The document discusses the impact of social media on customer service, highlighting the shift in how companies, particularly in the airline industry, handle customer inquiries and complaints. It emphasizes the necessity for timely, precise, and knowledgeable responses to improve customer experiences and mentions the phenomenon of 'cyber-disinhibition,' where online interactions can alter customer behavior. Furthermore, it underscores the expectation that consumers now benchmark service levels against a variety of brands and stresses the importance of a human touch in communications.

1. S O C I A L M E D I A , C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E A N D ‘ C Y B E R -
D I S I N H I B I T I O N ’
3 A P R I L 2 0 1 4 , @ D I R K T H E R A B B I T

2. A B O U T M E
• Head Rabbit at - www.therabbitagency.com
• Rabbit, winner social media / customer services 2011 / 2013
• Involved in airline / aviation accounts, a sector arguably ahead of the
curve in the use of customer services in digital media
• Find me on social media - @dirktherabbit

3. A I R L I N E S H AV E B E E N D O I N G
T H I S R I G H T F O R Y E A R S
• Almost 100% smartphone use
• Time poor / pressured customers
• 24 hour business day
• Large proportion of affluent
travellers - and also “influencers”
• Their lessons are useful for
utilities - and other sectors
!
Source - Social Bakers

4. S O M E T I M E S T H I N G S N E E D T O G O W R O N G F I R S T
“Our call centres, ticket offices and transfer desks could no longer handle the huge stream
of inquiries coming in. Desperate for information, many stranded passengers and their
friends and relatives decided to turn to social media – Facebook and Twitter in particular.
From the ash cloud we learned that, as a company, we could tackle a crisis situation
effectively using social media.
!
“We also learned that the public really appreciated this form of communication. Very
simply, there was no way back – and that didn’t go unnoticed among our senior
management. Not long thereafter our CEO, Peter Hartman, gave us the green light to set
up a Social Media Hub and formalise our efforts.”
Jochem van Drimmelen, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

5. I T ’ S W O R T H R E M E M B E R I N G T H AT I N O U R
L I F E T I M E , T H I N G S U S E D T O W O R K L I K E T H I S

6. S T I F F U P P E R L I P A N D A L L T H AT
Creative commons credit - Fabiana Zonca
“The British are trained from an early age to be
self-contained and reserved…
…This can have unforeseen, and dangerous,
results. A recent survey by the British Heart
Foundation revealed that people experiencing the
symptoms of heart attacks will wait an average of
90 minutes before calling the emergency services -
often with disastrous results. The explanation for
this dangerous delay is 'our natural reserve and
stoicism', a widespread refusal to make a drama
out of a crisis.
This reserve is also apparent in the unwillingness of
many British people to make complaints (in pubs,
restaurants, shops), and to submit to terrible
service with a weary stoicism.” (Debretts)

7. K E E P C A L M A N D
C A R RY O N ?
• According to uSwitch, 83% of Brits
waste time being kept on hold, 65%
regularly experience ‘poor customer
service’, and 59% encounter poor staff
attitude
• Almost 3/4 British consumers who
experience poor customer service
don’t issue complaints with the
respective companies / only 27%
would complain after experiencing
poor customer service

8. Cyber-disinhibition - (psychology, Internet) “The disinhibition of the expression of
negative emotional impulses via on-line interactive media owing to the impalpability of
others’ emotional responses — which would normally have a tempering effect on
one’s behaviour — arising from the unembodied, artifical nature of such media
of interaction.” [quo

9. A N D W E D O B E H AV E
D I F F E R E N T LY O N L I N E
• 43% of Internet users feel less inhibited
online, especially users aged 25-54
• “This can lead to positive and negative
behaviours alike. Users are more likely to
feel able to meet new people or be
empowered to do something they
wanted to”
• “But they were also more likely to ‘lash
out’ on the Web when they had
something to say about a company or
brand” (emarketer)

