6 Solid Reasons To Outsource Your Social Media Customer Care

Should you outsource your social media customer care? Perhaps.

In our experience, many companies can’t keep up with social media customer care requests. Or they’re not able to fulfill the online customer service needs they get on a daily basis — even if they’re all positive.

There's an inherent mismatch between social media and traditional employees; while social is "open" 24-7, your employees likely work Monday through Friday from 9-to-5. And I'm sure I don't have to tell you when the most pressing messages are received ... after-hours, weekends, and always over the holidays.

Maybe you've tried having your call center cover social media support for you. I'm sure, like many of our clients have, you found that they just didn't have the skillset for digital body language and impeccable spelling & grammar that's needed on the fly.

In any case, SOMEONE has to keep up with the now digitally-dominated interactions consumers expect to have with brands.

The Realities Of Social Media Customer Care

Too-long hold times. Being transferred from person to person. Unorganized automated menus.

At the end of the day, your customers expect better customer service. And many of them are turning to social media to get it.

From 2020 to 2021,?the volume of consumers who preferred using social messaging for customer service jumped an impressive 110%. [Source ]

Meta and Twitter see the most social media customer care requests, which makes sense. But look at just how many consumers expect to use Facebook and Twitter in that way, specifically.

[Source ]

Social Media Customer Care vs. Social Media Customer Service

While these two terms are closely related, there are a few key differences.

Customer service on social media is generally seen as responding to those customers who come to your brand's social channels to lodge a complaint or ask for troubleshooting. But while you're being responsive, it's passive. With customer service, you only respond when a customer comes to you with a question or issue.

Customer care on social media is proactive. It goes beyond the instances where a customer reaches out and uses tools and methods to meet both would-be AND current customers’ needs. YES; customer care is both acquiring and retaining customers.

Social media customer care is the service of responding to the specific demands, questions, and pain points of your current and would-be customers via social media.

Reason #1 to Outsource Social Media Customer Care:?Many companies are not equipped to go beyond customer service. This is one very good reason these companies should outsource social media customer care to a third party. If you want revenue from social media, this is how you get there.

5 More Reasons To Outsource Your Social Media Customer Care

Much like?outsourcing your social media content & creative, there are obvious signs that will tell you to consider outsourcing your social media customer care.

1. Collecting, recording, and reporting on data. Agencies often have access to state-of-the-art tools, like?social media listening tools ?for proactive customer care.
2. TIME. It’s awfully hard to find employees who want to work before or after-hours, weekends, and holidays. But social media and customer care don’t take time off. Outsourcing can help you fill those gaps.
3. Experience. It takes a special “handle with care” attitude to deal with social media complaints. And trolls. And a keen sense of when (and how) to move the conversation offline.
4. People and resources. Some companies only have one person assigned to ALL of their social endeavors, including social media customer care. This undertaking is often too much for a team of one. Time to outsource!
5. MONEY. It can often cost you far less to outsource social customer care to a third party than to take on more salaries, benefits, and overhead. And, did you know that taking care of a customer on social is typically 12 times cheaper than doing it by phone?!

#5B : Revenue. Yes, saving money is fantastic, especially for companies who have a a high volume of customer care phone calls, emails, and social media messages. But you know what's even better? Making money! And that's exactly what an outsourced partner like B Squared Media does for its social media customer care clients. We focus on acquisition AND retention. Woot!

Whether you decide to get outside help is up to you. Hopefully, this article helps you with your decision.

And if you want to have a quick conversation with me (Brooke Sellas) about all the things I mention here, BOOK SOME TIME WITH ME .

Howdy! ???I'm happy you're here. If you liked this post, you're going to LOVE my new podcast/show,?The CX Engine Show . Watch it on?YouTube ?or listen on your favorite podcast platform.