Where Were You When It All Changed?

This chapter provides an introduction to social customer service. Social customer service allows customers to post tweets when they are unhappy or have a question about the product or service. Some strongly worded Facebook groups are established against brands and organizations that are giving bad customer service. Several organizations have seen “social customer service” as opportunity and welcomed the ability to dialogue with customers in this new way. Organizations used social media to reduce AHT (average handling time), gaining significant financial benefit plus an improved customer service reputation. Organizations such as giffgaff, BT, and BSkyB have enjoyed even broader benefits using peer‐to‐peer support communities as part of their social outreach. While retailers such as ASOS, Next, and Tesco host busy Facebook pages with plenty of customer service issues being discussed in between the latest engagement campaigns.