Leaders talk - Customer service in the age of Social Media

Customer Service in the age of social media was the topic at the kick-off event of leadership series– an ongoing series throughout the year, organized by GMP students. The guest and speaker for the day was Ms. Anita Pai, Senior General Manager at ICICI Bank and currently responsible for operations. Prior to this, she was in charge of customer service. Using social media for customer service is a contemporary area and very few organizations have been able to embrace it effectively. 

Ms. Anita Pai enlightened us with some of the issues about customer service, which organizations such as ICICI Bank face day in and day out and how social media is changing the landscape of customer service. She started with the fundamental idea of what customer service is and stressed upon the fact that unless leadership is committed to customer service, it doesn’t happen at any organization.  Customer service is often ignored and it is only when top line starts declining organizations start thinking about it seriously. However, having a strong focus and culture for customer service not only has positive cascading effects but also yield fruits in the long run.

The talk progressed by taking social media in the ambit of customer service. She gave couple of examples where customers expressed their dissatisfaction about companies and their service on Facebook or blog and how reactions of organizations only back fired them. She also shared many examples handled by her teams where customer used social media to get their concerns addressed. Customers are increasingly sharing their experiences with customer service of organizations on social media and more often than not, the experience is about pain and frustration.  If the customer happens to be a famous personality on social media, the negativity gets amplified and may go viral in no time and by the time you wake up to address the concerns, damage is already done. Once done it is not easy to repair this damage.

The increased competitiveness between organizations and technology has reduced tolerance of customers. Today a customer, empowered with mobile and internet, may feel a wait of five minutes in the queue is long enough to express it on Facebook or Twitter. You don’t know from where a crisis may hit you. Previously organizations were able to deal with customer’s complaints and dissatisfaction in one to one mode. Now, it has become many to one. On being asked about how to deal with this new challenge, Ms. Pai said that it is important for organizations to wake up to the reality of social media, recognize it as a valuable resource and rather than reactive be proactive about it. Organizations must incorporate social media into their customer service strategy and endeavor to build a positive outlook using it as an effective tool.

All in all it was an absorbing session. Many of us, as customer could relate to it and now we all got a sneak peek into the other side too. Social media has become a busy highway. Every day people and organizations are finding innovative ways of using it. So the launch of new iPhone or iPad by Apple is preceded by enormous buzz on Facebook and Twitter. Brands are utilizing social media as a tool for evangelism marketing.  Its immense power and potential has already been felt by the world through political events such as Arab Spring. Perhaps nothing could better summarize the event than the following quote cited by Ms. Anita Pai, 

If customer is the king, social media is his empire.