Not long ago, KLM airline lost my luggage. Before I even had time to grab it, I received a private message on Facebook from the airline manager. He wrote that my luggage had been found and asked where it would be best to deliver it.
I appreciated all this a little later - when Aeroflot lost my luggage, and I tried for several hours to reach their call center. Only then did I experience for myself how much the modern approach to working with clients affects the perception of the company’s service.
Today, only very lazy brands do not run social networks. The trend is personalized communications, direct communication between the brand and the user.
But how much value can I get from this as a client? And how prepared are brands for the fact that users increasingly want to resolve their issues (including making purchases) in instant messengers and chats?
Let's first look at the leaders: telecom operators, banks and (so far only foreign) airlines are already expanding the possibilities of interaction with users through social media, flooding the marketing media with new and new cases.
From the outside, the whole process looks very impressive. If you write something in the brand community, they will start a friendly conversation with you. And if you are a girl, you can complain that your boyfriend didn’t buy you Friday wine because someone couldn’t transfer money from card to card (https://vc.ru/21500-customer-suppor...). Have you written? You can start wiping your glasses while waiting for the courier.
What is happening in other industries? There are almost no beautiful cases, is it really that bad? Let's check it out!
Let’s choose automobile brands as an “experimental” category. According to the latest Nielsen survey, more than a third of consumers would like to purchase their next car online, so there is a demand from users.
Let’s portray the “warmest” Client - the one who is ready to come tomorrow and buy one of the most expensive models in the line. Our client will look and write like a real buyer (I remember once at the presentation of one premium automobile brand, one of the dealer representatives stood up on a slide with the target audience and said: “Do you even understand who buys these cars? They are then brought to us for service with the Chanson radio on the radio and with the “volyny” in the glove compartment.”). So – no ideal families with Hollywood smiles and Labrador retrievers.
Let's start collecting answers...
Do you want a car for 5-6 million? This is not for us, let the dealers do it
We will soon overtake everyone in the number of subscribers, but we still don’t want to sell cars through social media
We have an excellent automatic coffee maker installed in our salon - please brew it yourself.
Yes, it’s easier to find out what happened to the Dyatlov group than to have a car at the dealer.
In a week, I managed to communicate with more than 30 automobile brands.
As a result:
- 20 sent me to resolve the issue to the dealer (any one at that)
- 5 boasted a dealer car aggregator on the website
- 3 went into hibernation and are not going to return
- 1 promised to “find out and come back with an answer” (4 months have passed, I’m waiting and haven’t lost hope)
And only one (!) brand was able to contact the dealer and check the availability of the car.
After the previous answers, I give you a standing ovation. And this is not a Hyundai advertisement, but a real experiment
Communicating with a brand on social media is becoming more and more popular and will eventually become the main channel of interaction. User requirements are ever higher.
Whoever realizes and implements this first will receive a powerful reputational boost. As you can see, the field for development is huge.
If necessary, we are ready to help.
Denis Komissarov
