funny image of businessman trying to run away from hand

Is the thought of starting a social customer service program giving you nightmares?

Do you pop a Xanax every time you read a new statistic about the necessity of social customer service, secretly burying yourself in busywork just to put it off a little bit longer?

Well then, you might have a serious case of Social CS denial.

See if you can relate to any of the following thinking:

1. You still can’t get your head around social media for customer service – why would people want to contact you on Facebook or Twitter? It’s for selfies, #random #hashtags and ice bucket challenges, right?

2. You know you have one or two (or five hundred) customers contacting you via social media, but you were kinda hoping they’d go away and call you instead.

3. You let your marketing department handle all the social media inquiries – you don’t know exactly WHAT they do on there, but they seem to be good at it, so why not answer a few questions while they’re at it?

4. Your customers LIKE to call you whenever they have a question – it’s more human, right?

5. You feel overwhelmed at the thought of dealing with customer service on social media. What happens when the floodgates open and you can’t handle all of the inquiries? Disaster!

6. You think it would be a HUGE mess and send your customer service agents into a frenzy.

And finally…

7. You’re concerned one of your agents is going to DO or say something naughty on social media for all the world to see. Poof! It goes viral and you’re out of a job – forever.

Well, let me put your mind at ease – we’re all afraid of things we don’t understand. It’s Psychology 101.

But Psychology 102 specifically states that you MUST not avoid things you’re afraid of. You must face your fear. And once you do, you’ll find that it wasn’t so scary after all.

We know from all of those statistics you’ve been avoiding, that social customers aren’t going away.

In fact, they’re getting stronger, and pretty soon they’re going to go multi-channel and expect you to talk to them on the same channel they contacted you.

Read more: