Sainsbury’s launches bid to drive social customer service
Sainsbury’s has hired social media experts Conversocial to support its customer service efforts on Facebook and Twitter in a bid to limit the potential fallout from crises emerging from negative online chatter.
The retailer hopes the move will help it find and respond to comments from fans following crises such as Horsegate.
Conversocial has implemented a platform that pulls in all content from its social media channels into a single feed, which allows Saisnbury’s staff to see how their followers are responding to certain keywords. The introduction of the new platform allows it to monitor in real-time what shoppers are saying about the brand from a single source.
A Sainsbury’s spokesman says: “Social strategy is managed in house working with a variety of vendors and agencies. Conversocial are one of the partners that we work with on delivering customer care.”
The platform claims the process can diffuse social media issues before they hit “crisis point”. Sainsbury’s follows in the footsteps of Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose in working with Conversocial to get closer to shoppers.
The move follows two high profile social media gaffes involving both Waitrose and Burger King over the last 12 months. The retailers fell prey to the vagaries of the social media arena when their accounts were hijacked in similar instances.
Sainsbury’s along with Tesco, Boots, Tesco and Marks & Spencer were highlighted as the leaders in customer engagement, according to business analytics firm SAS and research house Conlumino. The report found that 69 per cent of retailers would describe their marketing activity as successful, while only 37 per cent of customers agreed.
