Social Customer Care, August 2014 [TABLE]

Social media is the preferred customer service channel for just 2% of consumers, far behind other channels such as phone (43%) and email (22%), finds a Parature survey of roughly 1,000 US adults. Even so, respondents aren’t shy about using social to interact with brands: 35% claim to have asked a customer service question on social media, while 35% have complained about a brand and 52% have praised a brand. Among those that got a response, 51% said it gave them a somewhat or much more favorable view of the brand. Though the survey doesn’t detail whether the response was for a question, praise, or complaint, research from Bazaarvoice has shown thatbrands can benefit from responding to negative reviews. Even so, a recent survey found that 1 in 5 brands rarely if ever respond to complaints on social media.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to see survey respondents more likely to take to social to praise than complain about a brand, as past research has found consumers more likely to share bad than good service experiences. Recent research from NewVoiceMedia, though, suggests that half of US consumers will tell friends and colleagues not to use a business following an inadequate customer service experience – while 7 in 10 will recommend a company following a good experience. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.