Customer support on Social Media — crazy or clever?
Your first thoughts when you hear Social Media for businesses (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin etc.) is probably “ads, engagement posts, video content and other marketing tricks”. But what if we tell you that your page or account could actually be your best customer support channel? Crazy, right?
But recent research shows that this, in fact, is true and it is the preferred way for your customers (especially for B2C businesses) to interact with you.
People have reached you for a different reason than you think
Sprout Social study claims that 45% of the people have reached a brand profile, at least once for question or issue related to their services. This means that the intuitive reaction for almost half of the digital users is first to go to social media when they want to contact you.
It is not a coincides that Facebook is measuring the time for a response on your page and intentionally displays it for all visitors. So, Facebook wants you to answer fast and to make your page a hub for customer support.
Here comes the question “What is the future of your social media accounts?”
On one hand, you have the marketing purpose but on the other, there is real demand from your clients for customer service. This chart illustrates the situation:
How to use your Social media accounts as customer support channels?
4 steps to success:
- Customer service + Marketing
Allocate customer service agents or create cooperation between them and the marketing team to ensure that you will always have a competent person on the line for questions or issues.
2. Respond to mentions and questions. Do it like a human
It is easier to say than to do it but… Establish a policy for comments and responses to negative customer’s post or problematic questions. We all know that a frustrated user can post irrational comments about your brand/services no matter what has happened. And your task is not so easy to think about a clever, useful and polite response.
The golden rule is “Provide answer which is useful and not aggressive” but if you have the change use a little bit of humour. The first sign of your confidence that you are providing good quality is that you can make jokes about it.
3. Make monitoring for indirect mentions
There are tons of indirect mentions without “@” to your profile. They are harder to track but also more rewarding. Imagine the situation that you find a customer complains about your services and you track it even it is not directly mentioned and you post a comment with a solution. The surprise and impression in the audience of this post will be the best brand awareness that you have ever achieved. Don’t do it too often because it is a little bit creepy thou.
4. Comment on posts that are not directly connected to your service
You are a hotel and you are following certain topics. During your daily monitoring, you have found a post “I hate this town, no way to find a place with good internet”. This is a golden opportunity to respond with a simple “Is 100 Mbps going to do the job?”. No need for more. They will see the profile pic, check the location and come to you. That’s kind of customer service that people appreciate because they don’t expect it.
In conclusion
Every marketing channel including your social media is part of your customer service. Do not underestimate it and use it in your own way. Make the connection between marketing and customer support teams to ensure quick and quality responses. And always answer like a human and use humour when it is possible.
