The 2014 Social Customer Engagement Index marks the fourth Year in which Social Media Today has invited employees to share how their employers are integrating social media tools and strategies to improve customer experiences, especially when it comes to service and support. This year 1258 respondents participated in the survey.

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2014 Social Customer Engagement
Index Executive Summary
The
2014
Social
Customer
Engagement
Index
marks
the
fourth
year
in
which
Social
Media
Today
has
invited
employees
to
share
how
their
employers
are
integrating
social
media
tools
and
strategies
to
improve
customer
experiences,
especially
when
it
comes
to
service
and
support.
This
year
1258
respondents
participated
in
the
survey.
Key Takeaways from the 2013 Survey
As
companies
gain
experience,
further
integrate
social
into
service
processes
and
teams,
and
align
social
service
strategies
more
closely
with
their
overall
customer
engagement
strategy,
they
are
seeing
more
positive
impact
from
their
efforts.
Additionally,
a
greater
number
of
service
interactions
are
taking
place
over
social
channels.
But
even
as
the
percentage
of
social
service
interactions
increases,
it
still
lags
far
behind
traditional
service
channels
like
email
and
phone.
The
move
to
provide
mobile
customer
service
is
accelerating
and
should
continue
to
do
so
in
the
foreseeable
future
as
customers
operate
more
of
their
personal
and
professional
lives
through
a
plethora
of
devices,
including
wearable
devices.
Effective
resource
allocation
will
continue
to
be
central
to
social
service
success
as
companies
continually
fight
to
keep
up
with
customer
expectations
for
better
experiences.
Optimizing
in
the
face
of
an
ever-­‐changing
mix
of
devices,
tools,
platforms
and
technological
literacy
will
only
become
more
challenging,
even
as
experience
with
social
service
grows
deeper.
It’s
the
nature
of
the
current
environment,
and
it
will
only
accelerate
over
the
next
few
years,
particularly
for
organizations
looking
to
integrate
social
from
a
strategic,
process,
and
team
perspective.
Overall,
Facebook
remains
the
most
used
and
most
effective
social
channel
for
customer
engagement
from
a
service
perspective,
but
companies
who
operate
their
own
branded
communities
find
those
to
be
just
as
important
as
Facebook
and
more
important
than
Twitter.
Over
time,
these
owned
communities
should
allow
companies
to
build
deeper,
more
intimate
relationships
with
customers,
as
long
as
they
continue
to
facilitate
peer-­‐to-­‐peer
engagement
and
provide
relevant,
timely
information
whenever
it
is
needed.

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Speed
of
engagement
will
play
an
increasingly
important
role
in
creating
great
customer
service
experiences,
and
companies
that
focus
on
providing
speedy
responses
on
a
consistent
basis
should
create
win-­‐win
scenarios
for
the
customer
base
and
the
response
times
calls
for
alignment
of
processes,
teams
and
strategies
–
and
of
course
a
greater
percentage
of
investment
dollars
being
used
on
the
right
technology
pieces
to
provide
a
solid
foundation
on
which
to
build.
Finally,
companies
will
maximize
their
odds
of
social
service
success
if
they
make
sure
the
strategy
is
a
meaningful,
well-­‐connected
part
of
the
overall
customer
experience
strategy.
To
that
end,
the
organization
should
create
a
culture
that
allows
that
customer
experience
strategy
to
grow
and
stay
aligned
with
customer
behaviors,
activities
and
expectations
over
time.
Below
are
some
additional
high-­‐level
overviews
of
important
findings
from
the
survey.
Key Data Points from 2013 Index
• 15%
of
companies
say
25%+
of
customer
service
inquiries
are
initiated
over
social
channels
(35%
say
less
than
5%
do)
• 27%
say
it
takes
them
less
than
an
hour
to
respond
to
questions/issues
on
social
channel
• 14%
say
their
company
has
been
integrating
“social”
into
customer
support
for
more
than
4
years
• 52%
say
Facebook
is
most
effective
social
channel
for
customer
service
• Twitter
follows
at
25%,
then
Linked
at
8%
• Owned
communities
are
most
effective
for
7%
Hootsuite
use
among
respondents
tripled
year
over
year
on
the
way
to
becoming
the
most
cited
monitoring
tool
used.
Radian
6,
the
most
cited
tool
from
2012,
dropped
by
38%
in
2013.
Strategy
• 81%
say
social
customer
service
strategy
is
integrated
into
overall
social
strategy
of
the
organization
• 55%
have
fully
integrated
their
support
teams
(no
separate
team
for
social
service
support)
• 25%
say
they
leverage
customer
service
insights
for
non-­‐
customer
service
related
activities
in
a
structured
fashion
Mobile
Service
• 50%
of
those
surveyed
said
their
company
provides
customer
service
via
mobile
devices,
up
from
38%
in
2012
• 52%
of
those
surveyed
whose
organizations
are
building
customer
service
apps
for
mobile
devices
are
creating
mobile-­‐

