Implement Best Practices To Make Social Customer Service Stick

Respond immediately

The reality is social media implies immediacy, and customers expect brands to respond immediately. In fact, Facebook Pages show a company’s response times to resolve issues.  Brands need to respond in minutes. Social customer service isn’t only about solving problems; it’s also an opportunity to connect authentically, engage, and leave a lasting positive impression that will drive loyalty. In fact, 71% of customers who have a positive social media service experience are likely to recommend that brand.

Be consistent.

Consistency is one of the most important things to providing a great experience. It builds trust. It illustrates what customers can come to expect from a brand. Consistency also drives retention, loyalty, and advocacy, and helps you acquire new customers in the process.

Personalize the experience.

According to Accenture, 81% of consumers want brands to understand them better. Being authentic and showing empathy creates experiences that drive loyalty. You’ll be able to connect and engage on a deeper, more personal level and customers will leave feeling happy.

Be proactive.

Social customer service isn’t only about resolving issues timely and effectively. It’s also about anticipating needs and acting accordingly. And that means regularly monitoring customer activities on social media to determine when it’s appropriate to engage with a customer or alert other employees to get involved.

It also provides an excellent opportunity to obtain customer feedback, encourages customers to share their experiences with their social networks or offer additional tools to help customers be more successful. Brands should always be on the lookout for opportunities to drive customer value.

Share insights with other organizational teams.

The information you obtain from engaging with customers is vital to be able to improve the customer experience. Thus, you should share insights with other stakeholders so these insights can be acted on and improvements to existing processes can be made to enhance customers’ experiences.

Measure and monitor.

Measure the social customer service you’re providing through such metrics as CSAT, CES, NPS, and others. Be methodical. Know the KPI’s you need to achieve your desired outcomes. It’s important not only to measure but also to monitor and analyze trends so you can make improvements to enhance a customer’s experience.

Bringing it all Together

Providing an excellent customer experience is a must. Including social customer service in the mix will help brands create experiences customers expect. Social Customer Service will help brands shape conversations by engaging customers before and after purchase to drive customer lifetime value.

Job brief for a customer service representative

The following are duties and responsibilities for a customer service representative: 

A customer service representative, or CSR, will act as a liaison, provide product/services information and resolve any emerging problems that our customer accounts might face with accuracy and efficiency.

  • Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries
  • Generating sales leads that develop into new customers
  • Identifying and assessing customers’ needs to achieve satisfaction

The best CSRs are genuinely excited to help customers. They’re patient, empathetic, and passionately communicative. They love to talk. Customer service representatives can put themselves in their customers’ shoes and advocate for them when necessary. Customer feedback is priceless, and these CSRs can gather that for you. Problem-solving also comes naturally to customer care specialists. They are confident at troubleshooting and investigate if they don’t have enough information to resolve customer complaints.
The target is to ensure excellent service standards, respond efficiently to customer inquiries and maintain high customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities

Customer Service Responsibilities list:

  • Manage large amounts of incoming calls
  • Generate sales leads
  • Identify and assess customers’ needs to achieve satisfaction
  • Build sustainable relationships and trust with customer accounts through open and interactive communication
  • Provide accurate, valid and complete information by using the right methods/tools
  • Meet personal/customer service team sales targets and call handling quotas
  • Handle customer complaints, provide appropriate solutions and alternatives within the time limits; follow up to ensure resolution
  • Keep records of customer interactions, process customer accounts and file documents
  • Follow communication procedures, guidelines and policies
  • Take the extra mile to engage customers

Requirements

  • 1. Proven customer support experience or experience as a client service representative
  • 2. Track record of over-achieving quota
  • 3. Strong phone contact handling skills and active listening
  • 4. Familiarity with CRM systems and practices
  • 5. Customer orientation and ability to adapt/respond to different types of characters
  • 6. Excellent communication and presentation skills
  • 7. Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and manage time effectively.