Social Customer Service is a capability that companies realize needs to be part of their customer service strategy. In the press there are stories of great service delivered through social channels, as well as horror stories of companies that have made serious mistakes in those channels. This article looks at Social Customer Service that was done well, but was a part of failing at delivering a great customer experience. I'll highlight this by looking at two incidents that recently happened to me, and discuss the key lessons learned.

The first incident involved booking a hotel room. On a recent trip, I needed to switch to another hotel that was part of the same hotel chain. I wanted to get a corporate discount rate, so I started with the reservations center. After three phone calls to the reservations and two phone calls to  my current hotel I got an answer: sorry, can't help you.

Feeling that I was right, and also thinking it would make a great test case for this hotel chain's social strategy, I wrote a strongly worded post to their Facebook page. What was impossible in the call center suddenly became very easy in social. After a few iterations with their social support team, I had the discount I had sought.

The second incident involved an insurance company. I needed to make changes to our family auto policy, and, in addition to the normal requests for information, the company also asked for information I felt they had no need to possess. Again, the contact center essentially told me I had no choice — if I wanted to make the change, I would need to provide the information.

Feeling that they had no need or right to the information, I took to their Facebook page and posted my displeasure with their approach. After all, I could easily switch to a new company and never provide the information my current company demanded. Once again, the social support team escalated it to corporate headquarters, and I was able to get the changes made without providing the disputed information.

Both of these incidents highlight a key point: the experience available through the social channel is different from that available through other contact channels. Even though it's not likely either company intended for their social channel to be an escalation channel, that is exactly what it had become. In each case, their social team was empowered to resolve issues in ways that the contact center agents were not allowed to attempt. And yet, despite the empowerment in the social channel, both companies ended up with a dissatisfied customer.

So, ask yourself whether that is what you want for your company. Is social a channel for escalation, or is it another way to connect with your customers? When companies provide differing levels of service through different contact channels, it becomes a dissatisfier for customers as their expectations don't align with their experience and they must escalate to resolve their issues. When social is used to fix the problems that arise in other channels, your company may be socially awkward. 

Rather than use social to solve the problems in other channels, focus your efforts on improving those other channels first. Empower agents in all channels to provide the same service experience. Be responsive and innovative in the service you deliver. Social Customer Service will then take its rightful place as part of your company's robust and superior customer experience.