how to utilize social media for your business’s customer support

4
How to Utilize Social Media for Your Business’s Customer Support More so now than ever, people are using social media to instantly connect with businesses around the world. While it used to be common to see them customers calling customer service and communicating on a physically vocal level, now customers are more likely to send you a message on Twitter or post a comment on Facebook. This isn’t just some trend that will quickly fade away; this is the future of customer support as we know it. If your business hasn’t already started to take this approach to customer service seriously, now is the time to evolve. Consumers like knowing that they can reach your business quickly without needing to call and wait on hold. With an active presence on social networks, anyone can contact you and ask for help at any time of the day. This is easier, faster, and more efficient for the average consumer, which is why it is quickly catching on.

Upload: adam-methew

Post on 02-Apr-2016

213 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

More so now than ever, people are using social media to instantly connect with businesses around the world. While it used to be common to see them customers calling customer service and communicating on a physically vocal level, now customers are more likely to send you a message on Twitter or post a comment on Facebook.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: How to utilize social media for your business’s customer support

How to Utilize Social Media for Your Business’s Customer Support

More so now than ever, people are using social media to instantly connect with businesses around the world. While it used to be common to see them customers calling customer service and communicating on a physically vocal level, now customers are more likely to send you a message on Twitter or post a comment on Facebook. This isn’t just some trend that will quickly fade away; this is the future of customer support as we know it. If your business hasn’t already started to take this approach to customer service seriously, now is the time to evolve.

Consumers like knowing that they can reach your business quickly without needing to call and wait on hold. With an active presence on social networks, anyone can contact you and ask for help at any time of the day. This is easier, faster, and more efficient for the average consumer, which is why it is quickly catching on. While there is still certainly a place for phone calls, customer service operators are now seen more as a means of escalating a report than as the primary means of seeking assistance. With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at how you can use social media to improve your customer support.

Create Separate Accounts

Many businesses are now creating different accounts across various social networks in order to more effectively serve their customers while keeping their main accounts focused on marketing

Page 2: How to utilize social media for your business’s customer support

and promotion. For example, take a look at Blackberry’s @BlackBerryHelp account on Twitter. They offer support through direct messages that allow customers to directly contact the account and get personalized help as soon as possible.

By focusing on customer service through direct messaging, Blackberry keeps viewers from seeing negativity related to their brand from customers who are having bad experiences. This also allows them to use the account to tweet helpful guides that can inform users of how to solve their problems without even needing to contact them. This is a highly controlled and effective approach to customer support through social media.

Respond as Quickly as Possible

According to a recent study, more than 70% of consumers who experience a quick and effective response from a brand on social media are likely to recommend that brand to others. However, if you take too long to respond or never respond at all, that number falls to less than 20%. If you want to reap the rewards of social customer support, you’ll have to make sure that you respond to every question as quickly as possible.

While some companies do this well, most businesses are failing to respond, as another study indicates that roughly 70% of customer service complaints made on Twitter go unanswered. The statistics don’t lie: Modern consumers expect a quick and easy experience via social media, but businesses are failing to provide it to them. How quick do you have to be? Well, 42% of consumers expect a response within an hour. In other words, if your approach to customer service through social networking has been lacking, it’s time to start thinking about improvement.

Go Beyond the 9-5 Experience

Page 3: How to utilize social media for your business’s customer support

Depending on where your business is located or how many areas of the world you serve, you might want to think about hiring overnight staff to handle customer support questions from people all over the world. After all, even though your business might have closed up shop in the states, if they’re providing a service in the UK, you’ll need to be prepared to answer the questions of those customers as well. If you can do this with your phone service, you should also be able to do it with your social profiles. It is important for multinational companies to be prepared to answer questions at any time of the day, and social media can make that possible.

Make Customer Service More Social

No matter what type of business you run, it’s time to change the way you think about customer service. Consumer expectations have evolved, and you need to be prepared to follow suit. By putting more emphasis on social networking, you’ll ensure that customers can reach you whenever and however they wish. Make the right choice by shifting the focus of your customer support to social media.

- See more at: http://www.webgreeter.com/blog/social-media/utilize-social-media-for-your-business-customer-support/