IS YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SOCIAL?

The customer service of any company is there to assist and advice people who buy, use or intend to use a product or service. The customer service is the first contact of most intending clients. This contact captures a prospective customer who is asking all the questions. Good customer service involves developing bonds with clients, hopefully, leading to long-term relationships. However, it is not easy to achieve good customer service. It takes time and requires investment to deliver consistent standards.

 Ideally, customer service representatives need a marketing side to do this; hence the social media expertise aspect is also needed. Companies spend so much on IT infrastructure for the customer service division but times have since changed. Social media channels can work just as well as call centers to up-sell products or capture service-to-sales opportunities; with some added advantages.

One is that social platforms make it easier to guide customers to relevant web pages and other relevant contents. Today, companies that have implemented social media in their division have cut call cost drastically. Social media is free; only some social media supporting software will cost extra.

One of those very rare opportunities of the social customer service is that it helps you connect to your customers on an emotional level. You cannot do that in any other way. There is emotion in social media conversation across different platforms. For instance, Facebook will ask you ‘What’s on your mind?’ Twitter will ask you ‘What’s happening?’ All these are about emotions. Exceeding your customer’s expectations may be easier than you think.

Treat customers like real people and genuinely care about their issues (and fixing them) and you can wow them. Why? Research has shown that:

- 86 per cent of social media customers would love to hear from a company regarding a complaint.

- 71 per cent of those who experience positive social care (i.e. a quick and effective brand response) are likely to recommend that brand to others, compared to just 19 per cent of customers that do not receive any response.

- Only 36 per cent of consumers that make customer service enquiries via social media report having their issue solved quickly and effectively.

- 43 per cent of consumers say that a direct response to their questions is most important at a social media site. Thirty-one per cent expect the social media site to provide direct access to customer service representatives or product experts.

- When companies engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, those customers end up spending 20 to 40 per cent more with the company.

Not every customer will find his or her way to your office to make a complaint. In fact, customers don’t care if you have a social media account for your customer service. Customers expect you to find their complaint and respond to it even if they posted it on their timeline. If your customer service division is not equipped to do this, a single negative customer experience posted in public can wipe out the effect of up to five positive customer messages.

Let us take a closer look at why any company can benefit from integrating social media with its social customer service:

Bigger brand affinity

Social media provides companies with the means to understand truly customers and human behaviour. It gives you insight into your audience. What they stand for, what they want and how they want it. As any social media marketing strategy should focus on what actually matters to people, appeal to their emotions by providing exceptional social customer service.

Since social customer service includes all social channels, use these platforms to leverage your strengths. If a company makes customer service a high priority, customers will automatically identify the brand with outstanding service and build greater brand affinity.

Instant feedback

Social customer service is a great means to receive immediate feedback on new product updates. It is the ideal way for a company to take immediate responsibility and deliver hands-on service. Social customer service allows a company to connect with their customers by addressing and reaching out to them personally and on an entirely new level.

Well-trained customer service representatives are always one-step ahead of the game and create loyal brand advocates. CEOs can jump in on conversations too because they need to come down from their ivory tower, as it were.

Even better customer relationships

Customer engagement and social customer service really go hand in hand. Social media platforms make it a lot easier to develop and nurture direct relationships with prospects and customers and provide them with an excellent service.

Companies should take the time to engage with their customers by replying to messages or posts and participating in the niche communities on each platform. Engaging with prospects and customers on social media sites develops trust and builds better customer relationships.

Take your customer service unit to another level. Go social.

Written by Bankole Adedeji