You hear a lot about how companies are using social media for marketing. And it’s true that social media marketing is very popular. However social media is a two-way street. Not only does it allow you to speak to your customers but it also allows your customers to speak to you. So it’s not just a good opportunity to spread the word about your product or brand. It’s also a good opportunity to see what your customers really have to say.
Most people are not shy about stating what they think on social media. It can help you a great deal, as a company, to listen to what they’re saying and make changes accordingly. These can be changes to your product (if customers seem to want a certain feature) or changes in the services you provide (if customers want a higher level of customer service). Here are certain things to keep in mind:
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A Point of Contact:
Basically, you need to have someone who can devote a chunk of time to answering customer questions or complaints. This can be your usual customer service representative, if you already have someone in this position. If you don’t have a full-time customer service person, assign this task to someone in your office who has good people skills—someone who is patient and likes to help people. As to how much time this person should spend on social media, that depends on the volume of customers you have. However, it’s necessary for this person to check social media everyday.
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Response-Types:
After you’ve been on social media for a while, you’ll see that customers often ask the same questions or have the same complaints. So it’s a good idea to create a list of response-types which your customer service representative can use. There’s no point in wasting time answering the same question in different words. So if the person has a response ready, they can just use that. At some point, however, you might want to think of a permanent change that will eliminate the problem altogether. For example, if a certain feature of your product leads to problems with many customers, you can think about what kind of change to your product would eliminate that problem.
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Be Authentic:
It’s a good idea to have responses ready for certain questions. However, keep in mind that a certain set of responses won’t answer all questions. So your customer service representative needs to be someone who knows the product inside-out and is also patient with customers. Just using the same automated response again and again is likely to make certain customers angry. But they will be able to spot a genuine willingness to help and this will make them feel valued as customers.
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Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep:
You’re only as good as your word. So remember to stick to it. If you tell customers that you will follow up with an email or a phone call, then do so. There’s no point in telling someone you’re going to look into their problem and get back to them, then failing to do so. This will probably mean losing that customer forever. Plus, your company also suffers in terms of referrals because that customer isn’t going to recommend you to anyone else, quite the opposite.
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Don’t Jump to Offer Discounts:
Most customers will appreciate discounts, especially if you’re making a product that they need to use over and over. However, a discount is only applicable if it’s genuinely your fault. If the customer was sold a faulty product, then it makes sense to give them another one free in exchange for that or offering them discounts on future products. But if there’s nothing wrong with the product and the customer just needs to use it in a certain way, then it’s not your fault and you shouldn’t offer a discount.
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ABG: Always Be Gracious:
Get someone with good people skills to be in charge of your customer service. Not everyone has the presence of mind to be gracious when they’re speaking with an irate customer. However, if the conversation begins on a gracious level, it’s likely to continue the same way. And there will also be times when you know that it’s not the fault of the company or the product; it’s the customer who’s at fault. Even in such situations, it’s a good idea to continue to be gracious, to help the customer with whatever they need and to refrain from placing blame on any party.
Contact us for more great tips to use social media for customer service.
