How to Serve Customers in Social Media

How to Serve Customers in Social Media

From negative tweets to guests asking questions online, the idea of social customer service is alive and kicking. If you’re not listening to and responding to your customers on a daily basis, you’re missing the boat. Your customers are talking to you and about you – and they want to be heard.  If you’re not there to listen, respond and engage, you’re missing a giant opportunity to nurture, support and delight them.

According to a Zendesk poll, 62% of consumers have used social media for customer service issues – and that number is continuing to grow.  The number of users on social platforms is also increasing as people are adopting new social platforms every day. Gone is the day of customers willing to wait 10 minutes for a call center representative.  Now they just grab their smart phone and hop onto their favorite social platform to ask questions, post reviews and commiserate with others about support issues.

So what does a social customer service program look like?

First, there is a lot of planning involved.  Things to think about include:

• What issues has your brand seen or heard in the past and what guidelines or messaging should be used when addressing those issues?
• What platforms are your guests currently most active on?
• What are internal processes and best practices for listening and responding on social media (timeliness, tone of voice, formality, etc.)
• How should the social team handle issues or problems that haven’t before been addressed?

At a minimum, you should have accounts on your most popular platforms and also have a social team that is trained to handle the questions, comments and complaints that will come in. This team should aim to be on-brand (have the proper tone of voice) and needs an escalation plan for those questions or comments they may not be equipped to answer or that they don’t have enough information to handle on their own. Just remember a silent account is worse than no account at all.  Make sure you have your planning done in advance before diving into the social customer service pool, or you may find yourself bombarded and ill-equipped to handle the influx of comments, posts and tweets.

Next, make sure your team is properly staffed to cover your social channels around the clock.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but social media doesn’t seem to sleep. In other words, just because your office is closed, it doesn’t mean that your customers aren’t having problems, discussing issues and needing assistance at all hours of the day. Make sure your team is prepared to handle round-the-clock service, and if they aren’t, be very clear about when your team will be available.   Make sure you have enough team members to listen to, respond and engage with guests during the hours your customers expect you to be present. You shouldn’t expect one person to man your entire social customer service team. Instead, make sure to staff accordingly, think about weekends and evenings and have multiple members available during peak social traffic times for your brand.

Realize that speed is king!
Just as your customers don’t want to hang on hold for 10 minutes, they also don’t want to wait days to get a response. According to a recent Edison report, 42% of customers that contact a brand through social media expect a response in 60 minutes or less, and 67% expect a response in a day or less.  Make sure that your team is available, prepared and actively listening for guest comments to make the most of social customer service. Sometimes just a simple direct message that you’re working on a solution and will get back to the customer as soon as possible can turn a negative situation into a positive one as the customer at least feels heard instead of ignored. But be sure to get back to them in a timely manner with solutions.

Are you interested in learning more about social media customer service and taking your engagements to the next level?  If so, stay tuned for our follow up article: “Your customer service is social, now what?”