Using Social Media for Customer Service

How Do You Use Social Media for Customer Service?

As much as social media is about spreading your businesses messages and improving brand awareness. It is also used to provide customer service and listening, or as we like to call it ‘social-servicing’.

Why is Social Servicing Important?

When consumers have a question or problem they look to find a hassle-free way to solve it and social media channels are often the solution.  

A study found that 67% of consumers have used a company’s social media site for servicing, compared with 33% for social marketing. This just proves that while you can use your socials to market, it is just as, if not more important to be performing ‘social – servicing’. 

Today customer service is no longer done in private and this could be to your advantage. Customer support is a spectator sport where everyone can see how you handle comments both positive and negative.  

As much as we would love for our consumers to come to us first when it comes to complaints and reviews, this is not always the case. Why? Well, there is more convenience in commenting on social media or review sites – It’s easy you can do it with one hand, right where you are. 

While we may feel as business owners that negative comments are going to destroy us, remember that only 5% of unhappy customers actually write negative comments. That means the other 95% might have just left giving no explanation or room to win them back at all. Identify negative comments, use them to improve and get insights into your business. 

Once I even heard someone saying that to get fewer complaints you first must get more complaints… seems crazy and a bit conflicting, right? But the more problems you can straighten out within your business, the fewer problems your consumers will have.

 

How To Use Social Media For Customer Service:

Reply as Quickly as Possible:

The expected response time on social media is demanding, with 80% of consumers more likely to stay loyal to a brand if they reply instantly. Lucky for most small business Facebook is your main platform, and it is much more forgiving, with  85% of consumers expect an answer to their questions within six hours.

Instant reply times are not achieved for most small businesses, but there are ways around it. 

At least twice daily schedule a time to check and reply to comments and message.

You can’t be at your computer 24/7  but there are easy ways to give off-hour responses. If there is a concern on messager, using a bot to reply with a customisable message is an effective way to give off-hour response.

It’s Never Too Late:

If you haven’t been replying in the past to reviews, do so now – even if it has been a while! 

Social media is a spectacular sport, so your comments now (even if they are late) could help future spectator’s decisions. 

Make Someone Accountable:

Just as you have someone in charge of taking the bins out, you need someone to be in charge of social listening.

It is as simple as checking social media and review sites daily and addressing comments.

Only Reply Twice:

If there is a negative comment reframe from replying more than twice. The first message should address the issue straight on.

If they do decide to go on a further rampage, you are better off getting them to speak to you in person, DM’s or offline. If you continue to comment it will be counterproductive; as it is a waste of your time and the comment section will get much too negative.   

Own It:

Own it – if it is your mistake, own it and apologise.

Everyone including businesses makes blunders from time to time, realising and addressing this makes your business more human. 

 

Social-servicing is just as important as social marketing. In fact, it might even be more important. Because it means that your marketers can focus on retention, rather than attention. This makes it more profitable for your business.   

Here at Rocket Fuel Design on behalf of our customers, we make sure to respond and react to comments and messages as quick as possible and check throughout the day.  

 

If you’re still not convinced of the power of social servicing check out these crazy stats:

• When customers are unhappy, there’s a 91 per cent chance they won’t do business with a company again (Lee Resources).
• Good customer experiences lead 42 per cent of consumers to purchase again (Zendesk Customer Service Study).
• The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% – Marketing Metrics.
• A customer is 4 times more likely to defect to a competitor if the problem is service-related than price or product-related – Bain & Company.
• Negative customer experience is a reason 86 per cent of consumers quit doing business with a company (Customer Experience Impact Report).
• 55% of customers would pay extra to guarantee a better service – Defaqto research.
• Younger consumers (18-29 years old) are more likely to use brands’ social media sites for servicing interactions (43%) than for marketing (23%)  – JD Power