Despite their inherent nature based on two-way conversations, many call centres are “still uncertain about using social media channels within their contact centre operations”, a new report from ContactBabel concludes.

According to the UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guide, 28% of UK call centres say that social media as a communication channel is a ‘wait and see’ topic, while the 44% that said they’re ‘actively engaging’ it still view it as a minor channel. Only 26% said that they placed a great deal of focus on it.

Susannah Richardson, marketing director of mplsystems, which partnered on the report, said: “Too many customers are making the mistake of responding to social queries with canned responses such as: ‘we will get back to your query in X days’. That’s no longer good enough. Consumers choose social because they assume they will get a fast resolution to their request not just a standard corporate response.”

Interestingly, the report also touched on the attitudes of particular call centre industries towards the adoption of social media. Transport and travel sectors are actively engaging in social media as a minor channel, whereas manufacturing, outsourcing and retail industries are said to be “very enthusiastic” about the future of social media in their business.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, the finance and insurance sectors had the greatest proportion of respondents that were “unenthusiastic” about adopting social media as a communication channel. As the report notes, insurers in particular “would do well to track what customers say about them to other individuals, as it can highlight deficiencies in the customer experience”. Perhaps, given the dismal state of the global economy, they’re afraid of exactly what that might be, and fall among the one in five businesses unprepared for online criticism?