As social media increasingly becomes the channel through which customers discuss service issues with companies, channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are now likely part of how your brand delivers user experience. In fact, 33 percent of customers prefer to use social media to contact companies for customer service as opposed to making a phone call. Let’s talk about what this means for your communication efforts.
Don’t Ignore the Comment Section
We all know that trolls lurk in the comments sections of news sites, social media and anywhere a blinking cursor impels them to write stream of consciousness rants. However, this cannot distract us from the genuine comments and questions that loyal customers share via Facebook comments and Twitter replies. Devise a system to address both types of feedback in a respectful and considerate tone and you may turn a critic into an advocate.
Do Turn Customer Feedback Into Company Insight
Commentary on your company and products does not live in a vacuum. The most frustrated and invested customers will often be the ones who reach out on social media to give their feedback. Show that you care about their satisfaction by not only replying to their needs but creating content and solutions around what you’ve learned from their issues. This could be a blog post, user experience upgrade or short how-to video to help customers solve a problem.
Don’t Automate Everything
Just like you dislike trying to get a live person on automated phone systems, your customers don’t want to communicate with a bot that gives standard issue replies. If you must use an automated system, ensure that your follow-up to the initial missive demonstrates that there are humans behind the brand.
Customer Service: Do Follow Up and Close the Loop
Complex problems or customer disposition may keep you from being able to resolve some problems online. So prepare a process for taking your conversation offline (via direct or private message or through email). Not only does this eliminate public back and forth messaging, but now you can bring in outside expertise and assistance from team members and subject matter experts. Once the issue is resolved, it’s a nice touch – and shows other customers your commitment to social customer service – to go back to the original thread and thank the person for bringing their concerns to your attention and ask if they have any other needs.
This is a short list, of course, and dos and don’ts can vary depending on your industry.
What processes for social customer service have you implemented at your organization? Share a success (or horror) story.
