The ways in which businesses and companies attend to their customers are no longer limited to customers visiting offices or customer service centres, as well as making phone calls, in order for their complaints to be resolved.

From experience, it can be frustrating to call a customer service centre in Nigeria, with a pressing issue, only to be put on hold for minutes and sometimes beyond an hour.

With the evolution of the internet, alongside, social media, businesses and companies, alike, have embraced the use of social media to attend to customers’ complaints, as well as follow up on the experiences of their customers. They also use social media as a means to deliver deals and predefined tips to ensure their customers are happy and remain loyal.

Though, to a large extent, social media helps businesses and companies easily interact with their customers but it can go out of control when a company’s customer base grows with limited staff to respond to them.

A survey was done which showed that on average, 40 percent of customers complaining on social media expect a response within an hour, and 32 percent expect a response within 30 minutes.

Hence, what can done to increase social media customer service delivery?

There tools and procedures that can help answer the questions, which we are going to discuss.

• Notifications:
For a business or company with social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus etc., it is inevitable for such businesses not to interact with their customers. In this case the notification settings should not be neglected. By default, a few of these social media platforms have their notification settings done for users and businesses to easily get alerted when a message is sent by a customer. It is critical for these notifications to be reviewed and directed to the appropriate response personnel or team.

• Website:
To attain satisfactory online presence, a business or company needs to have, as we will call it, an office on the net (Internet). This is because social media presence is effectively achieved when each social media platform which the company uses is linked to a central hub (website), where more information about the company can be seen and received. Also a website enables a business or company to implement other customer services features which will be mentioned below.

Many companies today neglect this aspect

• Pre-defined guide/knowledge base:
Here businesses and companies put things in place, in anticipation of customers need assistance with the use of their products or services. For instance, a guide on “How To Use…” or a video/animation on the procedure on the use of their products or services. All tailored suit the different categories of customers.

• FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions):
Here, questions which customers ask, on a regular basis, are compiled and answered. These questions and answers are then uploaded on the company website, which customers can be directed to, if they need answers to particular questions. This will relieve customer service personnel of always answering similar questions frequently and attend to other customers with different questions or complaints.

• Live Chat:
A live chat is an online feature, usually attached to a website, which enables customer service personnel chat instantly with customers. There are many live chat softwares with variety of functions that help you increase customer service and support such as:
• Customers can send message if operator is offline
• Customers can be emailed chat history in case the operator added instructions
• Operator can add pre and post-chat messages to help and direct customer relevant webpage
• Some come with analytics to show operator which page the customer is viewing so the operator can initiate a chat. They also show operator how the customer came across your website and possibly the location of the customer etc.

• Blogging:
Blogging is a unique opportunity for businesses or companies to write on products and services and will help customers understand better on what they offer, get update on new information about the business or company and get opportunities to share their views on topics published.

• Emailing and CRM:
Alongside blogging, Emailing and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platforms make great impact by enabling businesses and companies follow-up and initiate conversations with their customers, analyse and anticipate customers’ behaviours as well as sending information to customers.