Businesses rely on social channels to improve their business’s success. Not only does it make it easy to raise brand awareness but it connects potential users and offers a direct channel to your current users. You can talk to your users and they can talk to you but in some cases, it isn’t always a positive exchange.
Having social media as a tool for your customer service definitely helps your customers feel heard in a comfortable environment. Plus, it lets your customers know that you care. Understanding the best practices for social media customer service is crucial and if done right, will allow your business to have a free and easy way to retain and attract customers. Here is a look at how to handle to well to keep your customers happy and to save you time on phone calls and using snail mail.
When a complain comes up, don’t disregard it
People want to be heard. When a complain happens online, rather than telling a customer to check out the FAQs page on your website, take the time to address them yourself. That type of generic response will make your customer feel unheard and resort to anger.
Direct customers to your customer care department immediately and make sure they are told that the information is valuable to you as a company. Make sure their problem gets resolved and that they leave happy. Make sure your social media page sees that the issue was handled so that other customers don’t get the wrong idea that you ignore complaints.
Your users are not problems, they are people too
Try to remember that you are not dealing with problems but actual people. Informal chat is completely acceptable as long as it doesn’t get too personal or inappropriate. Users actually enjoy a human element and positive banter so don’t refrain from doing this on your social media. Avoid generic, robot-like answers. If you have the time, look at your user’s basic information to try to offer instructions that would suit their generation and tech-savvy abilities.
Give clear answers that are short and sweet
Keep your posts short and sweet that offer information without dragging on. You’ll be more effective in three words than in a paragraph. Capture your audience’s attentions with clever, short tweets. Answer questions from your users via social media by appearing patient, helpful, use proper punctuation and grammar and remember that everyone can read what you are posting on a Facebook homepage or twitter channel.
Competition
Watch out for competitors that want to hurt your online reputation through social channels. For a user that appears to be a hassle and potentially a competitor in disguise, feel free to block them from your account. Don’t assume they are competition and only use the block function as a last resort. You don’t want a perfect page because you’ll appear to be fake and unrealistic as a company with perfect reviews.
Lastly, manage your expectations. You wouldn’t have a large social media page if you are a small business so don’t be afraid to be honest with your audience. Keep your promises and try to get on social media weekly, if not daily, to check for complaints.
