Social media is becoming number one channel for customer service. It’s because it’s public, has global reach and allows for real-time interactions. It quickly replaces other means of personal communication, such as phone calls, emails. We often prefer to message someone on Messenger or WhatsApp rather than make a phone call. We converse with our friends by commenting on their Facebook posts instead of sending them letters or e-mails.
But also it’s where your customers are and where they expect you, as a business, to be and respond!
• 67% of online customers have used company’s social profiles for customer support.
• 33% of social media users prefer to use social media than calling.
• Customers who receive a service request respond end up spending 20%-40% more with the company.
• If the service is good, 48% of users will share their customer experience in social media with their friends.
Have you checked where your customers are most active – is it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or another platform? Invest your time in this channel to build. Have you checked where your customers are most active – is it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or another platform? Invest your time in this channel to build relationship with your customers and help them using the channel of their choice.
Most brands in the U.S. start with Twitter. The platform promotes itself as a natural fit for customer service:
“Twitter is live, public, and conversational — and the best place for businesses and customers to connect. In fact, with millions of customer service-related interactions happening every month on the platform, many of our advertisers tell us that over 80% of their inbound social customer service requests happen on Twitter”.
Many big brands have accounts dedicated solely to customer support. A few such examples include @AmazonHelp, @SpotifyCares, @NikeSupport, @Netflixhelps, @XboxSupport, @UPSHelp, @MicrosoftHelps. It’s good to follow them and learn their best practices.
Facebook is the next big social customer care channel, although, by many, it is still used mainly for marketing purposes. Especially, its Facebook’s Messenger starts playing the role of a live chat service, since it can be easily installed on any website or online store. Their active user bases are astonishing – Facebook has passed a 2 billion monthly active users mark recently while Messenger have over 1.2 billion users.
Below you’ll find five key elements to deliver amazing customer service in social media. Apply them and surely not only will you see more positive user feedback but also growth in sales and customer recommendations.
What can you do to deliver better customer service in social media?
1. Respond quickly.
What does it mean? Here is one of your favorite, I suppose 🙂 You should react ASAP 🙂
32% of social media users, who’ve ever contacted a brand via social media, expect a response within 30 mins and 41% within 60 mins.
Even if it is different in your industry or with your audience (as it may be), it’s important to know your customers’ expectations. And they want to be answered quickly. Response time is a much more important factor for their satisfaction in social media than in traditional channels such as phones or emails.
Social media can definitely help you improve your customer support. It creates a unique opportunity to reach customers in real-time and to build closer relations with them. It’s a chance for you to have meaningful conversations, to listen to your customers’ real needs and problems, to learn from them.
2. Show empathy.
First of all, if you want to deliver great customer support, your main goal should be to offer and provide genuine help. You should make your customers feel appreciated, by answering their questions, solving their problems.
Obviously, you may not know the answers to all the questions. But you should know, at least, who to consult the question with.
And you need to keep updating your customers of the status of their inquiries. You should be a person who sincerely wants to help. Find creative ways to express your advice and empathy. It’s not only about knowing the answers, it’s about how they are given.
3. Sign with your name or initials.
It looks more “human” if you leave your name or initials. It also shows that you create more personal and friendly tone. Moreover, your customers can see that their inquiries are handled by a real person.
4. Use the customer’s name.
People usually like seeing their names or nicks they use in social media. So make use of it, if possible. If you don’t have enough space for your customer’s name, like it may happen on Twitter, use the handle. People like to be responded to in a personalized way, so why not giving them what they expect and just being more personal and friendly?
5. Monitor every mention.
It’s really important to listen to what’s being said about your business. You should track where and how your brand was mentioned and catch those engagements that need to be reacted to first. Just treat them as opportunities to engage with your customers and connect with them on an emotional level. It doesn’t mean that you need to spend hours staring at your social media feeds, being ready to react. You can use monitoring or social media management tools and be alerted any time your brand is mentioned. You can be even more proactive and engage with users even if they don’t mention you but you feel you can help in any way.
If you want to impress your customers, you should use your creativity to engage your audience in unexpected ways. It will make your customers’ experience became their good memories, that they want to talk about and share with others.
Using your social media profiles for customer support gives you an additional way to reach your customers in real time, connect with them on an emotional level and impress them. Social media creates a great opportunity to deliver outstanding customer experience, build stronger relationships and even make your customers more loyal. By offering high-quality customer care, you can create your competitive advantage, grow your business and leave your competitors one step behind.
