Data reveals Next is nailing social media customer service

New research conducted by data insight experts IMGROUP has revealed interesting details about the state of the top ten retailers and their use of social media to conduct online customer service practices. John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and Boots all feature, with Next being awarded the top spot for providing the best engagement and social media customer service.

The ‘Retailer Social Media Analysis 2013‘ found that every one of the retailers had a dedicated Facebook page to help provide some sort of customer service portal, with Next showing an average Facebook response rate of 92% and an average response time of 28 minutes – pretty decent for a retailer with over 1.2 million ‘likes’.

Boots and Superdrug were discovered to be failing to utilise Twitter for any sort of customer service complaint handling, with Argos, Next, Homebase, John Lewis, Currys PC World and B&Q all providing dedicated accounts to deal with customer worries, and Marks & Spencer and Ikea using their main corporate Twitter handles to address customer service issues.

Engaging best with customers on Pinterest was Marks & Spencer, followed by Next and John Lewis. Google+ wasn’t as popular among the retailers, with only seven of the companies having an official presence on the social media site.

Martin Philpott, head of retail at IMGROUP said: “In the battle to compete with online giants such as Asos and Amazon, bricks and mortar retailers are increasingly harnessing the power of social media as a means to actively engage with their customers, increasingly exploring newer channels like Pinterest.

“The next step for retailers is to make use of the information consumers share on social media sites to achieve a better understanding of behaviour and buying patterns, enabling them to interact with their customers in a much more seamless, targeted and engaging way.”