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friendly
websites,
vs.
36%
who
are
creating
native
iOS/Android
mobile
apps
Results
• 32%
say
they
have
seen
very
positive
impact
from
“social”
on
customer
service
goals
and
objectives
• 16%
say
they
are
very
satisfied
with
their
company’s
efforts
to
engage
customer
on
social
networks
for
service
and
support
General Trends Over Time: Year-­‐Over-­‐Year Comparison
With
the
completion
of
the
2013
annual
index,
a
number
of
interesting
temporal
trends
begin
to
emerge.
We
review
these
below.
As
illustrated
above,
there
has
been
a
steady
and
significant
trend
of
support
interactions
occurring
increasingly
through
social
channels:
• Only
35%
of
respondents
say
their
company
has
less
than
5%
of
support
interactions
taking
place
over
social,
compared
with
57%
in
2011.
• Roughly
twice
as
many
people
say
they
are
seeing
11-­‐15%
of
interactions
taking
place
on
social.
• Over
three
times
as
many
people
report
16-­‐20%
of
interactions
occur
via
social
channels.
• Greater
numbers
of
people
report
more
than
20%
of
interactions
happening
over
social
channels
in
2013,
compared
with
2011.

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Looking
at
the
impact
“social
support”
is
having
on
service
goals
and
objectives,
the
upward
trend
in
reporting
positive
impact
is
matched
by
the
downward
trend
in
those
reporting
no
noticeable
improvement.
In
fact,
between
2011
and
2013,
the
10%
drop
in
those
reporting
no
noticeable
improvement
is
almost
completely
offset
by
the
11%
increase
in
those
reporting
either
a
positive
or
very
positive
impact
from
social
support
initiatives.
Given
these
trends,
it
seems
safe
to
say
that
over
time,
as
more
experience
is
gained,
goals
and
objectives
will
benefit
from
an
expansion
of
social
tools
and
strategies
into
customer
service/experience
initiatives.
While
most
other
aspects
of
the
survey
are
trending
positively
over
time,
some
interesting
results
emerge
with
respect
to
overall
satisfaction
with
company
efforts
to
integrate
social
into
customer
support
efforts.
Despite
the
aforementioned
trend
towards
reporting
more
positive
impacts
on
goals
and
objectives,
there
has
been
no
increase
in
the
proportion
of
respondents
who
are
“very
satisfied”
with
company
efforts,
and
overall,
the
numbers
for
those
reporting
some
level
of
satisfaction
are
unchanged.
There
seems
to
have
been
a
shift,
however,
from
disappointment
to
neutrality,
with
the
proportion
of
people
reporting
a
level
of
disappointment
decreasing
over
time,
and
the
proportion
reporting
a
neutral
opinion
increasing.
With
the
rapidly
changing
landscape
of
social,
mobile
and
cloud
technologies
–
along
with
even
more
rapidly
changing
customer
expectations
–
it’s
not
too
surprising
that
respondent
satisfaction
levels
are
not
increasing
as
quickly
as
other
areas.
The
following
chart
of
major
challenges
faced
by
social
support
initiatives
may
help
to
further
clarify:

