Study shows 62% of consumers have used social media for customer support

Customer support platform Zendesk has released some interesting details in a 2011 study and infographic. The study shows that businesses and consumers are both going to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to interact. It’s something that seems obvious, but has taken the better part of two years to come to fruition.

With brands getting a head start on accepting social media platforms as a useful means for customer support, the consumers themselves are finally getting into the act. However, the study shows that consumers would use these platforms to interact with businesses more often if they had a better grasp on how to use the tools. In fact, 76% of those polled said that they’d take to social media first if they had a better understanding of how it all works.

This means that in 2012, brands can’t simply flash a “Follow us on Twitter” or “Like us on Facebook” image on commercials or websites, they’re going to have to do a little bit of handholding if they want social media to make a big dent in how they handle customer support.

Here’s the full study from Zendesk, which shows that retail businesses are the most social media savvy (you can click here for the full-sized graphic):