There’s no denying that social media is a hugely effective and important tool when it comes to customer services for your business. Just about any business today is using social media in some way or another, but reports suggest that many aren’t utilizing this tool in the right way. In fact, many companies that believe they are providing an excellent level of customer service have customers who disagree. Today, a social media presence is essential – but being present on social media isn’t enough when it comes to good customer service. We’ve listed the main things your customers expect from their social media customer service experience.
1. Timely Replies:
Today’s customers don’t want to wait around for a reply. The ease of access to information on almost anything online means that customers are increasingly demanding instant answers, allowing them to get the information that they need straight away and get on with their lives. Typically, a customer will expect a response within the hour when they contact a company with a complaint or query. But, research conducted recently found that under 20% of businesses respond to customer complaints via social media within one hour, while even more never respond at all. For your social media presence to be effective, it’s essential to work on your response rates.
2. Live Chat Services:
Many customers will agree that the whole point of a business being present on social media is to provide live customer service options. In fact, research shows that today, a huge percentage of customers prefer using live chat options over any other customer service communications, for example, telephone or email. There are several different options that you could consider for a live chat service; for example, if your business is present and active on Facebook, you could take advantage of the Messenger feature to provide real-time online assistance to your customers when they get in touch using the app or website. For a more professional service, consider using helpdesk software complete with IT asset management to keep track of both active and resolved issues.
3. Protecting Your Reputation:
Social media can be a hugely effective tool for improving customer service standards, but it can also pose a significant risk to your company’s reputation if not used correctly. For example, one misjudged tweet could quickly become the downfall of your brand, or a long response time advertised on Facebook could put customers off from choosing your company over others. It’s important to ensure that you implement a number of policies to protect your reputation on social media. For example, it’s important to avoid situations where employees are allowed unsupervised access to corporate social media accounts as this runs the risk of inappropriate content being posted and damaging your reputation.
Social media is one of the best tools out there for promoting your company, engaging with customers, and providing excellent customer service. But, it’s important to be more than simply present on social media sites to ensure that you get the most from them.
