resistance against receiving updates about promotions and discounts, to a 9-to-1 resistance against reviewing or receiving account balances.<\/p>\n

Along with these consumer concerns come regulatory compliance issues and data security.<\/p>\n

So if you’re working in an industry that handles peoples’ personal information\u2014finances, health, even something as basic as their contact information\u2014handling privacy is a real concern when dealing with customer service over social media.<\/p>\n

So what’s a brand to do? Let’s take a look at how Citigroup handles private information via its customer service-oriented @AskCiti Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

The solution you can implement here is threefold. First, do as Citigroup does, and cover your butt with a privacy notice applicable to your industry that’s visible right on your social media account.<\/p>\n

Then, when customers do get in touch with you, move it to a more secure and appropriate channel that can securely handle their private information.<\/p>\n

You’ll also notice how vigilant Citigroup is about reminding customers not to include private information in their messages\u2014even in private Twitter direct messages (DMs).<\/p>\n

Citigroup not only holds it in its Privacy Policy, but they also reiterate not to include account or PINs every single time they ask someone to DM their phone number to be contacted.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

Which brings us to our third method of getting over the social customer service security barrier\u2014you can simply use social media as a customer service monitoring and routing mechanism.<\/p>\n

Whether you intend for your social media account to be used as a customer service channel or not, it is something consumers have come to expect.<\/p>\n

As such, they will likely post complaints on your Facebook page or tweet their problems at you from time to time.<\/p>\n

Set up a customer service social media account on which you don’t solve peoples’ problems, but simply monitor for problems that arise that you can then route to the proper support person in your queue for follow-up.<\/p>\n

Obstacle 3: scaling social customer service efforts across a large organization<\/h2>\n

Monitoring your social media accounts for customer service issues that crop up is one thing, but implementing a national or international initiative? Well, it’s not easy, but it can be done.<\/p>\n

A great example of a well run, scalable social customer service program was Best Buy’s Twelpforce, launched in 2008. In the social media world, that makes them an early adopter!<\/p>\n

Best Buy used to employ a force of 3,000 tweeters to help with customer service issues on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Having such a wide range of employees answering questions that were tweeted to @Twelpforce helped ensure that there was always someone with the right knowledge set available to respond.<\/p>\n

Think about it\u2014if you have a question about which camera to buy, do you want to talk to the guy who specializes in GPS installation? I think not.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

That’s not to say you need a force of 3,000 employees monitoring round the clock to scale social customer service efforts. Southwest Airlines does so successfully with a team of ten that runs from about 5 AM CST to 11 PM CST, its flight hours.<\/p>\n

They employ one person from job functions across the company to answer questions that relate to their area of expertise.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

You’ll notice that Southwest Airlines’ tweeters, like many other successful social customer service programs, maintain an upbeat and conversational tone.<\/p>\n

Compare this to a company like Walmart who requires that employees stick to “official” Twitter uses in customer service in order to aid in its scalability.<\/p>\n

A fine tactic, but not as friendly as what customers experience with companies like Best Buy and Southwest Airlines.<\/p>\n

All of this, in fact, leads us to the next common problem that comes with scaling a widespread social customer service initiative.<\/p>\n

Obstacle 4: communicating like humans, not robots<\/h2>\n

One of the challenges that come with scaling is avoiding canned responses. Many companies that do social customer service know there are so many canned responses that it feels like the opposite of what social media is supposed to be\u2014you know, social.<\/p>\n

Instead of two people talking together, it’s a person and a script. Take a look at how KLM combatted that with its “Live Replies” campaign, centered around highly personalized responses.<\/p>\n