Ryan Buddenhagen, July 20, 2012
Customer satisfaction has always been important regardless of product or service type, and even industry. We all instinctively know this, experience it as consumers ourselves, and try to deliver it for our own customers if applicable in your line of work. Now, it is a unique exercise in addressing customer satisfaction for social networking platforms because they are still very fresh and evolving in relation to what their purpose is and how consumers actually used them.
Facebook has been in the lead for some time now, with Twitter following them (pun…intended), and LinkedIn, then Google+ and others. Since its inception and the launch of Google Plus Your World, Google+ membership has risen, but activity on the site has paled in comparison to other sites notably Facebook and Twitter. That is an issue that Google will be working to improve on, but now Google+ has a reason to stand apart from their competitors...for their customer service.
In the recently released American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report, Google+ tied for the top spot with Wikipedia in the social media category each with scores of 78 on a 100-point scale. Comparatively, Facebook had a score of 61 which is a decline from 66 last year largely over the changes to their interface that were instituted, ongoing privacy concerns, and the presence of too many ads on the platform.
Opportunities for Google+
Facebook’s downtrend, albeit small, can continue if the above mentioned challenges persist. This would be a positive for Google+ as they progress in this sector. With over 250 million users, Google+ has a long way to go to challenge and match both Facebook user activity and user-base of 900 million. If they can build it up in the coming years, they will be able to bolster their stores of personal information, add additional revenue streams, and increase the relevancy of their social-infused search Google Search Plus Your World.
Attention to the customer is a growing area of concentration for businesses across industries and top social media and SEO companies work with their clients to engage customers and ensure their satisfaction and protect their online reputation. Give a read to Patty Ryan’s post yesterday on a real-life experience with proactive online reputation management, for some additional insight.
Reach out to us directly through our contact page for more information regarding social media, online customer service, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
