More merchants are monitoring social media in the contact center than offering live chat, according to the results of the MCM Outlook 2013 survey.
According to the survey results, 46.5% of respondents are monitoring social media in the contact center, while just 21% are using live chat technology.
More than half the respondents (54.4%) that indicated they monitor social media in the contact center said they monitor and respond to customer complaints and praise on Facebook. Less than 16% (15.8%) said they follow and engage in conversations on LinkedIn, and 11.4% said they do the same on Twitter.
Live chat seems to be disappearing from the contact center. According to MCM Outlook 2012-13, 37.8% of respondents said they used live chat on their sites.
Though the question about social media in the contact center was not asked in 2012, it does appear to be a growing trend. Speaking at IRWD 2013 in February, Jason LaRose, senior vice president of ecommerce at Express, said 20% of the people in its contact center focus solely on responding to customer queries in social media channels.
METHODOLOGY: The online MCM Outlook 2013 survey was fielded by Multichannel Merchant from Mar. 5 through Mar. 18, and included 1,110 respondents. Of those respondents, 430 described their primary responsibility at their company operations and/or fulfillment.