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.