Have you never been mellow

Have you ever seen your friend say something incredibly mean to their sibling? The type of thing you expect to start a fight, but instead they both fall about laughing? It is a strange truth that the closer you are to someone, the ruder you can be. That shared history of good times, hard times, and in-jokes means you can predict their reaction with a high degree of accuracy.

People on the outside of that relationship, without that deep context, may divine a very different meaning. When the relationship is between customer and company, there can be years of service, trust lost and rebuilt, shared language, and even in-jokes, all person-to-person.

Delivering customer service on social media channels then is like having a family argument live on stage with not-really-a-Dr. Phil. There may be a theoretical objective truth to get to, but everybody is also aware of the baying studio audience, trying to come off looking good.

Projecting the right tone, acknowledging real distress, operating with limited information, and doing it all under high expectations of speedy response...the skills to reliably succeed in public social media service are additive to the usual set of customer service skills.

If you find someone who can play that role for you, let them know that they are loved. The stakes may become very high without any warning, and then you’ll be glad you have them on your team.

Before that day comes, put your company in the best position to deliver consistently good social service through thoughtful planning and strategy.