Social media networks make for great customer service platforms when used properly. One of the biggest benefits of using a social network like Twitter (now X) is that you can respond to issues or questions in real time. To put that into perspective, customers don’t have to wait that long for an answer to their problems. It can also help reduce the costs of running a full customer service department.
Of course, the biggest disadvantage of using social media is that any correspondence with an irate customer is publicly visible. That means almost anyone can witness an experience that turns sour, which can result in bad press for the company in question.
Taking both points further, there are many more reasons why using a social network can improve your customer service. Below are some of the best ways to use social networking in customer service campaigns.
Make the best of a bad experience
It is impossible for every customer that comes your way to have a good experience. It is the company’s responsibility to ensure that the customer is always satisfied, even if a point of sale breaks or something goes wrong.
While the biggest drawback to using social media is that correspondence is publicly available, that point can also be a boon if you play your cards right. If you handle the customer service issue or correspondence with the customer in a positive way, everyone will see that.
In general, successful calls or visits to customer service are never witnessed by anyone other than the customer involved. When you handle such issues through social media platforms, everyone can see how responsive and helpful your company really is.
Throw away the scripts
Not every customer service campaign is based on predetermined scripts. When customers call a service center, the agents are typically asked to follow a specific set of guidelines. When responding to customer complaints and issues on social media, you can ditch the formal responses and opt for something truly unique. Not only does this make for a much better experience for both the consumer and the agent, it also creates a more personal relationship between both parties.
This can help in many ways as it makes the customer feel important as a representative communicates directly with them to resolve an issue.
[Recommended reading: Avoid These 7 Cringeworthy Social Media Mistakes]
Encourage sharing of positive experiences
Word of mouth is one of the oldest forms of advertising in existence. When a customer has a good or bad experience, you better believe he or she is going to share it with friends and family. Thanks to social media, those same people can now share their experiences with the whole world.
You can use this to your advantage by encouraging positive feedback about your brand or business. Challenge your customers to share their best experiences with the world. Not only will this boost your brand awareness, it will also help others see how great your products or services really are.
Connect customers with a more direct form of contact
Not everyone will feel comfortable sharing personal information or experiences where they are publicly accessible. Customers will often contact companies via social media. Usually the customer has a personal problem that he would like to have resolved. This way you can use social media to improve contact with such customers.
For example, you can offer direct email addresses to a key company representative or agent. Customers often have problems getting in touch with the right contact persons within your company. This only reinforces the customer’s bad experience. Social media can put them in touch with the right parties, alleviating emerging problems.
Have fun
Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important in life, especially when you’re deeply invested in a company or brand. Not everything has to be so serious and social media allows you to experiment with a little humor every now and then. Of course, you definitely want to keep it tasteful and family-friendly in that regard, but there’s no reason why you can’t have a little fun.
You can interact with other brands or competitors, and even make playful banter with customers. Some of the best social media experiences involve several brands just trying to have a little fun. However, we all know how easy it can be to get out of hand while playing, so humor should be used sparingly.
Build an ongoing support database
One of the benefits of using an online forum or database is that customers with the same problems can access support information. The same goes for social media networks, especially something like Twitter (now X). By using hashtags and keywords you can build an ongoing customer support database. Customers can search for problems that others have already experienced.
Of course you will always have customers who do not take the initiative themselves and immediately ask for help. But for those who are looking for their own knowledge, an online database is ideal. As mentioned above, by using the right tags and keywords you can make this database visible to everyone. Future support queries via search engines will return the relevant support data. These search engines also show any previous correspondence on a topic.
Social media for customer service
As you can see above, there are many benefits to using social media platforms like Twitter for customer service. The Internet has streamlined almost everything in our lives that involves information. That means B2C or relationships between companies and customers can be much more personal than they once were. This change is not a bad thing, in fact, every company should embrace it.
You better believe that competing brands are probably preparing to launch a social media platform to handle customer service correspondence. If you don’t have one yourself, you should start preparing to launch a campaign as soon as possible.
[Recommended reading: 5 Ways To Successfully Retain Online Customers And Make Them Shop More]
[Main image: Pixabay; other images are credited in their respective Social Media Revolver articles.]
Courtney is a passionate blogger with a love for all things social media. Some would say she is an internet junkie. Connect with her on whatever form of social media you deem appropriate.
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