3 Ways to Improve Customer Service Through Social Media

Guest Post by David Bobis – Digital Marketing Director of Studio Culture

Providing exceptional customer service has always been a necessary engine for business growth. Although it may be easier to dedicate a considerable amount of time to customer service at early stages of a business, larger and growing companies may have issues managing customer service at scale.

Thanks to social media, the team at Studio Culture have been able to provide both small-sized startups and multinational companies cost-effective and scalable ways to provide customer service.

Here are 3 ways companies can improve customer service through social media:

Respond Instantly

In the past, customers were usually irritated by long wait and response times when contacting companies by phone, email or lining up at physical locations waiting to speak to customer service assistants. Now, customers are able to reach companies directly through social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Social media channels are often very public platforms. Comments, reviews and complaints written by customers on social media channels can often be visible to the public. It’s important to be readily available to respond to customers and potential customers reaching out to you via social media.

Some tips about responding to customers on social media:

• Have social media guidelines in place for anyone managing your social media. This could be in the form of a booklet or document that provides ideal responses and tips for interacting with customer complaints on social media.
• Don’t argue with complainers, as this can often lead to a PR disaster. Read Applebee’s case study.
• Use tools such as Google Alerts and Mention to track any media comments people may make about your company that you aren’t tracking directly through your immediate social media channels (such as other people’s blogs).

Deliver Useful Content

Social media provides a fantastic way to stay in touch with customers and potential customers on a regular basis. Customers click, like, share and comment on topics they are interested in. Put yourself in your customer’s’ shoes: what would they like? What information do they need? Would they want to be entertained, educated or both?

Some tips about delivering useful content:

• Don’t be a pushy salesperson. Study Gary Vaynerchuck’s “jab, jab, jab, right hook” concept, where you only sell your product after delivering great content.
• Be strategic about you content – experiment and learn from the past. Facebook, for example, allows you to observe when your audience are online, and which types of posts (texts, links, pictures or videos) are most popular with your fans. You can then use this data to create a more succinct strategy for future Facebook content.
• Be consistent about your content and don’t be afraid to strategically reuse it every so often (such as through “throwback Thursdays”). Not all of your content will reach your audience; as such, having a fair number of regular posts on a consistent basis can increase your chances of having your content discovered and shared.

Encourage Reviews

Word of mouth and social proof are great ways to encourage people to take notice of what you have to offer and are also a fantastic way to receive feedback.

Whether in store or online, take the opportunity to drive reviews on your social media platforms. Facebook and Google+ both provide platforms that enable customers to review your business, and if someone tags your business on Twitter or Instagram and has something nice to say about it, make sure to retweet their post and/or engage with them.

Some tips about reviews:

• Deliver fantastic products and services. Good businesses usually attract good reviews.
• Don’t just encourage written reviews – also encourage video and image reviews that can be posted on channels such as YouTube and Instagram. Seeing someone actively use your product or service is fantastic free promotion. Black Milk Clothing does this well by encouraging customers to tag photos of themselves wearing newly purchased Black Milk products on Facebook and Instragram, and subsequently displaying the photos on their website.
• Blogger outreach can also be a potential way to spread positive word of mouth about your offerings. Start by researching bloggers/Instagrammers with a decent-sized reach, and contact them if they will be willing to sample your products.

About the Author

David Bobis is the Digital Marketing Director of Studio Culture. Studio Culture is a creative, end-to-end digital service agency with key strengths in digital marketing strategy, website design & development, SEO and social media marketing. Studio Culture services clients both in Australia and overseas.

Tags: social Media • Social media customer service • Social Media Marketing