4 Ways Social Media Can Improve Your Customer Service
Believe it or not, taking too long to respond to a mention on social media, or letting a comment go without a reply are some of the biggest mistakes you can make online.
Industry leaders have, one by one, recognized the value of social media. That’s why they are now implementing social media customer service as a way to uplift their businesses. Social media can promote sales, help you create a loyal community around your brand, and help build brand awareness.
When you offer high-quality customer service, it promotes growth and helps your business get highly-valuable word-of-mouth recommendations. If you were looking for the best way to lift your brand’s credibility, this is unsurpassed. That’s why smart business leaders are using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to increase the value of their brands.
You see, nowadays, most consumers post about their brand experiences – whether they’re good or bad. What’s even more relevant, they are posting on a digital stage that spans the world.
That is exactly why business leaders are putting a lot of effort into managing their online presence in an effective and engaging manner that will keep their current customers, and grow their consumer base.
However, even the best online players sometimes slip up and make a mistake. Some of the biggest ones are not responding to a mention or letting a comment go without a reply.
So, in order to prevent making those mistakes, organizations now use specialized monitoring software to manage their social media accounts around the clock. Big businesses have entire teams whose task is to respond to social media mentions, comments, and reviews ASAP.
Basically, social media platforms can serve as the tools that will make or break your business. Do it right – your business will grow overnight. Do it wrong – you’ll disappear as you had never been there.
Of course, we all want to do it right – after all, no one opens an online business whilst planning to fail. So, what can you do to prevent mistakes? What’s the secret ingredient?
We have the answer. These 4 social media practice pieces of advice will help you to boost your customer service.
Be transparent
Social media platforms are a quick, simple, and transparent channel for communicating with clients. Anyone who has an internet connection can see your customer service in action via social media channels.
This means that you have a chance to show that yours is a truly top-notch business which truly listens to people and cares for its clients.
However, if you fail to do it right, if you don’t answer to social media mentions or reviews, everyone using those social channels will be able to see it. That kind of oversight will send a negative message to people, so tread carefully.
Reduce your expenses
Having full-time customer service isn’t very cost effective. However, if you decide to start responding to client concerns and questions via social media, you will cut expenses. Responding via socials costs approximately $1 per interaction, while phone support will cost you about $6. What’s even more important is the fact that more than half of all consumers worldwide use social media platforms.
People no longer use social media just to connect to their family members, professional peers, or friends. Now, they are increasingly using it to reach customer service representatives at various companies and organizations. 67% of consumers are using social media platforms to connect with brands.
Use this opportunity to improve your customer service
The whole point of having customer service is to help your clients and potentials be more satisfied with your products or services. Bad customer service can take that away from you. Businesses that offer poor customer service consequently have to spend a lot of their resources on attempts to fix their brand’s image and credibility.
Using a customer service platform might seem like a quick and easy fix for this problem. However, it isn’t. Most of those platforms are complicated to use, and they seemingly take forever. And what does that amount to? You’re not just making the client come to you; you are also wasting a lot of their valuable time.
If you instead decide to meet your clients somewhere where they will spend a lot of time – social media platforms – you can improve the quality and their impression of your customer service.
You see, in spite of the fact that fast customer service responses are a new standard, merely 12% of today’s businesses respond to customer service inquiries made via social media. And it’s not that 12% respond quickly – it’s that only 12% respond at all.
Apparently, businesses have a lot of work in front of them before they’re able to meet these new expectations. And that’s where business leaders who can bring their enterprises up to par quickly have a chance to get a competitive edge. Finally, it’s impeccable customer service that can greatly improve your profit margin.
Use direct access to your target audience
Social media platforms can do something for you that no other media outlet can. It can cut the middleman and give you direct access to the market you’re interested in. That way, you get to see exactly what your potential and existing clients want. You can determine which changes they want to see and what you can do to improve your business’s performance.
If you’re looking to improve performance within your marketing efforts, this is one of the best tactics. Thanks to the openness of social media, people are calling out organizations and businesses that are making the wrong steps – whether it’s in regards to political or social values.
For instance, when marketing campaigns represent our diverse modern society, 83% of audiences find them more successful.
When you implement a good social media strategy, customer service will encourage client spending. But not just that, it will also increase performance and improve the operational efficiency of your business. 49% of consumers will make a purchase after they receive a fast response to their social media inquiry. These people will not merely purchase your product afterward. They will also be more likely to become loyal to your brand and provide word-of-mouth recommendations.
Progressive executives use all of these strategies. They effectively optimize service efficiency while at the same time providing valuable insight into consumer-business engagement. Analyzing this data can help you to form more effective strategies that will enable you to meet corporate objectives.
