ROI of Social Media: Customer Service

By Mitchell Hislop | February 3, 2010

This is the first post of a series that will delve into what social media can do for your Rate Of Return, aka ROI. Let’s start with customer service:

I host my websites with MediaTemple (MT). I chose them because of the support they provide, and the fact that the package they had to offer was just what I was looking for. As a geek, I have my laptop covered with stickers of companies I use and love. One night, I tweeted out that I wish I had some MediaTemple stickers for my laptop. They responded with a very quick reply that I should send them my address. I did, and three days later had two sheets of stickers and a handwritten note!

Now, this is a short interaction. All this probably took MediaTemple less than 5 minutes and cost them less than $5. However, in return they turned me from just a customer to a loyal fan. If I get just one person to look at MT through my tweets, I have made them money.

In addition, I am less likely to switch hosts now. This means that they made even more money off their interaction.

This is not an isolated case, either. Comcast regularly leverage their Twitter account for customer service, as do many companies.

So, how do you measure the ROI of this?

One of simplest ways to measure your ROI is to have your Customer Service Representative (CSR) team trained on how to listen/interact (~$1000) and set up Twitter accounts. Then, use your existing ROI metrics for your CSR’s.

For instance, lets look back at MediaTemple. My hosting is $20/month. I have gotten one person to try it out, so that is making MT $20/month off their $10 investment. In addition, I am more likely to stay with them, which translates more or less, to an extra $100.

So, that is at least $120 over the next 6 months, or a 12x ROI.