from the blog
🤝 How to Use Social Media for Customer Service
Omar Hamada, Content Manager
14 December 2021
When you own a business, social media becomes both your greatest asset and your greatest liability. It’s the easiest way to reach customers, but it’s also the fastest way for customers to vent their frustrations about you on Facebook or Twitter. It means that to prevent these complaints from turning ugly, you have to foster a strong presence on social media so that all of your clients feel heard and valued. Here are the tips for using social media for customer service.
1. Know Your Community
The first thing you have to do is get an idea of who your audience is. The last thing you want to do is respond to complaints using the method you would use on your family members and friends. Your customers are very different from the people that love and support you, so be sure to separate them in a way that makes sense for the type of business that you’re running.
2. Know Your Tools
To respond effectively, you’re going to need the right tools at hand. It’s a good idea to have a blog or an account on Twitter, both of which will help you build relationships with customers and keep them informed about any updates that might be helpful. You should also have a Facebook page and a company website because these are where you’ll spend all of your time responding to their questions, regardless of whether or not they’re complaining about the product or service you provide.
3. Seek Out Complaints
One of the best ways to respond to these complaints is to take advantage of a social media tracking tool. It will show you all of your customer inquiries, complaints, and compliments so that you can use this information as a guide for how you should address each piece of feedback. If a complaint is too big to address on its own, you should find some way to connect it with another customer’s post or issue for all three of these issues to become one cohesive issue that your staff can deal with. Whether it’s a single angry consumer or a large group of dissatisfied customers, you’re going to have to engage with every one of them to provide the care and attention they’re expecting.
4. Respond Early
If you’ve been ignoring complaints and thinking of them as just another thing that’s going to pile up on your desk, you need to change your attitude. A good customer service team will never let a complaint go unanswered. If you want to build trust and loyalty with your clients and show them that you listen to what they have to say, you’ll have to respond on time. It makes it more likely that the person complaining about your business won’t escalate the issue.
Conclusion
Social media is an incredible tool for reaching out to your customers and keeping them informed. The best way to use it effectively is to write your updates, respond on time, respond with care and compassion, and keep in touch with your customers by thanking them for their business. Social media will do wonders for building relationships and loyalty among your clients, so use the tools at hand to shape the experience you’re going to have with these people.
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