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While
there’s
been
significant
improvement
in
areas
like
determining
key
performance
indicators,
the
main
obstacle
continues
to
be
figuring
out
how
to
optimally
allocate
resources.
Well
over
40%
of
respondents
say
this
continues
to
be
a
serious
impediment
year-­‐over-­‐year.
Resource
allocation
can
take
the
form
of
people,
team
configuration,
training,
tools
and
financial
investment.
How
companies
determine
resource
allocation
can
determine
how
employees
develop
and
implement
processes
and
procedures
when
engaging
customers
–
which
also
plays
into
how
satisfied
employees
are
with
how
things
are
going.
Insights from the Very Satisfied Group
Among
those
who
answered
the
question
about
their
satisfaction
with
their
organization’s
efforts
to
integrate
social
into
service,
16%
said
they
were
very
satisfied.
When
comparing
these
respondents
to
the
overall
population
some
key
points
stand
out.
While
there
are
several
data
points
that
show
those
very
satisfied
with
company
efforts
in
social
service
track
closely
with
the
overall
survey
population,
it
can’t
be
ignored
that
this
group
is
more
than
twice
as
likely
to
also
report
very
positive
impact
from
these
efforts
on
service
goals
and
objectives.
Additionally,
they
are
much
more
likely
to
respond
quickly
to
service
inquiries,
while
handling
a
higher
percentage
of
those
requests
via
social
channels.
They
are
also
more
likely
to
work
in
integrated
teams
of
people,
have
social
integrated
into
traditional
service
processes,
and
have
a
structured
process
for
leveraging
customer
service
insights
in
other
areas
of
the
business.
The Impact of Being a Fully Integrated Organization
In
2013
we
were
curious
about
the
extent
to
which
social
service
was
integrated
into
the
fabric
of
the
organization.
In
order
to
capture
this
we
added
a
question
that
asked
if
the
social
service
strategy
was
integrated
into
the
organization’s
overall
corporate
social
strategy
to
improve
customer
experience.
Since
we
added
questions
last
year
to
track
if
social
tools
and
strategies
had
been
integrated
into
traditional
support
processes
and
if
support
teams
were
integrated,
we
were
able
to
assess
the
possible
impact
of
integrated
teams,
processes
and
strategies.
240
respondents
indicated
that
their
organizations
have
integrated
teams,
processes
and
strategy.
We
call
these
“fully
integrated

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companies,”
The
illustration
below
compares
this
group
to
the
overall
population
in
a
few
key
areas.
Additionally,
we
look
at
a
subgroup
of
fully
integrated
companies
with
500
or
more
employees,
to
see
how
they
compare
to
the
overall
population.
What
immediately
stands
out
in
the
figure
above
is
how
much
more
likely
fully
integrated
companies
are
to
experience
very
positive
impact
of
their
social
initiatives
on
their
service
goals
and
objectives
Fully
integrated
companies
with
over
500
employees
are
most
likely
to
benefit,
being
almost
twice
as
likely
to
report
very
positive
impact,
compared
with
the
general
population.
Fully
integrated
company
respondents
were
also
much
less
likely
to
report
their
method
of
social
engagement
as
being
“ad-­‐hoc.”
They
are
also
more
likely
to
have
their
own
communities
(especially
500+
employee
fully
integrated
companies),
and
provide
mobile
support
for
their
customers.
While
it
would
seem
that
becoming
a
fully
integrated
company
would
entail
operating
in
a
more
complex
environment,
at
least
while
transitioning
to
this
kind
operation,
fully
integrated
organizations
were
less
likely
to
cite
resource
allocation
as
a
major
challenge.
Management
buy-­‐in,
however,
is
a
slightly
greater
challenge
for
fully
integrated
companies
with
500
or
more
employees.
In
general,
it
appears
there
are
significant
benefits
to
combining
social
tools
and
tactics
at
the
process,
team
and
corporate
strategy
level,
and
for
larger
organizations
the
impact
seems
to
be
even
more
potent,
but
it
will
be
interesting
to
see
how
this
trends
in
2014.
Depending on Branded Community
Last
year
we
looked
at
how
branded
communities
fit
into
the
mix
of
customer
engagement
from
a
service
perspective.
Respondents
who
reported
working
at
an
organization
with
a
company-­‐owned

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community
found
them
to
be
the
most
effective
channel,
even
though
Facebook
and
Twitter
were
by
far
the
most
used
networks
for
customer
engagement.
The
image
below
illustrates
the
continuing
importance
of
these
communities
to
companies
who
own
them.
Facebook
and
Twitter
are
definitely
the
most
effective
channels
for
engagement
for
the
general
population,
by
far
out-­‐distancing
owned
communities,
but
but
those
with
an
owned
community
have
a
different
perspective..
While
Facebook
nudges
out
owned
communities
among
this
group,
those
communities
are,
for
all
intents
and
purposes,
just
as
important
to
them
as
the
big
guys.
A Look at the Allocation of Investment
A
quick
look
at
the
annual
financial
investment
that
companies
allocate
to
implementing
social
tools
and
strategies
into
customer
service
efforts
reveals
some
slight
upward
movement
from
2011
to
2013.
In
the
2013
survey,
for
the
first
time,
we
asked
respondents
to
tell
us
how
the
monies
invested
in
social
service
initiatives
were
allocated.
The
overall
population
reported
allocating
the
money
in
the
following
manner:
• Technology:
23%
• Employee
Time:
51%
• Training:
11%
• Consulting:
10%
• Other:
5%

