The social media revolution has seen many businesses gladly embracing this culture of social customer service. However, not everyone is doing it right. It is well obvious that customers who resort to social media for customer service are likely to be more sophisticated than the traditional customer we have always known. As a result, it is best that social customer service be treated with care and efficiency to serve customers the best. This article is a quick guide to social customer service.
Social Media is Time Bound
Time is, and has always been, a precious resource when it comes to customer service. Time is of essence whether it’s during a purchase or if it’s just about enquiries. The current trends of social media do not pardon customer service personnel who are bad at handling time-bound customer complaints. Response rate and response time, especially on social media is usually the basis for ranking by companies such as Nevahold who analyze customer complaints and questions over social media. The golden rule is to reply to the customer’s comment or tweet within 30 minutes.
Train your social Customer Service Personnel:
Just like you would spend enough money on customer service personnel, it should be the same for social customer service personnel as well. Social customer service is not just about creating Facebook pages, replying tweets, creating Pinterest boards, etc. It requires more attention to customer needs. As a result, it is crucial that all your social customer service personnel be ably trained to handle customer complaints as the days go by. The main goal is to serve your customers better, and to make them stick to your product or service.
Make an effort to turn every negative issue to a positive one
Most customers who visit your social media page will be turned off by negative customer complaints. As a result, it is advised that when a negative complaint is made, first apologies to the customer and follow up immediately to resolve the issue. If an issue is getting out of hand try the personal touch, resort to email or contact number and resolve the issue off social media. When the issue is resolved and the customer is happy come back to social media and thank the customer for helping in getting the issue resolve. This I need not to tell you, it will serve as a great word of mouth promo for your business.
Know your customers and meet them halfway
After a few interactions on social media with your customers, you will know which channels they prefer to use for certain complaints. Be sure to put the necessary measures in place to meet your customers on those channels. Also be sure to announce necessary operational challenges as you face them. For example, if your services will be offline for a few hours, please communicate that. And finally, don’t forget to thank them for their patience and cooperation.
Social customer service is not just another option. It must be done, and must be done well. Having the basics will set you up for great customer service both off and online. Knowing your customers is a great way to gain their trust, and to make them like and stick to your product or service.