Every business wants to believe that each and every customer is happy with their service all the time. The fact is, you should always be trying to improve your customer service and experience. Studies have shown that consumers today are more interested in an experience than just a product or service.
So give them one, by using social media to improve your overall customer service. Here’s 3 ways to put social to work for your business.
Answer Questions – Quickly!
Every social media article ever written encourages businesses to respond “in a timely manner” to every comment or question on social media.
It’s solid advice, but research shows your response times are more important than you think. For starters, a growing number of consumers are turning to a company’s social sites for help. Forty-three percent of consumers say the most important component of a company’s social site is rapid response to questions.
[activedemand_block id=”15208″]This gives you the opportunity to connect with customers as they are experiencing problems, have questions or just want to share feedback. Moreover, by posting answers to questions on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, they will then be available for anyone to read.
Just how fast should you respond? One survey shows seventy-two percent of consumers expect a response within an hour. So make sure those notifications are turned on!
Be Proactive
Social media listening is a key way to stay in front of potential issues between your service or product and the end consumer.
Don’t ever sit around and wait for a complaint to come in before you address it, if you have the option. You should be using social media monitoring software like Hootsuite to seek out potential issues before they find their way to you.
In addition to monitoring your brand name, add keywords like “problem” and “issues”, among others, to your software so that you can reach out to the customer before things get overblown. They’ll appreciate that you care enough to listen before they’ve spoken to you.
Have fun, and be social
Just because it’s a customer service channel doesn’t mean that the same rules don’t apply as a marketing channel. The number one rule is, of course, be social. Never, never, never forget that social media will only be helpful to you as long as you stay social and engage with followers. As soon as it becomes a broadcast medium instead of a conversation, the game’s over. You’ll lose followers much quicker than you gain them.
Every business wants to believe that each and every customer is happy with their service all the time. The fact is, you should always be trying to improve your customer service and experience. Studies have shown that consumers today are more interested in an experience than just a product or service.
So give them one, by using social media to improve your overall customer service. Here’s 3 ways to put social to work for your business.
Answer Questions – Quickly!
Every social media article ever written encourages businesses to respond “in a timely manner” to every comment or question on social media.
It’s solid advice, but research shows your response times are more important than you think. For starters, a growing number of consumers are turning to a company’s social sites for help. Forty-three percent of consumers say the most important component of a company’s social site is rapid response to questions.
[activedemand_block id=”15208″]This gives you the opportunity to connect with customers as they are experiencing problems, have questions or just want to share feedback. Moreover, by posting answers to questions on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, they will then be available for anyone to read.
Just how fast should you respond? One survey shows seventy-two percent of consumers expect a response within an hour. So make sure those notifications are turned on!
Be Proactive
Social media listening is a key way to stay in front of potential issues between your service or product and the end consumer.
Don’t ever sit around and wait for a complaint to come in before you address it, if you have the option. You should be using social media monitoring software like Hootsuite to seek out potential issues before they find their way to you.
In addition to monitoring your brand name, add keywords like “problem” and “issues”, among others, to your software so that you can reach out to the customer before things get overblown. They’ll appreciate that you care enough to listen before they’ve spoken to you.
Have fun, and be social
Just because it’s a customer service channel doesn’t mean that the same rules don’t apply as a marketing channel. The number one rule is, of course, be social. Never, never, never forget that social media will only be helpful to you as long as you stay social and engage with followers. As soon as it becomes a broadcast medium instead of a conversation, the game’s over. You’ll lose followers much quicker than you gain them.