There are now more social media platforms available to businesses than ever before. And more and more businesses are using social media – but are they using it in a timely and appropriate way?
Social media is great for building and maintaining customer relationships – but is rendered useless if you’re going to miss, or worse still, ignore the moments when customers try to engage with you.
A delayed reply means you could be missing out on business! When companies engage and respond to customer service requests on social media, those customers, on average, end up spending up to 40% more with that company. But it’s not only that – a delayed or nil response can create negative connotations for your brand.
Here are our top 3 tips on how to improve your customer service on social media:
- Pick the Best
Choosing an appropriate social media platform to use for your business is important. What’s right for one business may not be right for another. The key factor here is knowing which social media platform your customer base is using. This not only ensures you’re connecting directly with them but also delivering a support system that’s on their native and preferred network.
- Speed Matters
Although speed is important in all customer interactions (nobody likes hanging around) – on social media it trumps all other factors. Social media is a fast-paced environment, focusing on live feeds and real-time updates. So it’s unsurprising that customers expect brands to use it in this manner. Did you know that 32% of social media users who contact a brand expect a response within 30 minutes? And that 42% of customers expect a response within 60 minutes. And it gets better …. 57% expecting the same response time at night and on weekends!
- Selective Use
Sometimes it’s necessary to take the conversation to a more suitable platform – be that privately through social media direct messages or a phone call. Sometimes a tweet isn’t the best way to provide customer service, after all, there’s only so much information you can fit into 140 characters.
Sometimes, sensitive customer data needs to be exchanged; if it would be easier to share the information required over the phone or an email – take it there. In these instances, make sure you don’t just palm the customer off to a helpline – be friendly and ask them if they mind using a different contact method, suggesting which one.