Customer Service Via Social Media is a No Brainer

I’m a big believer in efficiency. Whether it’s the way my house is organized or the web tools I use, efficiency typically means time and money saved. Which then leads to a happy household or online community. And you certainly want a happy customer community – they’re the actual people who not only take the time to buy your product or service, but expect some type of resolution if they reach out to your company for assistance.

I’m happy to report that in 2016, this blend of social media and customer service channels is finally coming together. Perhaps not as quickly as I’d hoped, but it’s getting better. This Forbes article spells out the takeaways that every social practitioner should keep in mind:

• Blending social and customer service automatically increases customer satisfaction metrics.
• Having a a one-stop shop for your customer service efforts also enables a faster analysis of NPS and CSAT scores.
• The addition of Twitter to a customer service platform (with its one-click Direct Message) is a no-brainer, illustrating how seamless your social media and customer service efforts should be.
• Providing a somewhat public communications stream with users isn’t scalable, but taking the message to a private setting shows the public that you did make an initial connection with the consumer and that you’re looking to another means to solve the problem. Bottom line, you are solving the problem.

Today’s teams often have difficulty with budgeting for social CS in a way that assures a prompt response to as many customers as possible. I always tell colleagues and clients that I’ve been there. From who “owns” social media (the whole company does; the sooner you get that, the better) to when consumers expect a response (within the hour on social media, within a day via e-mail), there are a slew of logistics that need to be sorted out day to day. Once you have the corporate structure worked out, then you need to work with your partner agency to implement the new processes. I get it, it’s tough.

The most important decision you can make in all of this is to just get started. Do this by finding a champion within a member of another team; talk about your social media and customer support channels. To be blunt, looking at social media as just a marketing challenge is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Yes, you can and should use social media platforms to promote your campaign, any seasonal pushes, and other activities. But just as you invest hours planning for the promotion, hiring the talent, and spending the media dollars, you should similarly be investing time and training into an evergreen customer service approach on social media.

We know how to do this. Give us a call.

Blagica Bottigliero
VP of Digital Media