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Companies everywhere and in every industry now use social media as a means to augment their customer service. They actively respond to complaints, answer queries, offer guidance, respond to online reviews and shares and even facilitate refunds. Businesses throughout the Tri-Cities of Northeast Tennessee can use their social media accounts to enhance customer service and significantly raise engagement and success.
Combining Social Media and Customer Service
Most modern businesses already know the value of maintaining an active presence on social media. These popular platforms are where the majority of your clients spend a large portion of their time. Using your accounts to keep your brand in front of potential customers keeps you top of mind for when they need your goods or services.
Combining your social media presence with customer service raises this important tool to an entirely new level. You are able to actively engage with responses to your reviews, posts, articles, videos and more, responding to customer concerns and complaints quickly and publicly, which can enhance how your company is viewed by others.
Customer service via social media can and should also include channels for self-help, such as updated FAQs, proactive improvements to your website for easier use and even chatbots for automatic engagement. Since social media is so popular, providing more ways for consumers to engage with your brand through social media is wise.
Benefits of Providing Customer Service Through Social Media
Why should you provide social media customer service? The benefits are many, but they also require some adaptation on your part. Here are several reasons for providing customer service through your social media channels.
- Customers expect fast responses to their queries, and social media allows for that, as well as notifying the customer when a response is made. Statista reports that 59% of customers favor brands that respond to their complaints over social media.
- Customers in certain demographics expect answers to customer service questions when they ask them on social media. Approximately 80% of millennials prefer to use social media for customer service over web, phone or online chat, with 17% of those between 18 and 24 resolving their customer service issues using a social messaging app.
- Any unresolved communications on your social platforms are hanging out there for everyone else to see and consider. This can seriously affect your brand image with other consumers.
- How you deal with customer complaints in this public forum can boost your brand image and make others more willing to do business with your company.
- A Twitter case study found that when consumers received a response to their tweet from a company, they were willing to spend up to 20% more on future purchases with that brand.
Good customer service over social media should go from being an option to an imperative aspect of your overall social media marketing strategy.
Which Social Media Channels Are Best Suited for Customer Service?
Of course, your company should maintain an active presence on the social media channels your potential client base uses most. Any queries from customers or potential customers will likely come on these channels.
Statista reports that there are 2.89 billion monthly active users on Facebook, with 1.3 billion on Messenger alone. WhatsApp comes in at 2 billion and Instagram reaches 1.39 billion per month.
A Hubspot report in early 2022 revealed that marketers planned to focus on Facebook (25%), YouTube (20%), Twitter (16%) and Instagram (15%) for their social media marketing, including customer service efforts.
Tips for Providing Great Customer Service on Social Media
Every social media platform operates differently, and each has its own type of user personalities. But some practices will work to enhance your customer service efforts on any platform. Here are some social media customer service best practices.
- Respond quickly and positively to all comments and messages.
- Reply to all feedback, questions and comments, even negative ones.
- Personalize interactions by using each customer’s name.
- Further personalize your interactions by responding as an actual person and not as the company (example, speak in first person and not third person).
- Don’t wait for people to tag you in their comments or queries. Actively monitor your social media channels so you can provide rapid responses.
- Consider creating a hashtag (example: #yourwhatevercompany) to encourage more interactions.
All-in-One Review Management and Customer Communication App
Actively monitoring all your social media channels can easily consume all your time, leaving you virtually no time to focus on running your business. Small businesses can still maintain the same level of social media and customer service by using the All-in-One Review Management and Customer Communication APP from 1-FIND in Johnson City.
Conveniently access all your messages from Facebook, Google, Webchat and SMS in one dashboard for easier and faster communication with online users. Get notifications when you receive an online review and message so you can respond quickly. Visit 1-FIND for more information about our app or our other digital marketing services.
