Hello and Happy New Year to you all.
As with every new year, the word ‘resolution’ has been flying around A LOT. Maybe you’re hoping to grow your online business this year, or finally delve into the world of social media marketing. Either way, customer service will play a big role in your success.
And, if you’ve not yet considered how your business can utilise social media to improve customer service and connection, then it’s definitely time you did. Seriously.
According to CallCenter Hosting, 80% of consumers now use social platforms to engage with brands, which opens up a whole world of opportunity to engage and serve customers like never before.
For this reason, utilising social media to improve customer service can take your brand to the next level, but only if you do it well. If you decide to take the ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants’ approach to social media rather than a carefully curated and managed one, you may run into problems. Big problems.
Instead, focus on developing robust strategies so that when customers come to you for something, you know that you can provide unmatched, personal and helpful customer service. To give you a head start, we have listed the top 5 ways that you can use social media to improve your customer service.
1. Be responsive
Social media gives you a platform to better address customer service issues. When an issue arises, with a few clicks of a button, you can sort it. And if you address and resolve issues in a short enough time, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll start to gain a loyal customer base.
But it’s not all about responding to issues. Every post, review, check-in and like is worth responding to as well. People engage with brands because they want to be heard. That’s right. Even those heart eyes, fire emoji commenters expect AND deserve a response.
It’s vital to pay attention and let them know you’re listening. A lack of attentiveness contributes to a poor response, which reflects negatively on your brand. To avoid this, make sure that you respond to everything within 24 hours or less.
2. Be transparent
Transparency is something that is important to many customers. They need to know that you are listening to what they say and are taking action accordingly. As social media is a public platform, there is a greater level of transparency when you are communicating with your customers in this manner.
This means that companies and organisations have the opportunity to really showcase that they are a top-notch enterprise that really cares about and listens to their customers. So respond to everything with grace and mix up your content by adding some unfiltered, behind-the-scenes action that your followers can really relate to.
3. Make it personal
Consumers are becoming more and more used to excellent customer service and hyper-personalisation. They want to feel like they are being taken care of and are a valued customer, otherwise they won’t choose to come back.
The key is to make your customers feel special. Re-post their stories of them using your product/service, give them shout-outs and don’t forget to say thank you for their support. Remember, social media allows two-way conversations for a reason.
4. Don’t be scared of negative comments
Unlike in a store, when one customer on social media complains thousands or even millions of people can see it. But don’t be discouraged. When faced with negativity, combat it with positivity. Show the customer that you care and value their opinion by openly apologising and providing solutions. This, in turn, will reduce the possibility of a large pushback from other customers.
5. Use insights to improve your customer service
Bad responses can really suck. We get that. But what they also provide is some valuable feedback and insight into what may be going wrong in your business. By taking a step back and reviewing customer responses objectively, you can start to identify areas of improvement and work out how you can serve your customers better.
