Preferred Channel For Customer Service Inquiries, September 2014 [TABLE]

Preferred Channel For Customer Service Inquiries, September 2014 [TABLE]

American Express found that social networks were hardly ever the preferred channel for making customer service inquiries.

For simple inquiries, the most preferred way to get help was via a company’s website or email, with speaking to a real person on the phone in a distant second. For difficult problems, nearly half of internet users wanted to talk to a human on the telephone, with face-to-face help coming in second with almost a quarter of respondents.

Meanwhile, only 5% of respondents wanted to use social networks for simple inquiries, with an even smaller 3% looking to solve hard problems via social.

For brands, this doesn’t necessarly mean it’s a good idea to start ignoring customers’ problems when they’re posted to social sites. But it may be more a question of damage control and managing negative social buzz than of actually helping customers with their problems. Read the rest at eMarketer.