The Importance of Customer Service Via Social Media

Social media has given consumers a way to get closer to brands and businesses. It is an excellent way to not only stay up to date with the latest news and developments regarding favorite products and services, but it has also opened up a way for customers to speak with brands in real time! Customer service has become an essential element of having an effective social media strategy!

It is estimated that 4 out of 5 consumers use social media to contact a brand directly. They want the opportunity to reach out and ask questions or get help directly from the horse’s mouth! It is also increasingly used to offer praise or complaint as well. Engagement of this nature is an essential part of your social media strategy!

Customer Service Starts With Just Showing Up

It might surprise you to learn that almost 90% of brands are guilty of not responding to messages on social media! Not only is this damaging their engagement scores, but it is also fostering distrust in consumers. Nobody likes to feel ignored! However, the good news for you is that because so many brands are failing in this area, the first step to offering excellent customer service on social media is to show up and respond! Easy! Most consumers want to know that they are being heard, so a simple response will make them feel you care about them. Building an excellent response rate is going to catapult you into the top ten percent of brands on social media. It’s an easy way to gain a competitive advantage, and you should immediately adopt it as part of your social media strategy.

If you are a relatively small business, you can likely manage responses manually by simply staying logged into social platforms during business hours, but if you do feel like you need some additional help to streamline the process there are plenty of tools available including:

• Zendesk
• Buffer
• Sprout Social

Convey Empathy and Avoid Negative Trigger Words

It is not only important to be responsive, but there is also much importance connected to how you reply. Firstly, you need to do so within a reasonable amount of time. Next, you need to use the appropriate tone and language. When you talk to a consumer face to face, we can use gestures, body language, and facial expressions to aid our interaction. However, that is lost on social media, so we must choose our words carefully.

A great way to overcome this is to choose phrases that convey empathy. The consumer wants to know that you understand how they are feeling and that you are listening to them. However, you will want to avoid negative triggers like ‘actually’ or ‘but.’ These often make it sound like you are making an excuse or shifting the blame, and nothing will turn consumers off faster! Take some time to come up with appropriate responses and lay them out in your social media strategy so that all members of the team can use them as needed when responding to people.

To Your Best Online!

--

Ingrid Gee, Internet Marketing Consultant. Blue Dress? Marketing, an Internet Marketing Company headquartered in Knoxville, TN. Internet Marketing Developed, Implemented and Managed to Full Circle! Organic Internet Search Engine Guru. Turn Key Internet Optimization Programs Placing You Everywhere and Anywhere You Need to Be Online?

ingrid@bluedressinc.com

865-484-4015