Is social customer care a good form of the ‘tail wagging the dog’?

Posted by Adrian Swinscoe on February 5, 2012

0 comments | 2040 reads

Below is a twitter exchange that I had in the last couple of days with the folks across at Frog Solutions.

I really like their way of describing customer service on social media or social customer care as ‘ a new type of customer service that can actually lead to change within a business’.

What that conjured up for me was the expression about the ‘tail wagging the dog’. In most cases when used it is meant to mean ‘a situation where a small part is controlling the whole of something’. When this happens it’s, generally, not helpful and can often be damaging.

However, looked at in a good way, could the ‘tail’ (ie. social customer care as a way of listening, learning, reacting, understanding, responding and addressing customers issues on social media) be an effective way to learn about our customers and instigate change? Change that could help with developing more and better customer focus in the broader and larger organisation, the ‘dog’?

In most cases, not all of our customers will be on social media so social customer care shouldn’t dominate attention like it does in some quarters. Perhaps, that’s because it’s a ‘shiny new object’.

However, it is very probable that you do have some customers somewhere on social media. Given that, it is worthy of your attention as it is very public, will make you a more social business, can lead to real insights, learning, new skills and business behavioural and culture change.

If you’re not doing it then maybe it’s time to start.

Republished with author's permission from original post by Adrian Swinscoe.

Adrian Swinscoe

Adrian Swinscoe brings over 16 years experience to focusing on helping companies large and small develop and implement customer focused, sustainable growth strategies.

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