A new survey from M2Talk reveals the channels consumers are actually using for customer service - and it's not social media.
Social media has been touted as a cure for nearly every digital ill, from low conversion rates to poor engagement metrics. The trouble is, every data point seems to point in the opposite direction. The M2Talk survey indicates that the phone (33 percent) is still the most popular form of contact for customer service followed by email (32 percent). Live chat (21 percent) and even in-person contact (10 percent) beat out social media, which garnered just 2 percent of the responses.
Clearly, 'Net professionals are starting to see that social media isn't the panacea everyone hoped it would be. With evidence emerging this week that social sharing icons distract users, digital enterprises are going to need to think long and hard about their use of the channel.
The M2Talk survey provides some other interesting highlights, including that 72 percent indicated they have threatened to cancel service or buy a competitor's product to resolve a customer service issue. Of those who said yes, 87.1 percent said they followed through and did cancel service.
