The primary intention of social media was to promote social connection and two-way conversation. Over time, social media has transitioned into an essential pillar in business growth. More than ever, social media platforms are being used to market products and services and increase brand awareness.
Good customer service is vital if a company wants to increase and retain customers. In light of these, hundreds of organizations are setting aside funds for customer service. But if not well done, it pushes current and potential customers away. The trick is to build effective customer service operations without necessarily having to boost the budget.
Today, social media has become an essential part of the business and can elevate a business to new levels. However, you have to know how to use social media well or you may end up spending and gaining nothing in return. Ineffective management of consumers and social media has the potential to ruin your brand. You wouldn’t want to experience such.
Relationship Between Social Media and Customer Service
The role of social media in customer service is to engage your customers. It is a convenient way of maintaining a good relationship and boosting the reputation of your brand.
Currently, most of the customers communicate through social media. Social media platforms help you resolve or address the concerns of your customers within a short time. The communication can help create a strong bond and increase customer loyalty. Therefore, businesses need to identify social media platforms used by their target audience and focus their efforts there.
Social Media Customer Service Best Practices:
Responding to Queries in an Authentic and Timely Manner
You should not only use social media to promote your brand, but also have authentic conversations with the customers. Responding to messages builds real relationships that eventually lead to customer loyalty. While responding to all the questions is important, doing it promptly is critical.
The other forms of support such as email and phone, are not expected to be available 24/7. But this is different from social media, as it has somehow created an ‘always-on’ impression. People seeking answers on social media expect a response within the shortest time possible.
In particular, a good number of customers expect a response to a complaint within an hour. They also expect around-the-clock support with the same response time at night as it is during the day or regular business hours. An unsatisfied customer is likely to use another channel to get an audience or response, such as complaining publicly to elicit a reaction. They can tell their friends and family about their experience, considerably affecting the reputation of the business.
Responsiveness
One of the best practices is to respond to all customer queries on social media. But that is not enough by itself. The business should be attentive and understand what the customer wants before responding. An inadequate response results from not paying attention, and that can hurt the brand.
It does not matter whether the comment is negative or positive, individuals appreciate being heard or acknowledged. A short response that satisfies the questions of the customers, followed by a simple thank you can indicate that a brand is responsive and listening.
A business cannot please everyone, and there will always be a section of dissatisfied customers. Have clear guidelines on how to respond to different customer queries and be consistent.
For example, have an outline of the types of queries you should respond to publicly. Determine which questions to take to the private conversations. If a particular issue requires research, let the customer know that you are working on it. In many cases, a particular question from customers may not seem to require a response. Nonetheless, you should always be the last to respond to improve your response rate. The Facebook algorithm only recognizes the last message.
Creating Right Customer Service Strategy for Each Platform
Using Facebook for customer service is the most popular method for social media engagement. In fact, Smart Insights estimate that up to 80% of all purchasing adults use the platform actively. Facebook has a feature that clearly shows your response rate at the top and will only consider a business to be ‘very responsive’ if you respond to queries within 5 minutes.
For many organizations, it may not be possible to monitor inboxes round the clock. Fortunately, you can use customizable away messages or programmable chatbots to engage with customers and improve your response rate.
Unlike Facebook, customers expect an immediate response on Twitter – this is how Twitter is.
The majority of people treat Twitter the same way they do with texting, and so conversations must occur in the same manner. You must attentively listen, appreciate, and finally, resolve. The 280-character limit means that your response must be concise and straight to the point.
The social strategy to employ depends on the platform you are using to interact with your customers. Other platforms you can use include Instagram and LinkedIn. Research on the best customer service tactics for each of the platforms you are using.
Building a Strong Presence
Not actively engaging or listening to customers can make your business lose out in one way or another. One way of ensuring good engagement with customers is the use of chatbots and automation.
However, maintain the right balance between automation and accessible customer agents to maintain productive conversations and increase engagement. Non-response or inactivity translates to missed opportunities. According to Business Research, companies that use social media to interact with their customers are more profitable than those who don’t.
Humanizing the Responses
While the use of chatbots and automated responses improve the response rate, using it excessively can be disadvantageous. People want a personal touch and humanized responses to feel heard. Always close with your initials or name to humanize the response. Typically, having your initials or name at the end of the response creates confidence with the customer. Furthermore, the business can tell who responded in case of a dispute. It creates accountability.
Treating Negativity with Positivity
Unlike in the brick and mortar store, complaints on social media can be seen by everyone – something to think about when instituting a social media complaint policy. It is always good to respond positively, no matter the negativity from some customers. Positivity encourages support from your loyal customer base. Usually, a few other positive comments on the same thread from loyalists can save face for the brand.
Brainstorm on responses beforehand, depending on the likelihood that your company is going to be on the receiving end of negative social media comments and reactions. Gather previous emails and calls and use them to create positive responses. The most important thing is to show that you respect the customer and that you care about their issues no matter how negative they are. Don’t engage in an online fistfight, you will end up the loser.
Creating a Strong Loyal Customer Base
Sometimes handling customer service complaints on social media can be difficult. Some customers can have strong words against your company, but your focus should not be on responding to all the negative reviews.
Best practices include creating a loyal and strong customer base to serve as your advocate. Put a lot of focus on providing the best services and a loyal customer base will eventually be a reality. According to RightNow, 73% of customers fall in love with a brand and remain loyal because of friendly customer service representatives.
Use Hashtags
Effective use of hashtags keeps the information easy to navigate and organized. You can add more info under a hashtag to help potential customers get all the information they require regarding a specific brand or product. Brand-specific hashtags and trending hashtags can increase the visibility of the company and encourage communication with potential customers.
Conclusion
With the above tips, you can increase social media engagement with both potential and current customers. They will likely improve customer satisfaction and increase your companies annual profits. Customers always turn to social media when they have a question regarding a product or service. Considering that hundreds of thousands of your potential customers are already on social media, you have no option but to provide exceptional customer service.
To sum it all up, your social media response strategy should look something like this:
- Respond to all the questions
- Be timely in all your responses
- Actively engage with customers online
- Humanize the responses where possible
- Always be positive with the responses
- Create a robust and loyal customer base
- Use hashtags productively
