In today’s digital age, there are more ways than ever to engage with customers. As a small business owner, you may want to take advantage of social media to maximize customer service and build trust with your audience.
For many, it may seem daunting at first – after all, properly managing social media accounts can be quite the task. Luckily for you, there are tips and tricks you can use to make sure you’re getting the most out of your social media accounts. That’s why Basilisk SEM is here – we’ll help you make sure your digital marketing meets customer service expectations.
In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned over the years on how to effectively use social media for customer service purposes. From crafting messages that build customer loyalty to responding quickly to inquiries and complaints – let’s take a look at how using social media customer service can benefit your business!
Why Social Media Matters for Customer Service
When it comes to customer service, social media is your business’s most powerful tool. With customers being able to contact customer service representatives faster and easier than ever before, businesses must be prepared to respond quickly in order to make sure customer inquiries and complaints are handled in a timely manner.
Social media offers businesses the advantage of 24/7 customer service—something that was unheard of just a few years ago. That’s because people can access social media from anywhere with an internet connection, so it’s a great way for customers to reach out for help when they have questions or issues. Plus, responding quickly and resolving customer issues can increase customer spending—studies have found that customers spend 20-40% more with companies that respond to customer service requests on social media.
On top of that, customers already use social media as an integral part of their lives and many prefer reaching out through these channels instead of the traditional phone call or email. So using the same platforms your customers are already on gives you a better chance of successfully engaging with them and meeting their needs in an efficient manner.
Have a Social Media Customer Service Strategy
Having a strategy in place for how to respond to customer inquiries, complaints and other comments on social media will help make sure your team is on the same page. Here are some tips to get you started:
- Set expectations for platform presence and service windows. This includes both what hours someone is available to respond, as well as how often they’ll be checking in.
- Create an internal tracking system. In other words, have a workflow that everyone follows. This way, everyone knows what their responsibilities are and can quickly move the conversation along so customers can get help or answers fast.
- Use canned responses for consistent, speedy replies. Have a few ready-made responses (with the option for personalization) that are appropriate for different inquiries—this will help streamline your message delivery time and give your customers assurance that you care about their needs.
- Integrate social with your CRM software. By connecting the two platforms, you can track conversations from one platform to the other—which helps keep all customer information in one place for more efficient response time and better customer service overall.
Choose the Right Social Media Channels
If you’re going to offer customer service over social media, you’ve got to use the right channels. You’ll want to select those networks that your customers already use and which provide the right tools for your customer service team.
For example, Facebook is a great channel for customer service because it’s widely used and offers great features for responding to customers, such as Messenger and private chat options. Instagram also provides a great platform for providing customer support as it’s become a one-stop shop for many customers due to its integration with messaging and shopping features.
Other popular networks like Twitter can be useful, too, but they don’t have all the bells and whistles of Facebook and Instagram when it comes to providing customer support. You should also consider any other platforms that your customers may be using, such as Reddit or Snapchat.
At the end of the day, you want to make sure that your customers are able to easily reach out to your team on their preferred social media channel and get prompt response times—so choose those channels wisely!
Respond Quickly and Personably
When customers reach out via social media, they expect fast and positive answers. According to research, 90% of messages should be responded to, with a response time of 15 minutes or less. But even if it takes you a little bit longer, know that 80% of customers expect companies to respond to their social media messages and comments within 24 hours, while 13% of US consumers expect brands to respond within the first hour of reaching out on social media.
So how can you make sure you’re giving your customers the speedy responses they want? Here are a few tips:
- Keep an eye on all your platforms so you can reply as quickly as possible.
- Set up automated replies for common questions to reduce response time even further.
- Make sure your responses are light and positive—customers don’t want robotic or canned replies; they want engaging conversations with real people.
- If there’s something that needs more in-depth investigation before responding, acknowledge the customer’s message and let them know when they can expect a response from you.
- Monitor Twitter hashtags that relate to your industry and comment or answer questions related to them in order to get more visibility and attract new customers as well as existing ones!
Provide Value and Solutions
When using social media for customer service, it’s important to provide value and solutions to customers. Think of social media as another tool in the customer service toolkit.
Your goal should be to educate your customers and provide them with tools to resolve common issues on their own. Explaining things in a simple, clear, and concise way can help your customers understand how they can utilize your services or products even better.
Providing value and solutions is essential for boosting long-term customer satisfaction levels, which in turn leads to increased loyalty and higher conversion rates. As an added bonus, customers often share their positive experiences on social media, further strengthening your brand’s reputation in the process.
When responding to customer queries on social media, be sure to demonstrate that you care about both their immediate concern and also their overall experience as a customer. This will create an impactful impression that resonates far beyond a single response – so make sure you make it count!
