Social media customer service: Whose path do you take?

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell.

I read a piece of research sometime ago that looked into the different behaviour people exhibited in the way they got from one location to another. The researchers set up two different scenarios. In the first they created set pathways across a square in a university campus. In the second they created no paths and simply observed how people crossed the square to get from one location to another.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember either what the paper was called or what the outcome was of the research. But it got me thinking about the different approaches companies adopt in their use of social media within customer service specifically.

Perhaps I am being too simplistic, but in my mind there are those who create their own paths – Zappos, BestBuy, Dell, ComCast, ASOS, WigglyWigglers, (never heard of them, right?) amongst others, and then those who essentially follow in the paths of others – JetBlue, SouthWest, The Carphone Warehouse (Thanks, Frank and Tony!), BT, EasyJet, VirginTrains, Vodafone… 

What’s important to bear in mind is that there is no right or wrong path. Every company is different. There is only one Frank Eliason, Tony Hsieh, Lionel Menchaca or Heather Gorringe. There’s no best practice whitepaper, no set formula for determining your path. What’s key is to ensure that whichever path you follow, it’s the right one for you. And the only way to find that out is to take the first step and see where it leads you…