Your business needs to have a process in place to deliver exceptional customer service when and where people are looking for it, and that includes on social media.
Every day, consumers post questions about brands and products on their social media profiles, particularly on Twitter and Facebook. Some might even take the time to go to your business’ Facebook Page to post a question or complaint while others might send a tweet directly to your brand’s Twitter Profile.
In fact, according to the data included in the infographic from Headway Capital at the end of this article, 33% of social media users prefer to use social media for customer service than calling a company. Furthermore, customers who receive a response to their service requests via social media actually spend 20-40% more, and 48% of people who receive good service tell their friends about it on social media.
In other words, delivering great social media customer service is not only expected but it can also boost word-of-mouth marketing and sales.
The infographic below includes 10 steps you can take to provide excellent customer service through social media to help you get your own processes up and running.
- Always respond to customers who contact you on social media sites.
- Prioritize messages so it’s easy to identify customers who need quick responses.
- Commit to responding to inquiries within one hour.
- Use customers’ names in your responses and sign your response messages with your own name to make the conversation more personal.
- Retweet or share positive responses or resolved actions (but don’t go overboard).
- Take messages offline and make them private when they involve sensitive topics or information.
- Monitor your brand name so you can find and respond to messages that aren’t sent directly to you.
- Follow up with additional content as part of your content marketing strategy, and turn common questions into a frequently asked questions page on your website.
- Don’t engage with trolls. Ignore them, and they’ll go away.
- Use social media analytics tools to measure what’s working and identify what needs to be changed in your processes.
Believe it or not, 70% of customer complaints published using Twitter actually don’t get answered at all. Considering that 43% of consumers who publish questions and complaints on social media sites expect not just a response but a direct response, failing to respond can easily create a negative perception of your brand that can spread very quickly.
Don’t let that happen to your brand and business. Instead, follow the tips in the infographic below to provide the best social media customer service possible.
Source: Headway Capital
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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