Social Media Customer Service
How do you know that a company is performing at the highest level? Well from the quality of the ...
Customer Service strategies have changed a lot throughout the years. Customer service in social media has actually revolutionized the way companies interact with their clients. The growth of social media has had a big impact on the customer experience too. Moreover, companies have realized the key part that customer service plays in differentiating between competitors. However, customer service in social media has created challenges as much as it has opened doors.
The impact of social media on customer service
According to Statista, in 2018, an estimated 2.65 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 3.1 billion in 2021. Social media browsing is one of the most popular online activities. Therefore, every business that aims to be on top of their game should have a social media and online presence. On one hand, social media is a good marketing tool. When used to its full potential, social media can really affect the branding of a company. On the other hand, social media has given customers a simpler way to reach out to brands and companies.
However, these platforms have given customers a voice, enabling them to share their experience publicly. When you are replying to a customer in the comments, you are actually not replying to a single individual anymore. To add, every experience, good or bad can become viral. All it takes is for one person to share a picture or post, praising or denouncing a company.
Another aspect that customer service in social media has changed is the speed of the service. Customers turn to social media as a way to get a quick response. This is because a tweet, comment, post or tag can generate a lot more interest and therefore quicker responses from companies. This speed of service has increased customer expectations greatly.
More importantly, it is not enough just to have a social media presence. It is also no longer enough to provide fast customer service. Since the standards are higher, the effort needs to be high too.
How to improve customer service in social media
It is important to not only provide customer support in social media but to also integrate social media with all other customer care platforms. Imagine a customer who contacts the company through several channels. For example, they send an email, write on live chat, and send a Facebook message. They might even call the company if their query is urgent. Now, of course, they are not going to speak to the same person each time. They might speak to a different customer service agent on the phone, a different one on live chat and a different one on Facebook. Imagine how annoying would be for this person to have to explain their issue over and over again to every different person they talk to. They would get frustrated and be of the impression that the company doesn't care enough and that they are not efficient.
Moreover, imagine how hard would be for customer service agents. Firstly, they would have no idea what this person has already explained. Since the customer has explained their issue several times, they would have lost their patience, and be shorter in their descriptions, leaving out important details in the process. Secondly, they would be dealing with a tired and frustrated customer, who can easily lose their temper. This is the reason why multichannel support is not enough. Companies need to adopt an omnichannel solution and integrate social media with other customer service channels. Omnichannel customer service makes the transition between different platforms smoother and seamless and improves customer journey and experience. Thus, social media should be consistent with your other customer service channels.
Audience
Another important aspect to keep in mind is adapting to your audience. In order to improve customer service in social media, companies need to pay attention to their demographics. Social media is a great tool for analyzing what the customers want and what they are saying. To add, it is important to understand your audience before choosing the posts you want to share as well as the approach and the communication strategies.
Keep in mind that the audience always wants to feel special and that they are being taken care of. For this reason, it would be best to avoid automatic replies. Not only it is very easy to tell that the message or reply was automatically generated but it is also very frustrating to feel like nobody is listening to you. Of course, automatic replies have their own place in customer service. They can be useful for increasing the patience of the customers when there is a queue. Also, they offer quick solutions to simple problems. However, the wisest thing to do is to limit their usage and to not rely on them completely. Show your audience that you care about them and that you are listening.
Going viral for awesome customer service support
There is good customer service and there is awesome customer service. The latter tends to go viral. Remember Wendy's hilarious customer service tweet replies? Who would have thought that roasting clients would be a good strategy? What Wendy's is doing with their social media goes completely against the books. Every customer service agents are taught to be polite, patient, and respectful. The customer is always right, except when they aren't. So, how exactly did Wendy's go viral with snarky comments?
There are many things to learn from them. They talk human to their customers, they are relatable, friendly and have a more lighthearted tone. They sure don't sound like boring formal drones. To provide awesome customer service in social media and in other channels you need to think outside of the box. Also, hire talented people and let them be creative.
WeAreFiber
Here at We Are Fiber we will take care of your social media presence by implementing a campaign that will deliver effective social service.
We Are Zendesk partners as well. We use the Zendesk omnichannel platform to manage all of our campaigns with the highest efficiency. By merging our experienced human force with the latest technology we can deliver qualitative outsourcing solutions for your business.
Do you want to know more how we handle Social Media Customer Service? Would you like to understand who we are and what is our vision?
Well, contact us now and we will be more than happy to have a conversation with you!
or via the following methods:
Phone (It) +39 02 42 10 11 22
Phone (Uk) +44 20 38 70 44 08