Offer Customer Service on Social Media

If you’re a business owner and you don’t offer customer service on social media, you’re missing an opportunity. Social media is an incredible tool, not just for ordinary people, but for businesses as well. Billions of people visit social media platforms every day and while they can usually expect to find some form of activity from the accounts of their favorite brands, that’s often where it ends.

It doesn’t have to be, though. There’s so much social media can accomplish when it comes to connecting people, but plenty of companies have yet to harness the customer service potential of social media. 

Keep reading to learn more about customer service on social media, how to set up your own strategy, and how other companies have already improved customer relationships through social media interactions.

What is Customer Service on Social Media?

As the term implies, social media customer service refers to a set of tools and processes that businesses can use to connect with customers on social media platforms. As this practice has grown in popularity, customer service on social media has evolved into an entire system of instruments that help representatives provide customer support, answers to commonly asked questions, process refunds, and handle complaints.

In addition to providing customers with alternative options to call-based support, social media customer service aims to foster positive, memorable customer experiences that will strengthen retention and growth efforts. 

Plenty of social media platforms have implemented customer service options that businesses can take advantage of on top of utilizing the specific platform’s other marketing and advertisement services. 

Benefits of Providing Customer Service on Social Media

As with any customer service format, business leaders and marketing teams need to familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of customer service methods available through social media. This includes addressing specific challenges associated with the channel such as protecting customer data, building the brand’s positive reputation, and remedying complaints in a timely manner.

That said, getting it right with social media-based customer service presents businesses with an array of benefits, including:

• In-Depth Insights: Keeping track of engagement via social media stands to enhance an organization’s understanding of customer behaviors.
• Reputation Building: Interacting with customers on a personal level helps develop a sense of identity and personality in online businesses.
• Extended Brand Awareness: Connecting with audiences where it’s most convenient for them aims to expand a company’s current awareness levels. 
• Increased Traffic: Publishing helpful, interesting content on social media can draw more traffic to a company’s website.
• Better Ad Targeting: Getting familiar with an organization’s customer base through social media can make it easier to target ads to specific audience segments.
• Competitor Analysis: Social media presents opportunities to observe competitors in the field and determine which of their practices are worth adopting and which aren’t.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Social media-based customer service presents a plethora of opportunities for growing businesses. Plenty of owners, managers, and marketing professionals already use various social media platforms to extend their reach. If you’re one of these business leaders, you probably want to harness the power of social media to improve customer care. 

When developing a plan for how your company is going to provide customer service on social media, consider the following guidelines.

Create a Dedicated Customer Service Handle

Separate your standard social media marketing activities from your customer care efforts. Providing customers with a clear distinction between your regular business handle and your customer service handle ensures that they’ll visit the right page when they need help. This way, your marketing team can do what they do best while your customer service team addresses customer concerns.

Manage Expectations for Customer Service on Social Media

It’s essential to let your customers know what they can expect from your social media presence as soon as possible. For example, if your customer service team is only available during specific hours of the day, make that information impossible to miss. In addition, you may want to provide customers with information about the types of issues your team can handle through social media, how long they may need to wait for a reply, and other customer service options they can try if they need faster assistance.

Respond ASAP

During active customer service hours, your team needs to respond to customer queries as quickly as possible. Unlike call-based customer service, your audience does not expect to wait “on hold” for half an hour or more. Customers value having their questions answered in 15 minutes or less, so if you want to provide customer service on social media, be sure to have the staff available to make this happen. 

Try a Chatbot for Common Requests

If your organization receives high volumes of the same general customer questions, implementing a chatbot might be a great way to filter your messages. Most chatbots can mimic human-to-human communication and provide basic customer service information. These programs can take care of a customer’s needs after hours and reduce the amount of work your human customer service team needs to perform.

Be Proactive with Customer Service on Social Media

In addition to implementing chatbots to answer common questions, there are other steps business owners can take to be proactive on social media. Let’s say a product or service is a little too complex for a simple FAQ-style explanation. You predict that customers are going to need instructions and you want to make it convenient for them to find help. Using social media, you can provide your customers with video tutorials they can follow as well as highlight any relevant news that might be helpful.

Perform Routine Analysis

Don’t forget to evaluate your social media analytics occasionally. Comparing metrics over time can highlight customer patterns, discover areas to improve upon, and showcase the success of your customer service team. Run reports weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually for the best possible insights.

Strategies to Avoid

You’re free to diversify your customer service approach in ways that align with your brand’s unique characteristics. It’s good to get creative and experiment so that your team constantly meets customers where they are. 

Mistakes are a normal part of trying new things, but to prevent disappointing your customer base, avoid these strategies.

• Deleting/Hiding Posts: Unless you see comments that are obviously spam, promote dangerous behavior, or otherwise violate community guidelines, don’t delete customer comments (even if they’re negative). If you must delete a comment, try contacting the customer to explain why.
• Bombarding Your Audience: Information is helpful, but customers don’t want to pour over too much of it just to find a simple answer. Try to answer specific questions and keep your responses as close to the point as possible.
• Defensive Tactics: Regardless of whether you or your team made a mistake, avoid getting defensive when customers complain. Acknowledge the issue, thank the customer for their time, and do what you can to remedy the situation.
• Customer Neglect: Make sure your team answers every direct message they receive from customers, even if that reply simply directs the customer to your FAQ page. Don’t ignore requests for help.
• Communication Errors: Though you should answer every direct message from customers, doing so in the event of an audience-wide issue might waste a lot of time. If you need to make an announcement, make it public so that everyone can see it right away.

Real-World Examples of Customer Service on Social Media

Though customer service on social media is relatively new for businesses, several organizations have already used these tools and services to stand out amidst a sea of competitors. Take a look at the following examples in which companies used social media to their advantage.

Grammarly

Grammarly uses social media to answer questions and respond to customer feedback. However, the brand also collects data and performs in-depth analysis of various customer metrics. This information helps keep the business informed about what customers are saying, how they behave, and how Grammarly can use this information to improve its products and services.

Starbucks

Starbucks uses its social media team to keep an eye on what customers are saying about the brand and respond to customers’ comments. In one situation, the team noticed one customer’s comment that expressed wanting one of Starbucks’ signature drinks. The team responded by inviting the customer to stop by and expressing positive sentiment about being part of that individual’s busy morning.

This example shows how much a simple connection matters.

Southwest Airlines

Customers who fly with Southwest Airlines regularly reach out to the brand via social media to ask questions and express concerns. In one tweet, a customer expressed irritation at the fact that his hours-long flight would not have wifi available. The brand responded with news that Southwest Airlines was officially retiring planes that weren’t wifi-enabled the following day.

Though this news was just a bit too late for the customer, he took the news well and seemed to appreciate having his concern addressed.

Providing stellar customer service isn’t always easy, especially for a growing company with limited staff available. You’ll need to research your options and develop an approach that meets the needs of your customers but doesn’t overwhelm your team. Explore the various AI-powered tools you can use to your advantage, evaluate your analytics regularly, and be willing to adjust and expand upon your current efforts.

To free up time for customer support options, you might want to try Juno. This free AI tool can generate an industry-specific SEO strategy for your organization in seconds, and after a few minutes, you’ll also have ten blog outlines and drafts you can use as you wish. 

For extra support in creating compelling social media content, reach out to Content Cucumber to see what our professional writers can do for you.