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A
closer
look
at
how
funds
were
allocated
uncovers
a
few
interesting
patterns.
Across
the
board,
employee
time
is
far
and
away
the
category
receiving
the
most
financial
resources,
with
technology
next
in
line.
While
technology
made
up
23%
of
the
overall
population’s
annual
investment,
that
number
grows
significantly
to
32%
for
larger
enterprises
deploying
native
mobile
apps
for
customer
service.
Technology
spending
also
reaches
32%
for
larger
enterprises
with
the
ability
to
respond
to
service
inquiries
in
less
than
an
hour.
When
looking
at
companies
reporting
very
positive
impact
from
their
organizations’
social
service
efforts,
technology
spending
makes
up
27%,
while
47%
is
allocated
to
employee
time.
Companies
handling
greater
than
25%
of
service
interactions
via
social
reported
spending
14%
on
consulting
time,
well
above
the
general
population
average
of
10%.
Technology
spending
also
makes
up
a
greater
percentage
of
the
overall
spend
for
companies
investing
more
than
$250,000
(29%
vs.
23%).
Social Monitoring Tools –
Interesting Shift Year-­‐Over-­‐Year
In
2012
we
started
asking
respondents
for
the
tools
used
at
their
organizations
to
help
implement
their
social
service
strategies.
A
word
cloud
of
the
services
used
in
2012
is
pictured
below:
Just
one
year
later
in
2013
the
word
cloud
looks
like
this:

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As
you
can
see,
many
of
the
tools
mentioned
in
2012
are
missing
from
the
2013
word
cloud,
with
the
missing
tools,
all
of
which
are
paid
services,
indicated
in
red.
Other
tools
like
Radian6
and
Lithium
have
been
de-­‐emphasized,
whereas
services
like
HootSuite
and
Facebook
have
become
more
popular.
Below
is
the
actual
count
of
the
top
tools
mentioned
in
2012
vs.
2013:
This
graphic
really
illustrates
how
tools
like
HootSuite
and
Facebook
made
tremendous
gains
in
terms
of
usage,
while
Radian6,
Attensity
and
Visible
Technologies
lost
some
steam
among
survey
respondents.
Meanwhile,
other
paid
services
like
Sysomos,
HubSpot,
Meltwater
and
Sprinklr
made
gains
among
respondents.
It
will
be
interesting
to
see
what
this
list
will
look
like
in
2014.
Will
it
be
more
turnover,
or
will
the
likes
of
HootSuite,
Sysomos
and
others
continue
picking
up
users?

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5000+ Employee Organizations
This
year
for
the
first
time
we
segmented
out
respondents
from
organizations
with
greater
than
5000
employees,
and
with
representatives
from
these
super-­‐sized
organizations
making
up
11%
of
the
total
survey
population,
we’re
able
to
make
some
interesting
comparisons.
The
illustration
below
depicts
how
these
extremely
large
companies
compare
to
the
general
population
of
respondents
with
respect
to
key
survey
metrics.
As
you
can
see,
“super-­‐sized”
companies
are
aligned
with
the
general
population
with
respect
to
impact,
satisfaction
levels,
and
the
belief
that
Facebook
is
the
most
effective
social
channel
for
customer
engagement.
As
might
be
expected,
they
are
much
more
likely
to
invest
big
dollars
into
their
program.
But
the
total
survey
population
is
much
quicker
to
respond
to
social
inquiries,
handle
a
higher
percentage
of
service
interactions
on
social
channels,
and
work
in
more
integrated
teams
than
do
the
big
companies.
About the Index – By the Numbers
This
study
was
led
Brent
Leary,
Partner,
CRM
Essentials
LLC.
Reach
out
to
Brent
via
Twitter
at
@BrentLeary.
To
provide
some
background
information
to
the
make
up
this
year’s
Index,
here
are
some
key
demographics
to
the
survey
population:
• Total
Respondents:
1258
(920
completed)
o Up
from
891
(587)
completed
in
2012
• 69%
of
Respondents
are
based
in
the
USA
• 48%
employed
at
companies
with
50
or
less
employees
• 26%
employed
at
companies
with
over
500
employees
• 11%
employed
at
companies
with
over
5000
employees
• 30%
are
Director
level
or
above
(C-­‐Level,
VP)
• Top
Departments
o Marketing
–
57%
o Other
–
20%
o PR
–
8%
o Customer
Care
–
8%
o Sales
–
7%
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