Not any more, as Electric Ireland Launches first Facebook Customer Care Hub in Ireland.

There are close to 1.7 million people use Facebook in Ireland, 70% of whom use it daily.   Most use it for building and maintaining friendships, but now Electric Ireland is using it to help its 1.4 million customers by becoming the first business in Ireland to launch a Facebook based customer service platform, the Electric Ireland Customer Care Hub.  

Electric Ireland’s new online Customer Care Hub can be accessed through Facebook.  It provides helpful answers to typical customer queries on service areas such as billing, payments, pay as you go meter and energy efficiency.  If a particular query is not featured on the site, a visitor can simply submit a query through the messaging system and an Electric Ireland customer care agent will answer within two hours.

Electric Ireland’s Digital Marketing Manager, Mischa McInerney said at the launch, “This new service is a direct response to the changing needs and expectations of modern energy consumers who are looking for smart solutions to help them with their busy lives.   We know our customers value our online care service and we have seen an increase of 50% in customers using our social care channels in the last year. Even more interestingly, our own resent research into Millennials’ behaviour found that 92% of that age group expect a social care offering from brands and would not consider calling a contact centre.”

Some details on the Electric Ireland Social Care Service:

• 100% of Electric Ireland social media customer care queries are answered within 1 hour and 75% within 30 minutes.
• Electric Ireland are ranked in the 87^th percentile worldwide for social media customer care based on response times.
• 53% of Electric Ireland social care queries are through Facebook.
• The Electric Ireland social care team are trained customer care agents from the established call centre.