IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media has evolved beyond a platform meant for communication between loved ones and friends. Over time social media has become the primary means of creating awareness of a brand or product. Online marketing is just one of its major business applications, increasingly they have become platforms for consumers to receive customer services and lodge complains.
More than ever before business activities are performed over the internet, which has lead to an increase in the demand of “Social Care”. Over a billion people actively use social media platforms monthly, meaning some people virtually live ” in” social media platforms. What better place to offer customer services than people’s homes.
According to statistics, people tend to spend 21% more on a product when they get great customer services. Ignoring the importance of customer service to your business at best lead to you having little profit and at worst cause the death of your business. In this article we will consider ways of improving your customer services through social media and taking your business to the next level.

Know Where Your Customers Live
Ok maybe that was too dramatic, You don’t have to know the residential address of every one of your customers. Knowing where your customers live involves having accurate statistics of the social platforms majority of your consumers utilize. There are several social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin to mention a few. Having this knowledge helps you focus on the right social platform when offering customer services. Focusing on the wrong platform is like putting stationery up for sale in a store known for sales of construction materials.
To Figure out where majority of your customers spend their time, Search for mentions of your business or words related to it. If by any chance no one has been talking about it, Trying to get involved in conversations related to your industry.

Your Customers Pay Your Salary

If It weren’t for your customers being so generous, you would probably be on a couch, staring at a wall (you wouldn’t be able to afford a TV) thinking about how you’ll get your next meal. Maybe that was too exaggerated, after all you also provide them services . Your customer’s satisfaction should be your number one priority because they do actually pay your salary.
Statistics have shown that customers who make complaints and inquires online expected to get a response before the end of the day. On twitter they are less patient, they expect to get a response in 2 hours. Giving timely replies to customers who either tweets complaints or make inquiries through direct messages show how much you appreciate them. Showing appreciation to your customers for buying your products or using your services helps you build a loyal customer base.
Know How To Deal With Situations
Customers sometimes can be very hard to deal with when trying to deal with them physically. Social platforms aren’t exceptions, in fact it could be said to be worse since anybody can say anything they want or feel like on the internet. In the light of this you should know how to deal with situations when they arise.
Don’t ever delete or hide negative comments from a customer. The only exception to this is when it is considered a spam of a violation of the rules of the community. Deleting a post or comment would just cause the customer to be more infuriated and further damage the relationship.
Don’t ever be defensive. Sometimes a customer might be at fault for not reading the terms and conditions of your service or product before using it and you might get defensive trying to explain this. Don’t do that, first thank them for bringing the complaint to your attention then in form of an apology explain to them why they are in that situation.
Don’t interact with customers whose primary aim is to argue and publicly try to brand your company badly. Sometimes your best defense might be just silence. At the end of the day, they’ll end up destroying their credibility than yours.
Constantly applying these guidelines will continue to improve your customer services and help you build a loyal and happy customer base.

http://www.centerpage.net/2016/04/25/improving-customer-service-social-media/

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