While most common customer service concerns in 2002 used to be whether the brand offers 24×7 support or whether they have a toll-free number, the internet has changed the entire deal now.
Consumers in 2019, want customer service to go way beyond calls.
There are around 3.5 billion active social media users. And, 75% of the customers (to any brand) using these platforms expect a consistent experience when they engage a company through social media.
You see the need for gaming up your customer service processes on social media?
Well, there’s more to it, and in this article you’ll find it all.
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How this Ride Goes? ● Is it Really Necessary? |
Is it Really Necessary? If Yes, Why?
One of the keys to making your business a success is keeping your customers close and happy.
$1.6 trillion is lost by companies in the United States every year due to customers switching to their competitors for the lack of customer service channels, poor customer service and lack of satisfaction.
Would you like to see that happen to your business?
I guess, no! And that’s one simple reason why customer service on social media is crucial for your business.
Moving further, it’s important to note that 67% of customers online have tried approaching a brand through their social media channels. And 95% of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 who were satisfied were likely to follow the brand on social media.
Do you see why it’s important for your brand to provide social media customer service to its prospects and customers?
The point is, your customers are online and so should you be. Afterall, every customer retained is a win, right?
How to do it Right?
So, once you know why customer service on social media matters, it’s time to implement.
And to help you do that right, these five tips can help you.
1. Reply to Queries as Soon as you see them
We all know how it’s kind of impossible to solve all email queries the moment they arrive. The same goes with queries over phone calls as well. And then this is also excused by the users as well.
But, social media?
Well, that part of the world is always woke. They want things quick at the rate of knots and they are easily disappointed. The best you can do for such an audience is being ‘always on’.
Replying to their questions. Comments. Messages. Calling back as and when required. Keeping them as satisfied as you can and doing everything in your power to match up to the pace at which the world on these platforms moves.
The aim is to make sure that your responses come off right off the bat as the queries arrive.
NOTE: To keep yourself up-to-date with new queries, turn on notifications so you get to know whenever anybody tries to reach you.
Also, note that your company’s Facebook support response time is displayed on its Facebook page.
This can also lead to your customers and prospects believing or not believing in your customer service.
2. Know When to Answer a Post in Public or Private
The next thing you need to understand is the difference between queries that can be answered in public and the ones that can’t and shouldn’t be answered in public.
Your business may have fans and it may have consumers who may not be very happy with it. In both cases, you need to make sure that you keep them all satisfied.
But then, should you be answering all of them in public.
Normal queries like how a customer can enable a service, or how they can make the most out of the product that they just bought can simply be answered in comments. However, when it comes down to dealing with complaints, you’d need to be more careful.
For example, you might have noticed. If you ever complain for a service in comments or in a post, the brand doesn’t always reply in comments. On most days, they’ll send you a private message, asking about your concern and will take it further from there.
Similarly, it’s going to be better if you solve complaints in private.
Discussing them in public can create a ruckus on your social channels.
3. Respond to all Mentions, Questions and Feedbacks
Every single social media activity targeted towards your brand deserves acknowledgement.
So, you know, whether it’s a mention, a review, a question or feedback to your product/service, you should make sure you reply to it.
This will make your customers and prospects feel like being valued and being heard. They’d get an idea that your brand actually cares for its customers and their needs. Which is great and appreciated by consumers in all industries (do we even need to cite that?)
So, remember this.
Just as no business would ignore a customer in their store, no business should leave a social media comment or post unanswered.
Tip: Whenever you are replying to anyone on Twitter using images, make sure you upload those to pic.twitter.com. Pictures uploaded directly to twitter are 94% more likely to reach a larger audience and get more retweets.
This will spread the positive word out about your brand’s commendable customer service.
4. Greet Your Customers and Do it With their Names
First things first, it’s super important to greet your customers. While this may not solve their problems, it’s always sweet and pleasing when a customer service executive greets with warmth.
Moreover, this will also lower down the customer’s temper, if there’s any.
And the next thing: whenever you greet them, greet with their name.
When a customer reaches out to your brand’s social media page, their name is visible right there. What can be the reason for you not to make use of it?
Being addressed by their names makes people feel better than being addressed with vague titles like Sir/Madam, etc.
So, whenever you receive a query regarding anything at all, pay attention to the name first and make use of it.
This will help you in two ways.
- By making the user feel heard by an actual person.
- By allowing your business to see who replied if there ever is a dispute.
5. Always be Positive
As you run a business, there can be times when you may have to face criticism.
Someone who didn’t like your service. Someone who couldn’t understand how to use it. Someone who genuinely didn’t enough value in your product.
There can be a number of such cases. And as it’s easy to raise these issues on social media, they will.
In cases like these, what you need to do is tackle such customers with patience and be cordial to them. You’ll need to understand their concerns and see how you can provide the best solution to it.
While being polite in situations like these may seem similar to walking a rope, it’s crucial for building and maintaining your brand’s reputation.
6. Use a Ticketing System to Manage Queries
As your business size and your social reach grows, you’ll start receiving more and more queries through your social channels.
At one point in time, this will get too much to deal with. But keeping a records is crucial.
Introducing a ticketing system can help you here. Many brands use this.
What they do is create a ticket number for every query and communicate it to the support team (if it’s different from the social channels team). Now, the customers respective to their ticket numbers are contacted by the support team and their queries are solved.
All the records for these queries are maintained. Speaking of how, that depends on how you choose. For example, software like Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, ReadIris, Creaceed Prizmo, etc.
Final words
A study by Walker states that by 2020, customer experience expected to become more important for consumers than price and product. And then 75% of the customers using social media platforms expect a flawless customer experience through social media.
For reasons like these, it becomes crucial for brands to take their customer service processes on to social media.
In this post, we talked about how that can be optimally achieved.
Hopefully, this was helpful.
Guest post courtesy of Vaibhav Kakkar co-founder of DWS and RankWatch
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