UK businesses aren’t making the most of social media in customer relationship management, a recent Callcentrehelper.com study has found.

Over three quarters (79%) of respondents said that their marketing departments were responsible for social media.

This suggests that companies are confident with marketing-led social media use but are nervous about operationally led activity.

Many companies are wary of the potential for public relations disasters, according to the report.

But they are monitoring social networking sites extensively. Facebook and Twitter are the most monitored platforms, at 85% and 76% respectively.

And, 81% of respondents said their call centres responded to social media complaints. Almost half (43%) said they almost always respond to complaints.

Anecdotal evidence shows that Twitter is popular with call centres. One customer service director told callcentrehelper.com: “I love Twitter because it forces customers to get to the heart of the complaint… it forces the business to reply similarly, so what you get is two posts that people take a question and answer from.”

Training is an issue as call centres need to have the right written skills to deal with customers on social media. One contact centre manager has found that some agents use text speak when talking to customers on Twitter, which isn’t always appropriate.

Source – DMA