Over the past few months, we’ve had hundreds of conversations with customer service professionals who are exploring mobile and social media channels such as Facebook, SMS and Twitter to increase customer satisfaction.

We’ve summarized these discussions as well as industry trends and analysis to create a 5-part series that will discuss the future of mobile/social customer service.

For the series, we’ve collaborated with customer service experts such as Leslie O’Flahavan (E-WRITE) and Al Hopper (Socialpath Solutions) to provide best practices to launch and manage effective service through digital channels.

In our first post, we’ll discuss new features across the top social channels to explore:

Part 1: How mobile and social media can become your new 1–800 number

Customer service via mobile and social is on the minds of many businesses and it’s easy to see why:

• Currently, there are over 1 billion monthly active users each for Facebook Messenger, SMS, and WhatsApp
• Other platforms including Twitter (300+ million), Instagram (400+ million) have introduced new customer service functionality
• 67% of customers have already used a company’s social media page for customer support (J.D. Power)

Lately, social media and messaging app providers have added new customer service features to become the new “1–800 number” for your customers. Here is a recap of their key features:

Facebook Messenger

1. Bots / automated messages to handle transactional questions
2. Rich content (e.g., photos, videos) to share with customers
3. Supports credit/debit card, PayPal and Stripe payments for customer purchases

More detail on these features available here

Twitter

1. Dedicated company support accounts
2. Visual indicator on how responsive businesses are to customer inquires, including service hours (Note: Facebook Messenger has this as well)
3. “Direct message” icon on an account profile to reduce public service-related posts.
4. Customer feedback feature that enables people to privately share their opinions with a business after a service interaction

Click here to learn more about these new features

Instagram

1. “Contact” button on a company’s profile, for customers to contact a support agent
2. Detailed business analytics (e.g., post reach, impressions, website visits)

More information on these features available here

Sample of Key Features

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In our next post, The Future: Upcoming social/mobile features to redefine customer service, we’ll discuss futures features to look out for.

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