Achieving Customer Service Excellence On Social Media

How you can achieve awesome customer service using social media

Welcome to our Customer Service Excellence post in our series of 8 steps to B2B social media success! We hope you’ve found it useful. In this blog we’re going to look at how you can leverage social media as an effective customer service and support tool.

So let’s get going!

What is customer service?

Customer service can make or break your business. Your customers are what keep your company running and if they’re happy with your service they’ll be more likely to come back.

If you give your customers the right mix of information and engagement from the beginning, you’ll find it easier to convert their visit into a sale and more importantly, they will enjoy the experience and hopefully come back for more and tell their friends. The key to creating a lasting relationship is to provide excellent customer service before, during and after a purchase, that way you’ll encourage them to remain loyal to your brand. Don’t just view it as a one off transaction!

Why is customer service online so important?

In the online would, you’re not able to smile at your customers or even say ‘Hi!’. So each part of your social media should centre around providing your customers with an excellent, friendly and professional service. You’re providing an intangible service on an intangible platform so engaging and providing your customers with excellent service online is crucial.

A satisfied customer is the single most important aspect of any business. If your customers are happy with the service you provide, your business is more likely to survive. They’ll tell family and friends about the great experience they’ve had and this will help with your brand development. They may even post about your great service online as well! People are more willing to spend their money with businesses they are familiar with and businesses which have provided a good service to them in the past. If you read a great testimonial online about a company you will be more comfortable purchasing from them yourself.

Why customers use social media?

Let’s start with you… If you’ve started using social media as a marketing tool, you must remember that it’s a two way street. You will be communicating with your audience to meet your business aims and objectives, however, don’t forget your customer will also have aims and objectives. If your product or service doesn’t live up to their expectations, you’ve also to be prepared for an onslaught of ‘strategic communication’ from them!

If someone wants to leave a complaint however and get their issue resolved in a timely manner, one of the handiest places for them to complain is the internet – convenience is key for customers who want a response now!

They’ll go directly to your social media because:

• They don’t have to speak to anyone on the phone
• They don’t have to wait in an automated queue
• The internet doesn’t pull the shutters down or switch off at 5.30pm
• (and the best one) Other people are able to see their complaint – this alone may inspire you to resolve the issue more quickly!

Don’t fear, the communication on your social media isn’t always negative, there are some people out there who take pleasure in letting you know you’re doing a great job and enjoy leaving reviews for other customers to see. That’s the best part of having a social network and if you’re clever about it, you can really take advantage of these positive comments. In short, if your social media profile is regularly used and allows comments you need to be prepared for the customers taking advantage of it to air complaints or compliments as well.

How do you tackle customer complaints effectively on social media?

The level of customer service you are able to provide is very dependant on the size of your business and your available resources. If you work for a small company, you may not have the resources to provide a 24/7 service however if you have a larger business you may be able to offer an instant/always on response rate 24/7.

Either way you need to consider the implications of not having customer support available 24/7. Could it mean lost sales from a potential customer who may have had a quick wuery about a particular aspect of your business? Or on the negative side, how damaging could a string of unanswered complaints be to your reputation or brand? If you need to discuss your social media requirements – give us a shout!

Regardless of the size of your business you must have a plan of action for complaints and your approach to customer services before you embark on your social media journey. This is absolutely fundamental to your social media success and should not be neglected! By going through this process you will be able to proactively develop responses to different scenarios that could arise for each type of comment added to your platform. It is always best to spend time doing this in advance and not during a crisis when emotions may be running high.

Here are a few golden rules for dealing with comments on your social media:

Always try to respond to your customer within 1 working hour – the sooner the better. If your customer sees you actually want to help them resolve their issue in a speedy manner, they will hopefully resist adding a barrage of comments and wait for your solution. This will not only quell your customers issue but it will show other customers that you are dedicated to resolving any issues and will help keep your reputation intact.

Attempt to take the conversation offline – provide a dedicated email address or phone number (freephone if available) so customers can contact you at their convenience. This will help stop the customer airing your dirty laundry in public and will also discourage other people jumping on the band wagon with their two cents worth.

House rules should be added to your page – to give you ‘an out’. If customers badmouth a member of staff or use offensive language in their comments, your house rules will state that any negativity will be removed. You could also mention here that your page isn’t monitored 24/7.

Learn when enough is enough - if your customer hasn’t received a satisfactory response online, they will often revisit their previous comment and add fuel to the fire to get the response they’re after. It’s important that you don’t fall into the trap of getting into extensive dialogue here, you need to nip it in the bud. Let the customer know their issue has been escalated and contact them directly ASAP to attempt to quell the problem.

Don’t fabricate anything – this can only lead to a disaster, honesty is the best policy! If a customer finds out you’ve been disguising the truth, they’ll certainly let people know which can damage your reputation.

Here are some ‘what if’ scenarios you should consider when you’re developing your plan of action and house rules

• What if a customer complains online? How will we respond?
• What if they post about a bad experience at your business?
• What if they mention a staff members name negatively?
• What if they use profane language on the post?
• What if they post a photo which paints your company in a bad light?
• What if they post a comment at 4am? Will someone be available to answer it? (You could wake up to 50 reponses!).

To Summarise

By having an answer for questions like this you will hopefully be prepared in advance for any issues that could potentially arise and at the same time maintain your reputation. Each business will obviously be different, but if these questions and ‘rules’ sow a seed and allow you to develop a plan of action for comments posted on your platform your social media presence will do well and hopefully become noted for it’s excellent customer service!

We hope you enjoyed this important and final instalment in our series of 8 steps to social media success. That old adage fail to prepare, prepare to fail springs to mind with this series of 8 steps. To summarise, social media is a two way street for communication and if you’re prepared for the best and worst comments online you’ll be able to provide your customers with excellent customer support as well as showing your audience you’re able to resolve any issues which may arise – and at the same time maintain your reputation! We’ve only touched on a few areas of online customer service but do check back as we explore customer service in more depth in future blogs.