Nissan Exploring Facebook, Not Phones, as the Future of Customer Service
Given the growth in social networking via Facebook; even automakers are now looking to change the way they provide customer service.
Nissan, which currently boasts more than 279,000 followers on its Facebook page and, according to Erich Marx, the company’s Director of Marketing and Communications, experienced faster growth in social media than any other OE automaker during the first half of 2011, is looking at taking a more pro-active approach in dealing with customer complaints, which might very well mean replacing traditional phone based customer service, with social media.
“There will be a day when people will go to Facebook as a preferred method,” he says. “We are already seeing that number doubling every quarter.” He also went on to add, that “based on what I’ve seen in 90 days, I realize that this is something we are going to have to deal with in the future. As opposed to operators or help desks just waiting for a customer to complain, we need to have a Facebook presence to solve issues before they get bigger, and take a more pro-active role in identifying consumer issues or question.”
When the change will happen, remains to be seen, for now Nissan will continue to use operators at 1-800 numbers to deal with customer complaints, though, given the public nature of Facebook and a need to deal with issues as soon as possible, a year or five years from now the scenario could be very different.
[Source: Autotrader]
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