How to use social media as a customer service platform

The customer experience had been rocked and revolutionised by social media. 32% of consumers now expect a reply when they contact a company within 30 minutes, and this number increases when complaining, with 42% of consumers demanding a response within 60 minutes. However despite these pretty terrifying timelines on which your brand reputation may rely, there’s reason to look at this evolvement positively; as the following stat goes to show, excellent customer service on social media can significantly boost that bottom line…

Companies that effectively engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, benefit from customers that end up spending 20% to 40% more with the company.

– Bain & Company

Pick and choose your social platforms carefully

Don’t be on a platform simply because it has the largest number of users, choose a platform that naturally aligns with your target market – be on the social network that your customers use. To work out where they are, there can be no simpler a method than asking them – talk with your customers and send out an email using a tool such as Typeform or Google Forms.

Invest in social listening tools

When you have a large following and work across multiple social platforms it can be tough, if not impossible, to expertly manage every customer experience. For this challenge you need the right social listening tool. Take Sparkcentral as a prime example – this tool allows you to talk and interact across all of your social platforms from a single place. It also supports messaging from the interface. The cost of this depends on your needs, however if you’re working on a zero budget Nudgespot begins as a freemium platform, with fuller features that can be bolted on should you need them. A last tool that could be worth a look is Social Mentions – this platform effectively works like a search engine – presenting all of the mentions that your company has had across the internet – social platforms, microblogs and everything in-between.

Take care of your customer data (and their customer experience)

Not all enquiries can be handled out in the open air of social media – some will need to move over to private messaging, email or phone where sensitive information is required. However this process must be handled with kid gloves – research shows that 37% of consumers state that being ‘passed around’ is the number one pain point. For this reason it’s essential that you explicitly state that you’ll fix the problem or answer the question, but that you need to move across to another medium to protect their data.

Social media is the new face of effective customer service – ignore it at your peril. Make Me Local, Kent can help. Let’s discuss where social customer services could take your business – call our team on 0800 772 0022, or email us via hello@makemelocal.com.