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How to Provide Great Customer Service through Social Media
Social media is changing the way we interact with customers, and it’s no longer just about whose posts get the most retweets or who has the most followers. An estimated 67% of consumers now use social media for customer service, and this online social support is becoming increasingly important for businesses wishing to maintain or develop a reputation for good customer service. If you want to improve your customer service through social media, read our top 5 tips below and take a look at a few industry examples we’ve found:
1. Respond quickly
Customers expect quick responses on social media; in fact 42% expect a reply within 60 minutes! Social media is all about immediacy and it’s therefore important to keep on top of all your social media accounts; look out for possible new messages, mentions or reviews and reply as quickly as possible.
2. Don’t just acknowledge the positive reviews
Of course no one likes a bad review, but if you can acknowledge it and show that you’re willing to resolve the issue, it shows that you’re dedicated to providing good customer service. It’s your chance to turn a negative review into a more positive one in the future. For example, if a customer is unhappy with a product they’ve received, you may offer to send them a new one free of charge and offer them an exclusive discount for their next purchase.
3. Engage with your customers
Customers spend 20-40% more when brands engage with them on social media, so don’t just wait for your customers to come to you. Reposting images or initiating conversations shows you have a genuine interest, and gives your customers a more personalised brand experience, which never goes unnoticed.
4. Be creative with your responses
Customers value professionalism, but they also like brands that show a bit of personality too. Customers don’t just want to talk to a generic robot, they want human interaction. So whether it’s adding a bit of humour or responding in a chattier manner; if you think it’s appropriate, give it a go.
5. Don’t forget to follow up
Just like with any customer feedback you’d receive offline, don’t forget to follow up customer responses you’ve received on social media. Once again, it shows that your business genuinely cares about its customers, which means they’re more likely to stay loyal to your business.
Here are a few examples:
1. Starbucks
2. Pizza Express
3. Tesco
4. Domino’s
#MarketingTitbits – entrepreneurs, branding, Pepsi
1. Insights from the world’s best social entrepreneurs
There is a new type of entrepreneur emerging, one who see business as a way to fight poverty and focus on developing products that the third of the global population who live on less than $2 a day can benefit from. These people are known as social entrepreneurs and include the likes of Sam Goldman, Jordan Kassalow and Prema Gopalan. For them, creating products to improve the life of the people who need it most is not only a huge business opportunity, it is a moral duty.
Their mission is to change the world and they have shared some of the strategies they are using to do just that.
- Hiring local individuals who have the drive to change things in their community but also know the local market is a key to success
- Think about the bigger picture and how the impact of your product can go further than what one organisation is doing
- Encourage competition, it means that more people are trying to solve the same problem that you are
- “You have to be dedicated to a cause. It’s mission, not money, which is the great motivator of people.”
To find out more about the social entrepreneurs who are changing the world and how they are doing it, click here.
2. How Steve Jobs ignored the rules of branding
Steve Jobs, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. was an inventor, marketer and once upon a time was an entrepreneur just like you. Apple Inc. has been named the most admired company in the United States by Fortune Magazine and the world’s most valuable brand in the Omnicom Group’s “Best Global Brands” report.
To acquire this status, Jobs changed the rules of branding; he didn’t pursue the standard checklist and knew that imitating somebody else’s success would never yield success. The brand that is ‘Apple’ maintained consistency in their products, operations and services and left their competitors to create naff computers with colourful lids and rubbish ads that made the simplicity of Apple look even better.
Steve Jobs taught marketers that “You must deliver a great business. The brand will be the words and emotions people use to narrate it.” To read more about how Apple changed branding as we know it and what tips you can take away from this, click here.
3. Pepsi Max do augmented reality
Last month, Pepsi Max surprised London commuters with an augmented reality experience. They set up a camera and played the normalities of the street onto a screen next to the bus stop bench but added a few extra features to the scenario.
They have recorded the reactions as tigers chase passers-by and flying saucers appear in the sky. To watch the video, click here.