Simple steps to improve social media performance

Internet consultancy Auros has produced some interesting information on retailers and their social media performance, specifically around customer service. The conclusion isn’t that surprising – it’s not great – but it’s helpful because it shows exactly what retailers are sometimes doing wrong.

Social media is all about conversation and responding when people talk to you, and the problem is retailers aren’t doing this. Of the 18 researched, most are making efforts to use social networks. Fourteen are on Twitter, thirteen on Facebook and ten have blogs. The problem is they’re not being used as well as they could be.

Only three responded to a question on Twitter; one (B&Q) responded to a negative comment; none responded to a positive comment; and only one (Asos) responded to a question that was about them but not directed at them – so without using their username of @Asos. Plus, none of the retailers followed back so it was impossible to message them privately.

On Facebook, the performance was slightly better, albeit still not great. Six responded to a question on their wall, three to a positive comment and two to a negative comment. On YouTube and blogs, none of them responded to comments or questions.

The only thing that did improve on social media was the timing of the response compared to email. Of the 11 that responded to an email request, it took an average of 13 hours to get an answer. On Twitter it took 107 minutes and just 26 minutes on Facebook. Admittedly a big company will have a huge volume of requests and comments to respond to, but that’s mainly a question of managing it properly.

These are all incredibly simple steps to take, with the only challenges being around getting the right processes in place in terms of making sure there are people available with the time and knowledge to answer queries. This may involve a bit of work, but is surely not beyond companies that run big customer service call centres or departments.

Social networks and blogs aren’t just about marketing and broadcasting a message, but about improving the status of a brand in customers’ eyes by engaging with people and accepting both compliments and criticism. People don’t refer to ‘contacts’ or ‘associates’ on Facebook – they refer to their Facebook friends, and retailers should take note.  The medium changes the nature of the relationship between a customer and a business. It might sound a little bit “lets all hug together” but the best way to approach it is to treat followers and fans as friends, with the respect and attention that entails, rather than as customers or business contacts. The resultant benefits could be anything from increased loyalty to greater brand awareness in international markets. If you doubt the power of social networks just look at what Asos has achieved, partly off the back of using the medium cleverly.

The retailers included were: Amazon, Apple, Argos, ASDA, ASOS, B&Q, Boots, Currys, Debenhams, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, New Look, Next, Play.com, River Island, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Topshop.