Study: Social beats email for customer service

Researchers with The Eptica Multichannel Customer Service Experience Study also found that the average wait-time for consumers to get an emailed response was just over 34 hours; they also note that only about two-thirds of businesses offer email support to non-customers. On the other hand, social media wait time decreased; on Twitter wait times went from from 5 hours 27 minutes (2015) to just over 4 hours.

“Brands are under growing pressure to deliver a consistently high quality experience to customers, however they choose to make contact,” said Derek Lewis, UK & Ireland Sales Director, Eptica. “The sheer volume of queries and the fact that customer expectations are continually rising is having a definite effect on the performance of many companies, particularly on the email channel. Some are forging ahead, while others are falling behind, with a consequent impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty and revenues. Just 51% of all queries were answered satisfactorily. Overall, consumers are as likely to get a useful response as they are to correctly call heads or tails on the flip of a coin.”

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• 66% of customer service questions are answered via the web
• 18% of brands ‘answer accurately’ via only one channel, even if they offer customer service via additional channels
• 69% of businesses ‘fail to provide’ consistent customer service between email, social media, chat and online channels