Wonder who the global kings and queens of customer service on social media are? How do Facebook and Twitter rank in social media customer service?
The answers may surprise you!
Socialbakers recently released their Q4 2014 findings on the most socially devoted brands on Facebook and Twitter. While the top social media brands in Singapore are the usual market leading brands, the scene changes dramatically when we zoom our social media lenses out into the world.
Facebook Beats Twitter in Customer Response Rate
First and foremost, it is interesting to note that Facebook performed much better in question response rate relative to Twitter. More than two-thirds of questions posted by customers on Facebook gets answered, compared to over a quarter for Twitter. This can be seen in the comparison below (courtesy of Socialbakers):
My guess is that it is probably much harder to cope with the rapid streams of customer queries on Twitter relative to Facebook. The limited amount of information on Twitter (144 characters or less) also makes it more difficult for brands to provide useful customer care.
Collectively, telecommunication, electronics and retail companies account for over two-fifths of the customer service queries on Twitter. This is shown by the diagram below.
Telcos Lead in Social Customer Service
As expected, telecommunication companies shoulder the heaviest burden in providing customer care through social media. This wasn’t surprising considering how familiar we are with our own experience here in Singapore.
According to the chart below (courtesy of Socialbakers), almost half a million customer queries were fielded by telcos around the world during the last quarter (Oct-Dec 2014). This was followed by retail, e-commerce, electronics, and services.
High Value Industries More Socially Responsive
Interestingly, while while telcos had to face the greatest amount of customer heat on social media, it was the airlines which showed the highest response rates. This was followed by telcos, finance, retail and industrial sectors.
My hunch is that the providers of high value products and services tend to be more responsive on social media relative to other businesses. Customers of airlines, banks and telcos – the top three in social media customer care – tend to have the greatest lifetime value compared to purchasers of household goods and e-commerce customers.
This is shown by the chart below (courtesy of Socialbakers).
Bangladeshi Telcos Most Socially Devoted on Facebook
Most interestingly, the brands providing the greatest customer service on social media are not global market leaders. On the contrary, five out of the 10 most socially devoted brands hail from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya and Poland. Details are on the chart below (courtesy of Socialbakers).
While it isn’t surprising that KLM is number one here (considering how active they have been on social media), it is interesting to note how active Bangladeshi customers are in using social media for customer service. Other than KLM, the other nine top socially devoted brands on Facebook are telcos.
UK Brands Rule Twitter Customer Service
In yet another interesting twist, the leading firms providing customer care on Twitter are mostly British brands. Six out of the 10 leading brands in Twitter customer service hail from the United Kingdom. Like Facebook, the top brands providing customer service on Twitter belong to telecommunication companies.
A more detailed breakdown of the response times and rates to Facebook fans of the brands above is provided by the chart below (courtesy of Socialbakers). I am amazed at how many questions these brands were fielded with, and the response rates to them. They must either have a huge social media customer care team, or they decide to forego sleep, lunch, and other luxuries!
What are your views on social media customer service? Should brands focus more of their energies on these platforms?
