Using Social Media to Jump the Queue
As we all know, an increasing number of customers today are complaining about poor service, product issues, and the like in online communities or social networks. Many of those customers are, in effect, jumping the queue, getting their issues resolved ahead of customers who contact an organization via email, and sometimes, faster than those who call a company's contact center.
The question is, do these customers deserve priority treatment? Is it a case of "the squeaky wheel gets service first," when, perhaps, a higher value customer is left to wait?
I spoke with InContact CEO Paul Jarman yesterday, who cited the effectiveness of the universal queue and advanced routing for treating different customers differently based on their value, the issue at hand, and other important criteria.
Few companies are pushing comments like tweets and reviews into their contact queues today, but perhaps they should.
Think of it this way, when you go to (most) Wendy's or Old Navy, for example, everyone waits in one line and the next available cashier calls over the person first in line. On the other hand, go to the supermarket or Walmart or McDonald's and hope that you get in a line that's actually moving well. Get stuck behind a customer with a problem or price check and steam as you watch people in other lines move past you.
What do you think? Should companies have "fast-response teams" that solve service issues posted online as quickly as possible, even if it means that higher-value customers who contact the company via email or phone have to wait? Or should organizations create a service-resolution process more like a universal queue (whether that technology is used or not)? Or is there another way to go?
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