More and more companies are integrating social media tools and strategies to improve customer experiences. This is especially true when it comes to the service and support side. Social Media Today’s just released 2014 Social Customer Engagement Index takes a look at the impact companies are seeing from their integration efforts.

Some 1200 respondents participated in the fourth annual survey, with 48% of them from companies with 50 or fewer employees, and 26% from companies with more than 500 employees. 11% work for organizations with more than 5000 employees.

Below is a list of 15 important findings form the 2014 Social Customer Engagement Index:

1. 15% of companies surveyed say more than 25% of customer service inquiries are initiated over social channels.

2. 27% say it takes them less than an hour to respond to questions/issues on social channel.

3. 14% say their company has been integrating “social” into customer support for more than four years.

4. 52% say Facebook is most effective social channel for customer service.

5. Twitter follows at 25%, then Linked at 8%. Owned communities are most effective for 7%.

6. 81% say social customer service strategy is integrated into overall social strategy of the organization.

7. 55% have fully integrated their support teams, meaning there is no separate team for social service support.

8. 25% say they leverage customer service insights for non-customer service related activities in a structured fashion.

9. 50% of those surveyed said their company provides customer service via mobile devices, up from 38% in 2012.

10. 52% of those surveyed whose organizations are building customer service apps for mobile devices are also creating mobile-friendly websites, vs. 36% who are creating native iOS/Android mobile apps.

11. 32% say they have seen very positive impact from “social” on customer service goals and objectives.

12. 16% say they are very satisfied with their company’s efforts to engage customer on social networks for service and support.

13. Only 35% of respondents say their company has less than 5% of support interactions taking place over social, compared with 57% in 2011.

14. Roughly twice as many people say they are seeing 11-15% of interactions taking place on social.

15. Greater numbers of people report more than 20% of interactions happening over social channels in 2013, compared with 2011.

To get a free copy of the 2014 Social Customer Engagement Index report you can click on this registration link.

Learn how CRM can help power customer engagement at your business reading this free Salesforce e-book.