7 Ways to Build Customer Trust & Reputation with Social Media

Social media is one powerful tool which can make or break your relationship with your customers on the go! And this is the reason why more and more brands are using this tool to their advantage and creating histories.

Starbucks and Café Coffee Day are two brands among a lot many that have harnessed the full potential of social media and continue to amaze their customers by providing them outstanding experiences.

If stats are to be believed, more than 70% of the people who complain to brands via twitter expect their responses within an hour! Further, more than 75% of the twitter users appreciate the experience when a particular brand replies to their tweet.

You’re getting the drift, right? Social media has a huge potential which you can use to your advantage to build a reputation and win customer trust. But, how would you do that? Fret not; we just got you covered here!

Here are 7 ways by which you can increase your customers’ trust and your reputation with the help of social media.

1. Identifying the need and offering quality services

The most important and primary step when it comes to gaining the trust and attention of your customer is to know in advance what your customer would be requiring.

According to Steve Jobs, it is important to guess what your customers require in advance as they themselves are most unaware of what they actually require. The success of your business depends on how you showcase yourself to the people.

2. Defining a TAT for online response

How you respond to your reviews and issues define how popular you are with your customers. Social media has created a medium for the customer to report their grievances and problems.

According to studies, only 20 percent of the companies would respond within 2 hours on Twitter. Make sure that you’re not one of those! You can even employ online reputation agencies or use tools that allow you to respond on social media.

Never be afraid of negative comments and reviews. Solving them can be your stepping stone to success. There are many social media review monitoring tools like HootSuite that allow you to respond quickly and easily to your comments or reviews. Faster responses mean more profits.

3. Exceed expectations

Always exceed your customers’ expectations. This is true in all cases and even when it comes to your company and its social media account. If your customers feel that they always get more than what they paid for, they will begin to start trusting you.

Even a small gesture can go a long way in cementing your customer and your reputation in the market. It is really important to make the customer feel important and the center of your attention.

4. Build relationships with your customer

Like we have explained in the previous point, it is important to make your customer feel loved and taken care of. It is not uncommon for companies to send birthday cards and gifts to their customer on their birthday or other special days.

Never try to cut down on words or emotions when coming to building relation with your customer. It can go a long way in helping you retain the customer and increasing your popularity in the business.

5. Be proactive

Most companies and brands only communicate with their customers as a way of reacting to them. This may be a reaction to comment or a review. But it is also important for you to be proactive and make effort to make your customer feel important and cared.

Always try to reach out to your customer and new ones, share good content, upload and like Instagram pictures. These might seem like small steps, but they go a long way and have a deep impact on the minds of the customer. It is also important to keep your relation going the entire year round and your customers will begin to support and trust you.

6. Reward your top customers

Rewarding your top and the most common customer is one of the easiest and most commonly used methods of gaining their trust and confidence. It makes the customer feel special and loved. It can be as simple as having a customer of the month competition on Instagram or Facebook. There are many ways of showing your customer that you care.

7. Build a community

The best and easiest way to keep your customer’s trust is to create a community of your customers. This community can help itself and people within to stay closer to the company. You can use a large number of software or websites like Google+ or LinkedIn to create and run your community.

Having a community can help bring up your brand as an authority in the respective business. People generally tend to buy from the best in the field. And your online community can give you that edge. There are many examples of communities of brands that are currently online and running.

For example, Apple has created a community of its consumers and this has helped then reach the top when it comes to tech and mobile phones. It has made it impossible for other companies to try and take over Apple’s place among its customer.

Wrapping Up
Building and running a successful business is no longer just about selling and services. It has a lot to do with marketing and publicity. And the rise of social media has made it easy and accessible to everyone. The application of social media in marketing and customer services is unparalleled.

But many of the business owners do not take full benefit of it. It is important to utilize the benefits of social media for the maximum profit and customer satisfaction. A company’s profit and growth is directly dependent on how happy and satisfied your customers are. These above-mentioned steps can help your company stand out from the rest and give you an edge over the competition.