A good customer experience begins with a great product and ends with a happy customer. When working as a social media specialist, a key aspect of your day-to-day engagement will be interacting with customers.
Customer service on your brand’s various social media platforms can be tricky due to the public nature of the interactions. Knowing how to engage with people to ensure the best possible outcome for the customer is essential. Doing this while keeping your brand’s good reputation intact is just as important.
Customer service on your brand’s various social media platforms can be tricky due to the public nature of the interactions. Knowing how to engage with people to ensure the best possible outcome for the customer is essential. Doing this while keeping your brand’s good reputation intact is just as important.
The good news is it can be done. Achieving brand success on social media through great customer service is possible. There are even better chances of forming relationships and creating brand advocates with this direct interaction online.
Want to learn how to achieve social customer service success and make customers love your brand? Make sure to follow these essential tips:
Be Where Your Customers Are and Get To Know Them
If you want to provide outstanding customer service, you should know where your customers are. If you don’t know where they are, the easiest way to figure it out is through research.
Research into the social landscape allows you to figure out what your customers are saying about you and your brand. With targeted audience research, you can also find more information about your audience and potential customers. Things such as where your target market is from, their background, age range, and social group, are all things that can be found with strategic research.
This information will help you spot areas of the market that you have failed to reach and will give you a better understanding of what you can do better to serve your customers.
Quick Responses Are a MUST
Timing and efficiency are everything in Social Media. Marketing Studies have shown that over 80% of Twitter users want brands to answer their questions the same day. These expectations are not easy to meet, but with strategic work, you can achieve or exceed them.
It is also important to remember that your answers have to be accurate. Your super fast speed will mean nothing if your answers don’t provide a solution to the customer.
Know When to Take the Customer’s Problem Offline
Managing your brand’s customers and potential customers online is important. Customers will go on your brand’s Facebook page or Twitter account to complain publicly and ask you to solve their problems. When companies do not meet their expectations, a situation can go from bad to worse in no time.
Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you can’t provide the ideal support, make sure you move the issue from a public to a private conversation. Email or private messaging is highly recommended for lengthy or complex issues.
Show Your Brand’s Personality – Don’t be Afraid to be Fun and Creative!
Nobody likes customer service responses that are robotic. We feel better if brands are personable when they communicate with us, so…be friendly!
Make sure you hire people who are smart, fun, and creative for Customer Service positions. Look for people who are outgoing and friendly, the kind of people you would like to surround yourself with. Your fans will love their personalities and in turn, love your brand.
Always Say, “Thank You.” Showing Interest and Gratitude Toward your Customers Will Make Better Brand Advocates
If you want to improve the quality of your relationship with your customers, you need to show them kindness and gratitude. Remember, the smallest acts of kindness, care, and respect for your customers can leave positive lasting impressions that will benefit you brand in the long run.
Don’t Forget to Follow up! It’s Fast and Easy
Following up with your customer is always important and is achieved in a fast and easy way through Social Media.
If you manage to resolve the problem with a quick tweet, you can immediately ask whether or not the answer was helpful. If it wasn’t, you have an opportunity to take further action (perhaps reach out to a manager or figure out a new way to help). If it was helpful, you have a publicly visible representation of how customer-focused you and your brand are.
An outstanding customer experience strengthens the customer-brand relationship and can drive future repeat sales. Each customer that has a warm experience with you can potentially turn into a brand advocate or contribute to positive sentiment, such as happy tweets and wonderful word-of-mouth referrals. Just remember, working with customers on social media makes you the persona of the brand you represent. Keep the experience professional but personable and warm but productive. This will ensure the best outcome for the customer and solidify your brand’s reputation online.
