Reign, a support rep was struggling to attend endless phone calls from his customers. Due to long conversations, he was unable to prioritize calls and attend to them based on urgency. He missed important calls which irated customers and led to customers leaving his organization.
What strategy should he have adopted to avoid this situation? Let’s understand.
The telephone was the most effective way of doing customer service before the internet era. And, now with the advent of digital mediums, social media has become a game changer for customer service interactions as customer expectations have changed a lot in recent years. People are more drawn toward rapid solutions, and 24×7 customer support due to which social media is the preferred mode of channel for communication.
According to Mckinsey,
Customers spend 20 to 40 percent more with companies that respond to customer service requests on social media.
Now, how can you provide smart customer service through social media? Let’s get started!
But, before that, if you want to get a brief idea about social media customer service, let me break it down for you.
Social media customer service
Providing support using social media is the ultimate essence of social media customer service. It can include responding to their comments, solving their queries, etc. The main motive is to provide a superior customer experience that will help retain customers, grow the business and establish a unique identity in the market.
Now, let’s plunge into the smart ways to provide customer service via social media platforms.
Essential tips to improve social media customer service
People spend half of their time on social media channels such as Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Therefore, it has become easier for businesses to connect and nurture relationships with customers.
Here are the popular ways to provide an excellent social media customer service
Focusing on the right channel
Determine on which channels your customers are more active and interact with them on a personal level. Personalize responses by using their name to make them feel valued while responding to their problems. This can save time as you will not have to be present on every platform and only focus on the channels that matter most to your customers.
Responding quickly
Reply to queries or complaints as quickly as possible. Use chatbots on your social media accounts to provide automated responses to customers. Also, centralize all the conversations from different channels on a single platform. Enable notifications to stay updated on recent queries or complaints.
Creating social media guidelines
Define a voice for your brand by determining the style and tone to ensure consistency across all channels while responding to your customers. Have a clear plan on how to address negative comments, respond to feedback, and engage in positive conversations.
Also, make sure you comply with social media policies such as data privacy, security, ethical behavior, etc.
Monitoring social media
Keep an eye on all the conversations that happen on different social media platforms. Use monitoring tools to track brand mentions, hashtags, and keywords and analyze customer sentiments. Also, respond to customer inquiries or issues on time to stay on top of the business.
You can also track other important metrics such as response rate, and engagement rate to understand the effectiveness of customer service. Also, monitor customer feedback to identify areas of improvement.
You should prioritize urgent inquiries as well to prevent them from escalating. Make sure that you have a dedicated team to handle social media to provide replies promptly and efficiently.
By providing service through social media channels your business can
- Increase accessibility, as you will be able to reach out to a wide range of users.
- Reduce costs, as social media is free to use. Businesses can handle a large number of queries with the help of a small team.
- Improve brand visibility, as you can attract more customers when people share positive experiences.
Do you want to win customers by providing excellent social media customer service?
Also Read: How to Build a Marketing Social Media Strategy by Using Social Media Integration
