Providing Customer Service on Your Digital Platforms
Customer service in every step of the buying experience is common among businesses. With the continuation of online accessibility becoming more and more prevalent, customers expect a consistent level of customer service across all the channels they are on. With the amount of competition and availability to multiple brands, customers will usually switch to a competitor after just one bad experience with your brand. Because of this, customer service across all steps of the buying process should be paramount in your marketing and business plans. Lyv Marketing is here to teach you all about social customer service and how best to make sure your business is reaching your customers directly.
What is Social Customer Service?
Social customer service is to provide support to customers straight through the social platforms they are trying to reach you on. This can include answering a customer's question or just engaging in a conversation with them. In recent years, these types of interactions have grown more and more beneficial and necessary for a brand’s success. Customers expect this type of interaction and will remember it far after the issue is resolved or the question is answered. There are a few ways to make sure you are adequately communicating with your customers. Let’s jump into these next.
Upgrading and Maintaining Your Online Customer Service
Next, we want to provide some tips on how to make this happen for your business.
Be transparent with your audience and keep are sharp eye on everything going on in your DMs and comments
Respond quickly and succinctly
Prioritize the most important channels: the ones most of your audience converse on
Ask for further feedback
Through social media, customers are more empowered to express their opinions and ask for the customer service they are expecting of their favorite brands and businesses. This can both help and hurt you, depending on what you do with the information and requests your audience throws at you. Your team should perform checks on each user to make sure it is a real person and not a bot or troll before responding to and deleting any comments. If they are bots, it is better to report them and delete the comments than give them any kind of attention. On the other hand, if there are real customers giving you criticism or complaints, it is a delicate situation. You should publicly address the issue. In your response you should validate the customer’s concern and tell them how you are actively working to fix the problem. This shows them that you are dependable and can be trusted as a business. After you’ve addressed the issue publicly, it is a good idea to take the issue offline and contact the customer via email.
Use Social Listening to Your Advantage
The first step to knowing how to communicate with your customers is by getting to know them better. Social listening helps you become more familiar with your audience and allows you to be more aware of when your brand or products are mentioned. These tools will let you know when people online are tagging or discussing your brand. One of these tools is Sprout Social. This platform allows you to track mentions, manage replies, and track the performance on your pages.
Takeaway: Social Listening Improves Your Brand and Your Customer Relationships
By paying attention to what your audience is saying on social media, you can turn online interactions into positive customer experiences. These conversations should be something you are focused on day in and day out, not something you do only when you have free time. When you are addressing your customers directly, you should use a consistent voice and messaging. At Lyv Marketing, we want to help you and your team improve your social customer service. If you are looking for an agency to join your team, contact us today by filling out the contact form on our website.
