Why Your Competition is Better at Using Social Media for Customer Service?

Yes! Social media is the channel to achieve success in any kind of customer service program. Now before we jump our guns and start screaming about how nasty customers (trolls) can give sleepless nights to the customer service team on social media, we might want to analyze few aspects.

The key to have a successful customer service on social media is to be quick in addressing their issues and listen them out and to be even more quicker when it comes to getting a positive feedback after you have saved the day for them.

You may still feel that you are doing great on customer support front, especially handling customers queries on social media. Well, the chances are that you are wrong and it is one of the biggest perception disparities a brand and its target audience can have.

Customers Just Love Social Media

A study carried out by HelpScout shows that 80% of brands believe that they have good customer service on social media but only 8% of the customers resonate with this result.

Not only this, following are some strong figures which strongly suggest that the brands need to take their customer service on social media more seriously.

• Customers who were engaged by brand on social media will engage 20%-40% more with the brand.
• Around 71% of customers who had received a positive response from a brand on social media are going to recommend them to others. This figure drops to 19% in case they never got a word from the brand.
• A research conducted by Oracle says that 43% of customers feel that it is imperative that their queries and issues be heard on social media. Also, 31% of customers feel that social media is a direct access to the customer service team.

It is high time that brands looked at social media merely a tool to acquire news customers and market their offerings. Social media is a multi-faceted channel and it does go beyond marketing. Here are few reasons why your customers dig social media and why it is important for them.

Being Heard: When a person posts a comment or a query on social media he/she expects that it will be heard. It is only natural for them to hear back from you.

Quick and Easy To Access: It would be cumbersome for the customers to visit the main website and find out the relevant details. Why not use social media to do the same?

Transparent Communication: Social media is a transparent platform where anyone and everyone can communicate and engage with. Also, it is a great opportunity to win accolades from your customer and ensure everyone knows about it.

Personalized Brand Experience: Everyone likes to be treated with special attention, especially the social-media-loving tribe of customers. If you can deliver and delight your customers with a personal touch, you have nailed it.

Takeaway

We hear about how a brand got trolled on a specific medium but it is important to understand that here also a window of opportunity to set a new benchmark of customer service.

The good news is that brands do know the importance of social media when it comes to interacting with their customers. But there is a lot of catching up to do when it is about offering world class customer service. You will have to deeply study your customers’ behavior on social media to draw unique insights. Don’t commit the sin of going all over the place on all the social media platforms. Stick to the most relevant one. Research about tools which can easily integrate all your social media platforms and automate the day-to-day activities. This will help you in the longer run.