Social Customer Service (SCS) is the delivery of customer service using social media (SM) or some interactive session hosted through a website, applet or some other interface. The goal of SCS is to provide additional channels or means by which a company can be reached to get information, seek assistance or have issues resolved.
Is this necessary though, or does it improve standing with the customers? This may vary as it is dependent on how responsive your customer service agents or the persons monitoring the SCS platforms are when there are tickets, comments, queries or requests coming in on them. If a company has a culture of not answering the phones or responding to emails, chances are a SCS strategy is just another channel offered which the company will use to further frustrate their customers.
It also depends on the type of products/services on offer as well. If a company has an e-commerce enabled site, then having a chat option available for the customer to get real-time assistance from a sales agent would be very useful in making decisions or even getting information about products to best solve their problem. This is particularly true for technology-based companies that have many products/services which consumers might not readily understand or are able to tell apart which might result in them purchasing the wrong items. They might also have malfunctioning components on a computer or device and could benefit from an agent connecting to their device remotely and provide support real-time as some customers are unable to explain what their issue is. But being able to remotely connect will enable the agent to directly determine the issue then resolve it if it is possible.
In the case however where the site does not facilitate the purchasing of products and remote assistance is not required, what benefit is there really for customers to get? The interaction really would just be sessions where queries are answered or complaints regarding service or product issues logged for further action. Again, what happens next is dependent on the culture of the company. If the company is responsive then the SCS approach would be viewed as effective. But if the culture of the company is the same as the receptionist that never answers, then there it will not be seen in a good light. Another thing to consider is the ability of the customer to ask the question to get the answers they really want. If a customer is unable to ask questions to receive the answer they need to solve an issue they are having but asks everything else which are perfectly responded to, is the customer failing to get the answers they really needed the fault of the SCS agent?
The reality is that good customer service has a lot more to do with the culture of a company and the philosophy under which it operates. If the company is customer-centric, then any interaction where customers receive good customer service will always flourish. But if the company needs to get their act together, then providing additional channels to reach the company will make no difference. SCS is a way to make it easier to facilitate interactions with customers and to increase the convenience and ease in which they are communicated with and assisted. But this is heavily dependent on the ability of companies to give this quality of service delivery.
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