Al Rose

In part one of this two-part series, I analyzed the best way for retailers to communicate with their customers. This subject was prompted by STELLAService's research, which revealed that when customers emailed 25 of the largest American retailers, they only got a complete answer 54 percent of the time. In this follow-up article, I look at voice, social media and mobile support as customer service channels and the benefits of using each.

How should retailers communicate with customers and prospects? The issue lies with the number of channels there are to choose from: voice, email, online chat, social care (i.e., queries dealt with via social media channels), text message, etc. In this two-part series, I'll look at each customer service channel in turn and talk about the pros and cons of each when it comes to their effectiveness as a communication channel for customer service.

The emerging area of social care, the efforts of caring for customers using social media, is becoming a reality of day-to-day business operations for retailers. Many online marketers, retailers and marketplace merchants recognize the tremendous opportunity to enhance the customer experience by providing social media support, but most are struggling to prove the qualitative and quantitative value of their social care efforts.