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WHO IS THE SOCIAL CUSTOMER?


The explosive growth of social media has evolved the new customer, the social customer who is every man, woman or child that is an active participant on social media. These can be estimated to be roughly 1.5billion people which has shaken brands and now determines business survival or death. How?
The Social Customer has a very powerful voice, a fact which large organizations are realizing this undeniable authority, and has in turn created PR and social media mayhem ranging from the largest organizations to the smallest businesses. The social customer demands and drives his expectations, he / she cannot be ignored, they do not just tell their friends if unhappy, they influence their circle of followers on different social media platforms, all within a matter of seconds on companies that ignore complaints or are not customer focused and do not care about their customer problems.
The Social Customer demands immediate feedback with the old 9 am – 5pm work schedule of organizations not being good enough anymore. A typical social media customer expects a response from an organization within 24 hours and organizations are scrambling to exceed this expectation by providing multi channels, the latest of which is chatbox, to satisfy the social customer.
If the social customer is unimpressed, he/ she has an easier option, as with the help of the internet, can reach out to a competitor of the brand and within a couple of minutes or clicks, switch brands. If you ignore the social customer, he or she will not be buying.

What Are The Benefits of Social Customer Service?
1. Broaden the reach of the customer service department
2. Improve Customer Satisfaction
3.Cultivate Brand Advocates
4. Real Time Solutions to Problems. This also enables brands gather customer analytics and inform trainings and resource allocation across service channels
5. Delight customers with proactive service.

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