Now that everyone and their dog is on social media, businesses have one thing on their mind: social media marketing.
But focusing solely on outreach means you’ll miss a very valuable opportunity—enhanced customer service.
It’s time to turn your attention to social customer service.
What Customers Expect
Many of us think our current online customer service is good enough. But, you’ll be surprised to learn you probably aren’t doing nearly enough.
Simply Measured shared the results of a survey titled Customer Service on Twitter: How Top Brands Respond. Here are some of the most jarring statistics.
- All the customers that participated in the study expected a reply to their social media query within two days.
- Nearly 70% wanted an answer within 24 hours.
- Just over 61% expected recognition within an hour.
- More than 30% thought it was reasonable to expect a reply within 30 minutes!
How does your current efforts measure up against customer expectations?!
Don’t feel bad. You’re probably doing better than the average—or at least your competitors.
The average response time to a customer’s tweet was just over five hours. However, not all inquiries got a reply; the businesses surveyed had a 40% response rate.
Some of the world’s biggest brands participated in this study. So if massive companies that have customer service representatives who work full time to manage these accounts aren’t perfect, you shouldn’t expect to be either.
But we could all stand to improve a little, right?
The Biggest Benefits of Social Customer Service
Do you still need convincing? Are you not sure social media is worth the effort? Consider this.
- Customer service via social media is the cheapest way to make customers happy. If you own a restaurant, you might be tempted to send a free dessert to a table that is unhappy with their dinner. But a few soothing words on Twitter won’t cost more than the thumb workout necessary to type it.
- Anyone and everyone has the skills to master social customer service–the main requirement is to be social. If your employees aren’t social enough to master Twitter and Facebook, you might want to send them back to the fallout shelter they lived in.
- You’ll be amazed by the power of a few carefully chosen words. Many customers suspect they are no more than a contributor to the business’s profits. The business fulfills the order and moves on with their life. But if you take the time to acknowledge customers, it will make a huge difference in the level of their loyalty. Recognize them as people and they’ll be a fan for life.
- It provides the fastest feedback possible. Do you want to know which version of your website converts more leads? You’ll have to dedicate massive amounts of time and resources to do some A/B testing. Want to know which product your customers like best? Ask them on twitter. You’ll have your answer in a matter of minutes.
- Social media helps you prevent potential problems. Take a look at what your competitors are doing. What complaints do your competitors’ customers have? A little foresight will help prevent problems before they surface.
- In the olden days, damage control for a business wasn’t always possible. By the time they knew trouble was afoot, the problem was too big for the company to fix. Now, businesses can use social media to immediately and publically address potential issues. You will get called out publically, but you can defend yourself publically too.
- When was the last time an angry customer talked directly to the company’s CEO? It certainly wouldn’t happen in the company’s call center, but it could happen on Twitter. Everyone in the company can—and should—join the conversation on occasion.
Think of it this way: you can use social media to either improve or defend your business’s reputation. Which would you rather do?
Gone are the days where a disgruntled customer picks up the phone and bellyaches. The person on the other end of the phone line sure got an earful, but that was the end of the nastiness.
Now, anyone can go on the social media platform of their choosing and sully your good name. If you aren’t sticking up for yourself, the general population will have to believe what those naysayers are rambling on about. Do you really want unsatisfied customers being the lone voice in a conversation about your brand?
In the end, if your business isn’t perceived in the best light possible, it’s due to your lack of involvement.
Best Tips for Implementing Social Customer Service
Want to give it a try? Here are some tips to get you started.
Start with one social customer service representative.
Just because anyone can use the business’s social media account doesn’t mean they should.
Conduct careful training. Let your customer service representatives know exactly how you want the platform to be used. Determine the best way to represent your brand.
Slowly add more employees to the account—but only after they’ve been briefed on what you expect.
Do your best to reply.
Until you’ve establish a significant following online, you probably won’t have much social activity. Comments and inquiries will be few and far between.
That means there is no excuse for not having a 100% response rate. And those responses should be timely.
As your popularity grows, do the best you can. Remember the report findings we shared earlier? No one was perfect, but we all saw how the majority of companies were coming up short in light of the customers’ expectations.
Don’t be superficial.
A customer takes the time to pour out her heart, proclaiming all the wonderful qualities of your business. Or worse, she rants and raves about her terrible experience. All you can muster is a generic platitude?!
“Thank you for your feedback.”
That won’t go over well!
Be a real person with real feelings, interests, and concerns. Create a conversation; don’t just provide a response. Let the customer know that both their support of your business and their opinions matter to you.
Remember, it is more than just a casual conversation.
Most of us think of Twitter as an online cocktail party—comments are pretty short and random. Facebook isn’t much more meaningful.
We assume meaningful conversations will happen via conventional modes of communication—like phone or email. But to a customer, all forms of communication—including social media—are fair game.
Do you know what chargebacks are? They are a forced credit card refund. Rather than call you up and ask for an exchange for those shoes that were the wrong color, the cardholder can just call the bank and file a chargeback.
That means you lose profits from the original sale and any potential profits from a future sale—because you never got the item back. Doesn’t that seem like a silly way to lose money?
Most banks will ask the customer to contact the merchant before following through with the chargeback. The bank doesn’t specify which method of contact the customer uses. Therefore, she could contact you on Facebook. If you fail to acknowledge the complaint, you can expect a costly chargeback in your near future.
Faulty customer service is one of the top five causes of chargebacks. All you have to do is be diligent about checking your social media accounts and you can prevent a lot of chargeback-induced profit losses. If you are wise about your social media usage, you can even use your accounts to dispute chargebacks that do happen.
Think outside the box.
Developing a social customer service program from scratch might seem daunting. If you are at a loss for how to get started, here are some unique, creative, get-yourself-on-the-map type actions.
Peter Shankman has dubbed himself a social media guru. Naturally, brands want to get themselves on his radar. Here are some pretty great ways to do that.
It’s Time to Combine Social Media and Customer Service
If you haven’t already realized the power of social customer service, it’s time to give it a try. Let us know what’s holding you back. Share some examples of great customer service you’ve discovered online.
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