Measure, Analyze and Improve Your Efforts
When it comes to digital marketing meets customer service, it’s important that you measure, analyze and improve your efforts. After all, if there’s no way to measure success, you’re essentially blindly throwing resources at social media customer service without knowing if your efforts are effective.
Fortunately, there are metrics and techniques that can help you track and analyze the results of social media customer service – this ensures that your customers’ needs are being met successfully.
Monitoring metrics like customer satisfaction scores and first response time can be useful in helping you identify areas of improvement in your customer service processes. Additionally, tracking customer service costs in relation to the number of customers serviced can help you determine whether the time and money spent on social media customer service is worth it.
Analyzing customer service data can also help you understand customer behavior and identify common problems or questions. This in turn can help you create more targeted customer service initiatives that are better able to meet customer needs.
By constantly striving to improve customer service processes, you can create a more positive customer experience and ensure that customers keep coming back for more. So, don’t forget to measure, analyze and improve your customer service efforts on social media!
Social Media Metrics
Social media customers service metrics – such as response time and resolution rate – can indicate how well your strategy is working in order to meet customer needs. You can also use these numbers to benchmark performance against other companies in the same industry.
By proactively measuring and analyzing your customer service data, you can get a better understanding of what’s working and what’s not. This will enable you to make more informed decisions about how to best serve your customers and remain competitive. For example, if customers are having difficulty with a particular issue, you can quickly identify and address the problem. Additionally, if you find that customers have difficulties understanding certain information, you can make an effort to simplify the language or create more detailed tutorials. By making changes to your customer service processes and initiatives, you can create a much more positive customer experience.
Ultimately, digital marketing meets customer service is an incredibly powerful tool that can help businesses connect with customers, build relationships and drive more sales. By measuring and analyzing customer service data and making necessary improvements, you can ensure that your customers are being well taken care of and that your business is staying competitive.
Omnichannel Metrics
Social customer support data can also reveal information about how to support on social fits into the overall omnichannel experience for customers. By connecting the dots between all channels used for customer support, you can get a better understanding of how your customers move from one channel to another as they seek assistance from your business.
Additionally, tracking your customers’ journey across multiple channels can inform you of the effectiveness of particular channels. For instance, if customers are more likely to stick with one channel to resolve their issue, you may want to focus more resources on that channel in order to provide an improved customer service experience. On the other hand, if customers seem to switch channels frequently when seeking support, you could consider streamlining processes across channels or providing more support agents on multiple channels.
Omnichannel metrics can also be used to identify customer trends and patterns, which can inform effective marketing strategies. By tracking customer behavior across channels, you can identify which channels customers prefer and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. Additionally, you can use customer data to better target customers who may be interested in certain products or services, helping to improve the success of marketing campaigns.
Overall, utilizing digital marketing metrics to measure and analyze customer service efforts on social media is an essential part of creating a positive customer experience and remaining competitive in the digital landscape. By leveraging available customer data and making necessary changes to customer service processes, you can create an effective and efficient customer service strategy that meets the needs of your customers.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a technique used to measure the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns. It involves sending out different versions of a message or campaign and measuring which one resonates better with your target audience in terms of engagement or conversions. This technique gives businesses valuable feedback that they can use to improve their social media activities over time.
By tracking these various metrics, businesses can gain an understanding of how their efforts on social media align with their overall business goals. This knowledge enables them to determine which tactics have been successful – or where improvements need to be made – so that they can continue to provide the best possible customer
With A/B testing, businesses can gain insights into why certain campaigns resonated with their audience more than others. For example, they may identify that certain copy, visuals, or even the timing of a post were more successful than others in achieving the desired outcome. Armed with this knowledge, businesses can create more successful campaigns in the future and further enhance their customer service delivery on social media.
Additionally, A/B testing can be used to optimize customer service processes. For example, businesses can use A/B testing to measure the effectiveness of automated customer service responses and compare them to manual responses. This can help them determine which type of customer service delivery is more effective and ensure that they are providing the best possible customer service experience.
Overall, A/B testing is a powerful tool for understanding customer behavior and optimizing digital marketing efforts for customer service purposes. By leveraging this technique, businesses can gain valuable insights into how their customers interact with their social media activities and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that they are providing the best possible customer service.
Conclusion
To sum up, using social media for customer service is a smart, efficient way to address customer inquiries and complaints in the digital age. It’s a great way to show potential and existing customers that your business is responsive to their needs and values their feedback. By leveraging the power of social media to deliver prompt and helpful customer service, you can build loyalty, trust, and relationships with your customers that will be essential for long-term success.
If you’re looking for help with your digital marketing and want to take advantage of cutting-edge strategies that provide real results, consider getting in touch with Basilisk SEM. We’re here to help you grow your business and unlock the power of digital marketing.