Social media unlocks great potential for customer service

After reading "Social networking forces change in customer service" by Barney Beal, I can see why companies are focusing on harnessing social media's power to improve customer service. There's great potential being unlocked, especially regarding improving customer interaction and improving the product experience. Like the article mentions, social media has empowered customers and given them the opportunity to tap into each other to solve problems or allow direct interaction with the company itself for feedback. This concept is similar to another blog post where I write about "crowd sourcing" and how the masses have done a great job interacting with companies.

With that said, I'm always curious what would happen if all of a sudden companies like Twitter (which many companies use for customer service) start charging fee's to companies that use its service. Up to this point, many online tools like Twitter have been free of charge and companies have greatly benefited from them. But the day will come when "free" ends and fees begin. Will companies then bite the bullet and pay or abandon their customer service strategy using social media?