Social media customer service is absolutely what it sounds like. You utilize social media tools to offer online customer service and support.
In today’s digital world, people utilize social channels to connect with companies. And they expect companies to be available on social to offer help once they need it.
You likely already have a strong strategy for social media marketing and a good customer service team. However, do you have a strategy for how your model will use social media customer support options?
Utilizing social media for customer support is different from utilizing the same tools for social marketing. Social media customer service could help enhance relationships and protect your brand’s reputation.
Social media customer service stats
Why should you incorporate social media customer service tools into your marketing strategy? The numbers don’t lie. People need the brands they interact with to offer social customer support. And keeping customers happy is the whole point of providing customer service.
Listed below are some social media customer service stats that show how vital it’s to offer social media customer service solutions:
Customers expect social service
- 67 percent of customers want to use live chat, social media or texting to contact customer service.
- 20.8 percent of U.S. Internet users say social media is the greatest tool for customer service.
- More than 150 million people message companies via Instagram Direct every month.
- 61 percent of daily messaging app user in the U.S. have messaged a business in the last 3 months.
- In Brazil, that number increases to 81%.
Social customer support increases customer confidence and loyalty
- 69% of U.S. residents mentioned that directly messaging a business makes them feel more confident about the brand.
- Customers who get a brand response to their tweets are willing to spend three to 30% more on a future purchase from that business.
Social media customer service protects your brand reputation
- Almost half of consumers will discuss a bad customer service experience with friends. 24% will do on social media.
- 81% of Twitter users who do not get a response from a company will not recommend that firm to their friends.
Utilizing social media for customer service and support: 10 ideas to make it work
1. Make social customer service a priority
You must view social media customer service as a business priority, not an afterthought.
Customer service of Bumble is the “backbone of the entire business.”
“Every tweet, they reply,” mentioned Louise Troen, Bumble’s VP of International Marketing. “They are an important part of the business. They are the people who listen to your users and assist you to innovate your product online and offline,” she mentioned at the recent TNW Conference in Amsterdam.
Bumble’s social customer service team shall even take action in the real world if warranted. That may mean sending congratulations to hamper to newly engaged Bumble users. Or it can be offering to pay for a makeup date after the original was sidetracked by—anticipate it—a swarm of bees.
2. Set up a dedicated social handle for customer service and support
Brands usually use a separate manage to handle social customer support. These assists filter out support and service problems from your primary channel.
For instance, Hootsuite uses @Hootsuite_Help, which is run by the support team.
When you make a dedicated social channel for customer support, include that handle in your brand’s other social profile bios. This helps people understand where to reach out for support-related requests.
People will still utilize your main social marketing handles to contact you with support and service problems. They may simply use the brand handle they already know, rather than your main profile to check for a support account.
Make it simple for the customer. When a service request comes into your main social media channel, forward it along to the right team.
Reply from your support account to move the conversation to the right channel. This also makes sure other users could see the request was addressed.
3. Create social media guidelines
Social customer support has different challenges and chances than social marketing. It is vital to have social media guidelines in place for buyer help. These should align with your firm values and with the social marketing team.
Your social media guidelines for social customer support need to cover things such as:
- Tone of voice
- Response time for each channel
- Answers to regularly asked questions
- Protocol on escalations or other customer issues
- A message approval procedure and a permission management system
Zappos uses a casual, however, friendly tone of voice on its social customer support channels. This voice is appropriate to the corporate’s model and aligned with its marketing style. You could be sure Zappos has a style guide to keep that voice consistency.
Customers had combined reactions to this announcement. Will it work out for Lush? That remains to be seen. The company has been mainly silent on its UK Twitter account since announcing the signoff on April 15. Nonetheless, a customer service rep posted 10 responses to tweets on May 11. Maybe they have reconsidered. We will be keeping an eye on the @LushLtd account to see how this plays out.
4. Be proactive
Anticipate questions or potential support issues that people may need. Use these to create educational content that you could share on your social channels.
For example, you can make a how-to video or the best practices blog post.
Your social media customer service channels are good places to share educational content. Help customers learn how to get the most out of your products. When you offer an online service, you can also post updates about any known service issues.
Adobe uses its customer care Twitter account to share how-to info. This helps prospects use its merchandise extra successfully.
Those resources will help reduce the number of support requests that come in. They are also a simple place to refer to people with easy support questions.