Social Media for Customer Service Purposes
1.Create a detailed customer service plan
Before you start with this procedure, you need to create a solid plan. One of the first things that you should do at this stage is to choose a Social Media strategy and stick to it. Find the ways in which you can use Social Media to help your business and how you will interact with your current and prospective clients.
Furthermore, you will have to find suitable tools in order to communicate with your customers. Using tools is a must for big companies. You may have to approve certain comments before they are published and share some feedback with your customers. It is also a good idea to develop a crisis plan in order to respond to situations in which your company’s name is at risk. For example, if you own a market and someone complains about buying a product that has expired and shares this information on the Internet, then you will have to respond as quickly as possible before this post becomes viral.
2. Make sure that your staff is trained well and that their knowledge is upgraded regularly
The people who are part of your customer service team must have great knowledge in social media, but they also need to follow the latest trends in this field. Social Media platforms are changing their rules and concepts frequently and you must implement these changes fast. It is probably a good idea to train your staff about the responses they need to provide on FAQ.
You should also assign a more experienced employee to handle more complex questions.
Of course, your staff should know that they should never be involved in disagreements with customers.
3. Listen to your customer’s complaints and solve the problems
One of the worst things that you can see on your Social Media profile is a negative review or comment. It will take a lot of positive comments to “hide” one negative comment. But, instead of focusing on getting positive comments try to fix the problem that caused that one negative comment. In other words, listen to your customers and their needs and desires. It is a good idea to contact the user privately and resolve the issue. If the comment is very serious, you need to check your products and services right away.
4. Encourage your customers to leave feedback
Use some other sources and channels that you usually use to contact customers like emails and call centers and ask your clients to leave feedback on your Social Media profiles. Leaving a comment on Facebook or Twitter or even leaving online reviews on your website is an excellent way to improve your image.
As you can see managing customer service on social platforms is a complex task, but with a proper plan and a good team you can manage this process without any hassles.
“It’s fine to have social media that connects us with old friends, but we need tools that help us discover new people as well”.
-Ethan Zuckerman-
