How effectively do social media processes enhance customer service?
A pivotal aspect of effective customer service lies in addressing customers’ grievances or queries quickly and satisfactorily. However, with the advent of social media, an increasing number of people are no longer relying solely on calling customer service and support. Such methods are subject to errors in communication, long-hold times, and even delays in actionable responses.
Businesses are increasingly looking to advance the social media sphere to bridge the gap between customer queries and customer service processes.
The value-addition that social media brings to customer service
Customer retention and sales are the subtle byproducts of a satisfactory customer experience provided by effective social media processes.
However, there are benefits to social media that are much more easily noticeable.
- It makes positive interactions public
Customer service on social media addresses individuals interacting with your brand and others who witness the interaction.
It assures users due diligence and prompt responses when it comes to their queries.
- Builds a loyal customer base
People that are satisfied with the customer service they receive on social media often mention it on their social media handles, which can be a shout-out or even a simple appreciation. This consequently serves as word-of-mouth advertising for the brand and helps foster a sense of community among the brand’s customer base.
- Serves as a platform for monitoring feedback
Comments and responses by users on social media often reveal points of concern or issues that require highlighting. Brands with effective ORM systems to utilize feedback at this stage are better equipped to resolve problem-generating processes before the matter escalates.
- Reduces your brand’s churn rate
Churn rate, also known as customer churn or rate of attrition, is the rate at which customers eventually stop doing business with an entity. Businesses understand that it is cost-efficient to retain customers than attract new ones, and effective social media customer service can help. An active customer service system on relevant social media channels can generally help identify and address issues your audiences may have on the spot.
- Helps gain actionable insights
Following relevant hashtags allows you to keep track of the relevant posts that your target audience has shared in your business niche. Monitoring these posts often reveals industry trends that can be used to accumulate dynamic insights about your brand vis-a-vis your competitors.
- Boosts engagement with your customers
Engagement is a valuable asset towards customer retention and a robust social media presence allows a brand to engage with their customers dynamically in addition to simply addressing their grievances. This can be done through giveaways, ask me anything (AMA), featuring customer testimonials, etc. It allows brands to shape an ideal persona and tonality.
How to use social media to enhance customer service
To ensure maximum efficiency with customer service processes using social media, special care must be taken while executing pertinent activities. Some of them include:
- Ensuring prompt response times
People generally expect processes on social media to be active 24×7, which subsequently creates a sense of urgency with customer service queries that a brand must satisfy.
A vital component of this is ensuring prompt acknowledgment and response to customer queries. - Using Facebook for customer service
The support response time on Facebook is monitored and made publicly available on the brand’s page.
It’s noteworthy to mention that Facebook only rates a business’ social media page as quick or responsive if it ensures a consistent response time of 5 minutes or less. - Using Twitter for customer service
Many brands set up a dedicated customer service handle on Twitter due to the platform’s nature of face-paced communication.
The hurdle for brands is the 280-character limit on Twitter. It requires any redressal to be specific and concise. However, this can also be conducted over direct messages (DM), especially in the case of negative interactions the brand doesn’t wish to make public.
- Creating guidelines to enhance user experience
Through meticulous research on frequently asked questions by the brand’s consumers, a set of pre-written and scripted responses can be formulated. This increases the efficiency of response times, mainly if the business in question receives several comments or queries daily.
However, excessive dependence on such scripted responses may prove counterproductive and must be balanced with customized answers depending on the nature of the query.
- Monitoring customer service
Effective customer service on social media is incomplete without ensuring adequate systems are in place to monitor mentions of your brand, whether they are positive or negative.
Conclusion
Effective social media response and monitoring processes in customer service can help to enhance user experience and increase customer retention, loyalty, and brand advocacy.
The right mix of social media strategy and choice of tools are vital in ensuring the business’s customer base receives a robust system for timely and reliable redressals.