In a hyper-connected world, social media can be a key component of your customer experience strategy.
In fact, a study by Convince and Convert found that 71% of consumers who have had a positive customer service experience on social media are likely to recommend the brand to others. Another interesting stat from Sprout Social is that 75% of consumers expect a response within 30 minutes when they reach out to a brand on social media for customer service.
Here are ten things you can do to help provide great customer service on social media.
1. Align Your Brand Values
Visitors want to feel that they’re talking with someone real, even on social media. Your company’s tone should be reflected in your social media messages. A coffee shop that caters to students may have a relaxed, casual tone on its social media pages, while a large corporation dealing with money investments must be professional, friendly, and informative. Be aware of your brand image and your audience on social media.
2. Respond Promptly to Customers
Your response time is just as important as the speed at which you respond to customers via other channels. The quicker the better. The world we live in is ‘instantaneous’. Customers want answers immediately when they ask a question. Customers shouldn’t have to wait for hours before getting their answers. This is especially true for customers who have complaints. It will be hard work to keep up with it, but customers trust you and reward you for it.
3. Use the Group Feature
This is made easy by the three major social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. It is easy to create groups like Prospects, Current Customer, Positive Feedback, and so on. Each group can be assigned a social campaign. This is a great tool to make use of.
4. Be as Human as Possible
Social media users want to connect with real people, not corporate entities. It’s important to use your name when you build relationships through social media. You should also attach a photo of yourself to your social media profiles.
5. Track Customer Information
Integration of your social networks with your CRM system will allow you to collect far more information about your customer. Don’t miss this opportunity. This is a great way for you to build your customer base, which will allow you to create more targeted marketing campaigns in the future.
6. The Right Resources are Essential
Social media gives you the opportunity to provide exceptional customer service like never before. Your team may be set up to solve problems, but it can still be frustrating for customers. Customers are becoming more impatient about hold times and how requests for assistance are handled. Make sure you dedicate sufficient resources to monitor and respond to social media comments.
7. Choose a Connected Platform
A comprehensive social media platform will allow you to listen, engage and monitor your followers. Your social platform should seamlessly integrate with your CRM system. Most importantly, it should be customer-centered.
8. Reward Loyal Customers
Customers who engage exclusively via social media should be rewarded. To keep these customers delighted, you can offer a loyalty program. You can reward customers who leave positive feedback by sending them a personalized message with a discount code. For extra impact, send it by snail mail.
9. Engage with Social Influencers
You can use social media tools to find out who is driving the most conversations about your brand. Reach out to these individuals to establish a relationship.
10. Talk to your Customers
You must engage customers and visitors in a two-way conversation if you want to create a strong social media presence. Don’t just push information out, but encourage customer engagement by asking for feedback.
While Twitter and Facebook are the most popular social networks, there are many more. It is important to find the right social media management solution for your company, and then create guidelines and strategies that will work within that system. Social media is where your customers will share their opinions, offer compliments and voice their dissatisfaction. Make use of this important customer communication channel as soon as you can.
