Using Social Media for Customer Service
For customer facing companies, customer service is a big part of their social media presence. Many people will use social media as a way to review products and services. While this is a good thing for positive reviews, bad reviews on social media can impact negatively on a brand because bad news often travels fast on social media. Therefore, customer facing companies should have strategies in place for dealing with customer service on social media.
How can social media be used for customer service?
Building customer relationships – use social media to create a conversation with customers. Many brands will just focus on self-promotion on social media but creating a conversation with customers is important to building relationships and long-term loyalty with customers. 56% of people will never use a company again as a result of poor customer service, so make sure to acknowledge your customers to ensure they shop with you again.
Quick reply – whether a customer has something negative or positive to say, replying to their comment lets them know that they are being heard and you are taking their thoughts on board. In order to provide good customer service, it is important to reply as quickly as possible. 42% of consumers expect a customer service response on social media within 60 minutes.
Improve products and services – Your customers are very important to the success of your business and what they have to say matters. So use their comments on social media to help improve your products and services to ensure that they meet their needs.
Brands can introduce automation into their social media accounts to make customer service less hassle. While it is important to have a human presence on social media, having an automated response would mean that your social media channels do not need to be monitored all day, but your customers still feel that they are being listened to. In order to effectively integrate automation into your social media channels, a balance should be found with human interaction and automation.