10. W H AT I T M E A N S F O R Y O U

11. T H E B E S T S O O N B E C O M E S T H E E X P E C T E D
Your benchmark is not other utility
companies - it’s other brands,
whether retail, travel, banking,
electronics
!
Any good social media customer
experience automatically serves to
raise the bar for you

12. A P I C T U R E S AY S 1 0 0 0 W O R D S
• Social media is becoming visual - think
Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr
• Instagram has more US smartphone users
than Twitter, and at 200+ million active
users could soon overtake it worldwide
• Facebook now has a quarter of a trillion
photos online, with 350 million uploads a
day
• 44% of respondents were more likely to
engage with brands who posted pictures
on their social media channels rather than
any other type of content

13. C O M P L A I N T S M A K E
N E W S
• “Interflora HQ apology after
Mother's Day complaints”
• “Starbucks Retools Pastry Menu After
Customers Complain”
• “Starbucks Customer Claims Barista
Gave Her Satanist Latte Art”
• “Tesco's hilarious response to
customer garlic complaint”

14. C O N S U M E R S A R E G E T T I N G M O R E K N O W L E D G E A B L E …
A N D C R E AT I V E
“Twitter user Hasan Syed has taken on British Airways by
buying a promoted tweet to complain about his father's lost
luggage.
!
Syed, who uses the handle @HVSVN, told Mashable that he
bought the tweet in the New York City and UK markets
Monday night. He said he used Twitter's self-serve ad
platform to make the purchase. Syed declined to disclose
how much the tweet cost.” (it cost $1000)

15. T I M E G E T S
D I S T O R T E D
• Most studies show that an
‘acceptable’ response time is 60
minutes on social media
• But 60 minutes can seem a lot longer
than that if you have (say) no phone,
no power, no water, no Internet
• Time gets distorted and often all the
customer has to do is go online via
his / her smartphone and find ways to
get seen and heard

16. T H E N E X T S T E P -
C O M P L A I N T A U T O M AT I O N
T H R O U G H S E R V I C E S S U C H
A S R E S O LV E R

17. S O M E S I M P L E G U I D E L I N E S
1. Be timely
2. Be precise
3. Be knowledgeable
4. Be experts
5. Be human

18. B E T I M E LY
• Set a response time standard and
keep to it
• It should certainly be under one hour,
ideally less
• Why not even publish a waiting time
stat - much like KLM does on Twitter

19. B E P R E C I S E
• Previously airlines used to give a
stock response of ‘operational
reasons’ when something goes
wrong, most no longer do that as it
often makes customers more angry
• When will the problem be fixed? Why
is there a problem? What is
happening?
• If you don’t know, its better just to say
so…and to say when you will know

20. B E
K N O W L E D G E A B L E
• There are many reasons why marketers are
often not the best people to run social media /
customer services feeds
• One is that they may not know all the facts on
the ground
• These days customers may well know more
than you, thanks to Google, various apps (e.g
flight tracker apps will tell you where a flight is)
• Whoever is running the feed, needs to know
what is going on - or needs to know where to
go where to find out

21. B E E X P E R T S
• “Blame the intern” has almost become a
joke in social media / marketing circles…
the fact is though the intern can’t be
running your feed
• Whoever does do so, should do it at
least part of the time as part of their
regular jobs (NB, KLM has 130 people
doing this full time)
• Teams should be trained, which should
include both etiquette on different
networks, as well as a practical exercise

22. B E H U M A N
• Corporate and brand speak more
often than not goes down wrong
• Customers want to hear what’s being
done about their problem in human,
real, everyday language
• Be careful about the use of humour,
brands can get that wrong. Joking
with a customer about a mouldy £2
garlic is very different to joking about
the lights going out

23. T H A N K Y O U !
A N Y Q U E S T I O N S O R C O M M E N T S - D I R K A T T H E R A B B I TA G E N C Y. C O M