Social mediais a popular and powerful tool forcommunication andself-expression. Its power to affect trends and opinions is undeniable, as different people from across the globewrite posts, leave comments and share a variety of content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ almost every day. Needless to say, businesses can also exert considerable influence over their target audiences when they use social media for marketing and promotional purposes.
But what role does social media play when it comes toensuring stellar customer service? A significant one, as a matter of fact. A 2013 survey by a global marketing services firm reported that out of 23,000 online consumers, 67% have used social media for customer support.This makes sense because comparedto other communication mediums like phone calls and emails, social media sites are often more convenientfor many people.
If you are a business owner, you can consider using social media for customer service to keep communication lines with your clientele open. If you’re hoping to make the process even more efficient and cost-effective, you can even outsource this service to a contact center.
By using social media as one of your customer service portals, you can enjoy a numberof benefits:
24/7 availability and ability to respond immediately
One of the biggest complaints that customers have against companies is the waiting time they often experience when trying to resolve problems. They are often put on hold over the phone, transferred from one agent to another, or forced to follow up on issues several times.These common situations cause dissatisfaction with your customers. By utilizing sites like Facebook and Twitter as customer service portals, you can reduce the chances of encountering these situations.
When a customer comments or posts a question through social networking sites, your team can receive notifications and respond right away. As long as you have internet connection, your staff can answer messages from customers at any time. Follow-ups are also easier and faster.Thus, clients who have complaints tend to get appeased better, and they become more satisfied with your customer service in general. The accessibility and immediacy of social media are especially useful for customers that have urgent concerns that need addressing.
Gain greater brand awareness and a positive image
Companies that deliver consistent and impressive support to customers have a higher chance of gaining larger visibility and consumer loyalty. This is because when customers are satisfied with your services, they can recommend your business to other people by word of mouth or share their positive experience to their social media circles.If your brand gains a strong online presence, it could attract even more customers in the future.
You’ll have more interaction options
Aside from being a platform where your customers can voice their concerns or questions, social media can also help you notify them about upcoming sales, promotions, and product releases. You can also create polls or ask questions to find out what they want to see next from your company. This style of interaction encourages discussion about your current and future products and services.
More “human” customer engagement
It’s worth noting that people tend to favor brands that respond in a casual and conversational tone.
To help your company to be more personal, use social media. Your customers won’t have to read impersonal, automatically generated messages or listen through robotic-sounding, tone-based phone menus. Instead, your team can address queries with a more human voice.This creates a better environment for engaging with your customers.
Obtain relevantdata about your business and its customers
Since social media sites experience high volumes of activity every day, you can extract useful information that you can study to help your business improve.From tweets on Twitter and likes and comments on Facebook, you can gather data for analytics purposes, allowing you to map out customer preferences and their sentiments about your company. With these pieces of information at your disposal, you can make smarter business decisions.
Communicating with clients playsan integral part in the success of any business. As such, you should always aim to keep your consumers satisfied by using only the most efficient customer support services.With the help of social media, you can achieve this through dynamic and personalized interactions with your clientele.
