Social media has become an essential instrument for communicating with your customers. 80% of businesses are already on social media, and 54% use it for customer service. This article discusses the top 5 ways you can use social media as a customer service tool (in no particular order).
With social media, you can stay connected to prospects, nurture customer relationships and increase brand awareness. But as a customer service tool, it is also invaluable. Leverage the effectiveness of social media as a communication tool using these five ways.
Customers should be engaged and interacted with, whether they complain, compliment your company or provide product feedback. Interaction is key to social media; you want customers to feel that your business is always on hand to assist them. Using social media lets your customers feel like they’re having a conversation with you. Customer and client satisfaction will increase if you respond to comments regularly.
Responding alone is insufficient. 90% of consumers expect an immediate response from brands regarding customer service issues. Keeping track of social media channels and responding to concerns right away is an excellent way to maintain strong customer relationships. Being timely is also essential.
Remember that social media users asking questions about your brand may not be customers yet. A responsive social media presence demonstrates your commitment to customer service. It shows potential clients that you care about them. If a potential customer doesn’t get support from your company, they’re likely to go to your competitors.
If you do not provide 24/7 customer service, setting the right expectations for your customers is crucial. Provide precise hours of service on social media. Whenever you go offline, inform your customers. Self-help links should also be provided. In the meantime, suggest alternative channels for reaching customer service.
As social media continues to grow, customers become more empowered. This digital development has also changed how a business’s reputation is managed.
Keeping an eye on your active social media channels is essential to maintaining brand control and providing prompt customer service. When your customers tag your social handles, this prompts you to know about their concerns or issues and take action as soon as possible. It’s likely that this won’t be the case for every customer, however. A customer may opt not to include a tag, which means the complaint may not be visible to you. However, it may be visible to all their followers who may choose to buy from a competitor rather than you.
Negative publicity about your business should be minimised as soon as possible. You should monitor your social media channels for this reason. You can utilise social listening tools to help you catch all positive and negative feedback from your customers.
Increasingly, social customer care relies on social listening. Due to the number of conversations that happen via social, managing every brand mention can be a challenge. Thus, many brands use monitoring and listening tools to discover brand mentions that aren’t specifically tagged or misspelled.
Social listening also helps you uncover frequently asked questions from your customers, helping you better understand your audience’s needs and wants. To address their commonly asked questions, you can use canned responses and make your social team’s job easier.
Make hashtags count by using them strategically. Social media users can navigate content using hashtags and discover relevant content.
Additionally, hashtags can enhance customer service by assisting customers in finding useful information. You can use hashtags to share news about products, recalls or tutorials. With the right hashtags, customers can search for answers on their own without contacting customer service.
However, it’s essential to remember that while hashtags can be useful, overusing them can be detrimental. A post with dozens of hashtags seems spammy, distracting and out of place. Keep your hashtag count to two or three per post. Note that social media platforms’ hashtag algorithms frequently change, so ensure you’re up-to-date on your platform’s hashtag recommendations.
You might want to consider chatbots if you’re looking for a more automated customer service method.
Social chatbots are an excellent way to provide 24/7 customer service. You can use them to answer common questions and reduce the volume of messages you receive. Chatbots powered by AI provide always-on functionality. They offer customers the information they need right away. Having that resource available when your team is offline is crucial.
It’s best to use an AI-powered chatbot for basic support questions. When necessary, live agents can assist. By dividing labour between humans and robots, productivity and customer satisfaction are increased.
It’s vital to be proactive in providing customer service. An effective proactive response involves anticipating your customers’ needs and ensuring they’re taken care of before they ask.
Provide proactive customer support by offering self-service. Self-service information resources would be helpful if customers frequently asked the same questions.
Proactive customer care also involves providing social content that educates your customers. Customer service channels on social media make excellent places for sharing educational content. You could, for example, create a video showing how to do something or a blog post that gives more information about your offerings. The goal is to help your customers get the most out of your products. If you provide an online service, you can post on social media to notify your customers about known issues. Support requests will be reduced as a result of these resources. Instagram stories, highlights and pinned posts on Facebook are also great places where you can provide self-help resources.
Social media is a powerful tool that’s here to stay. With the right social media strategy, your business can remain competitive and be prepared to meet future challenges.
Not sure where to start? We are a digital marketing agency in the UK specialising in social media campaigns. Count on our team at Smarter Media to provide you with expert support.Maximise the power of social and engage your target audience right where they are. Contact our team now.
