If you run a business and social media is a necessary evil for you, this article can change your point of view and make you devote a little more time, effort and heart to your presence.
Social media play an important, although still often underestimated, role in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises. Thanks to the potential of social media, reaching the end customer or business partner is easier, in many cases cheaper and more effective than ever. Disregarding this important channel or lack of consistent activity is a mistake, especially in the case of customer service.
It is the emphasis on this area of activities that is more and more often transferred to the world of social media, which have become a platform for discussions, image crises or, on the contrary, interesting brand campaigns. At the same time – wrongly – it is not an important part of the strategy for many brands, which give higher priority to community involvement, building awareness or increasing the reach of messages.
Why is social media important to customer service?
The universality and declining costs of Internet access, the growing habit of mobile devices, familiarization with social media and their entry into new spheres of our lives – all this have resulted in a change in consumer behavior and expectations. Audiences expect immediate reactions and brand responses, and patience is definitely not their strong point. Their private activity on social media makes them expect the same from the brands they want to relate with and which they follow. They also know that their voice in social media will not go unnoticed, which is why they choose this way to express their opinion. The multitude of various types of interactions allows companies to improve the product or continuously improve the quality of services and communication.
Why should you use social media for customer service?
- social media allow you to precisely reach specific, selected target groups through content targeting and advertising campaigns unlike conventional marketing where you make flyers to reach out to your targeted audience.
- active presence on social media platforms supports brand recognition and its positioning among competitors
- properly developed and managed profiles can also act as the next (and one of the most frequently used by those interested) customer service channel
- social media can be a source of quick opinions about products or services, as well as a treasury of valuable comments and information, allowing for the improvement of the offer
- building a loyal community of customers and leads is faster, easier and more accurate
- thanks to social media, you can also quickly identify topics and products that are currently very popular – and use them for your own purposes
A recipe for effective customer service in SM
Customer service in social media has its own rules. First of all, it is worth starting with establishing procedures. Response templates, scenarios of behavior in crisis situations and their prevention are the basis for the preparation of the brand’s presence in social media. Equally important are planning coherent communication and defining the so-called tone of voice for the target audience. Having up-to-date information about your own products and services as well as a number of their specifications is important for providing quick but specific responses to customer needs or complaints.
A more advanced solution may be the use of chatbots (virtual assistant modules) in the Facebook Messenger application, which, if properly configured, will act as a customer assistant and guide him through problematic situations. However, they will never replace a living person on the other side of the screen, so they should be treated as customer service support, not a replacement.
How to measure the quality of customer service in social media?
An extremely important factor in the activities in the field of customer service is the appropriate analysis of the collected data and its optimization in order to ensure even better interaction on the customer-brand line and to identify bottlenecks. Without a correct and well-thought-out strategy, actions will not be effective, and without careful measurement of them, good optimization will simply not be possible.
You should analyze:
1. response rate (frequency of responses to posts)
The lower the value, the worse and slower the quality of customer service, and too low a level should force you to think and change the customer service strategy or better train people dealing with this area in social media.
TIP: Work on the freedom of customer support to use social media: appoint moderators, spread good practice, set up on-call times, and choose the tools to help with a large number of inquiries.
2. response time
The faster and more efficiently you answer questions from your audience, the better the rate and the shorter the response time.
TIP: Establishing clear procedures is necessary to shorten response times and improve their quality and social media content. In addition to the above-mentioned duties, it is worth working on the flow of information, creating a package of materials about your own products and services, as well as preparing response templates and developing a list of important contacts.
3. negative feedback
Indicates how much negative feedback you are getting from your audience. It is analyzed on the basis of individual posts hidden by users, all posts, reporting content as spam or stopping liking the page. A high rate may be caused by poor communication quality or inadequate publications.
TIP: Regularly analyze and optimize your social media activities. Test post types and see which one delivers the best results. Don’t be afraid to remove those from your strategies that don’t work and are causing your website to lose its audience.
4. community ranking
Thanks to the statistics shown in the community ranking, you can easily identify the most active and engaged fans. This will allow you to better understand your target group and learn about their interests, and thus – deliver better converting content and achieve better results.
TIP: Using the knowledge about your target group and its level of commitment, offer them activities in which they are willing to participate.
Social media not only has great marketing potential, but also plays an important role in customer service and through its level help build an image. Examples of exemplary customer service are often spoken of loudly: not only in social media, but also at conferences, presentations or books. Most of all, however, it is the customer or the potential buyer who speaks about it the loudest, and they are more and more convinced of the brand thanks to its well-thought-out communication and efficient problem-solving.
The stick, however, has two ends – just as often and quickly, such a person may turn away from the brand that did not provide him with support and ignored attempts to contact him. You have to remember this when planning your entire marketing activities. I strongly encourage you to use the potential of social media.
You can do it!
Customer service is one of the most important aspects of every company. Without it, your customers will be unsatisfied and might not come back to you again in the future. But how do you know if customer service on social media is effective? The key lies in understanding your audience’s expectations for this form of communication. We’ve outlined some tips above so that you can measure customer satisfaction with ease!
0 Commentaires