How to Improve Customer Service Over Social Media

January 21, 2023

You don't need to just have an online presence on various social networks in this digital age.

What will really make your brand stand out and keep customers coming in is how you communicate with them—your brand's customer service.

That's why, despite having many social media pages, some businesses barely thrive—unlike some firms with just one social output page that are faring waaaay better.

It's not a scam; deceit has no part in this because everything is simply based on customer service differences.
 

Customer service and social media; what’s the catch?

Customer service is an essential component of a successful business. It should start from when you offer your services until after your product or service has been sold.

No doubt, customer service plays a prominent role in generating funds for businesses offline and online. A good customer experience approach can be the difference between success and not having enough money to keep your doors open.

Now, social media is an interactive technology allowing different contents to be shared among loads of diverse users. These platforms work for various purposes and have become essential for social interaction, decision-making, marketing, and experimental work.

Constantly building and increasing awareness of your brand arguably has the most potential to produce lucrative results. Marketing over social media, for example, is an effective way to get your brand out there and help increase patronage among consumers.

So, if you want to boost sales or get the word out about what you're up to, one of the best ways is to have a business account on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

Now, customer service is vital because it includes reaching out to customers before they purchase, during the purchase process, and after they have made their purchase. It’s critical for businesses to nurture an excellent business-customer relationship to show clients their products are worth paying for.

Well, it’s impossible to go about advertising your business without a strong online presence. You’ll find strength in offering a robust customer experience through your social pages.
 

How to improve customer experience via social media

Most brands still struggle to provide high-quality customer service, even though they may know its importance. There could be many reasons behind this; perhaps, their focus is on the wrong areas.

If you're currently in this situation, fret not. The following information should be of some help:

1. Target the largest social media network, Facebook

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with over 2.23 billion monthly users. It allows individuals and businesses to create groups for business or other purposes.

To create an online presence and carry out activities for your business, you should create a FB page so the users can reach and interact with you.

If you want to improve customer service, it’s wise to target the most popular networks and use them as extensions of your website.

Open a Facebook account, create a page or join groups for the advertisement, and then engage your prospects and customers for opinions and insights regarding your branding, business operations, customer service, products, and everything in between.

However, the social media landscape is changing fast, so you need to stay on top of trending issues. You wouldn't want your brand left behind in an era where social media presence matters.
 

2. Build an online community

Now that you’ve created an account on the largest and most relevant networks (hopefully not just Facebook or Instagram), it’s essential to start building an audience whose focal point is your business and its customers. This increased visibility should help boost your brand reputation and increase the size of your audience.

You can incentivize your online community by providing educational and/or entertaining content that encourages more people to come. Members of your group or page can start discussions centered on your business, share ideas, rub minds, or ask questions about your products and services.

Establishing a code of conduct and rules that the members can uphold and having someone qualified to enforce those rules will lead to an effective and cohesive group. Selecting guidelines and appointing a moderator or coordinator can keep the community running effectively and smoothly.
 

3. Maintain a 100% responsive rate

Getting back to messages as soon as possible will show customers you care about them and their questions - respond in the morning, at night, after work, during the day, and every period in between.

It's hard to keep track of your social media account when there’s so much going on in your life, but you must do well not to let people go without a response. Try to do it as quickly, politely, and helpful as possible.

The ability to keep up with a perfect response rate by addressing their issues and answering their questions swiftly will further improve your interactions with them.

Understandably, you can’t be available at their beck and call immediately—at least not every time. You have other responsibilities and necessities in your life, so it might take a little while for you to respond to them.

That’s where messenger chatbots come to the rescue. Chatbots can save your business a lot of time while providing instant customer service. They cost little to implement and can do everything from answering simple inquiries to completing relatively complex tasks.

To make one, you just designate what responses the chatbot should give to frequently asked questions. Then it will answer with no input from you online or offline. Customers won’t complain about a lack of responsiveness since the chatbot will answer their questions instead.
 

4. Respond to reviews positively

When answering customers' questions, you should take care to remain as polite as possible, no matter how unreasonable they might seem. Even if you're feeling angry or exasperated with them, this must never show in your responses.

It's important to stay calm in your responses to negative comments because losing your cool will make you look bad and scare off new customers. It may also prompt the person to say more hurtful things, disrupting the peace of your branded community.

Acting on reviews can be difficult, especially if it's a critical one. The remedy is to carefully assess the review while seeing it as an opportunity to improve your service.

If you respond to customer concerns without getting reactive, you may figure out their questions and clarify any misunderstandings. They may even decide to remove the negative comment and leave a positive one. They may also become your biggest fan, so they'll advertise your products to their friends & family.

There are multiple reasons responding to reviews is essential. One of the most significant is that it carries weight on your online reputation, including your social media and search engine rankings. This makes it worth swallowing up any anger you're feeling and responding pleasantly.
 

Take it above and beyond

In this article, we’ve highlighted four significant ways to improve customer service by using social media.

We've been able to demonstrate how active listening, timely responses, monitoring trending topics for negative sentiment, and identifying conversations about your industry can all result in a successful customer service campaign.

Take all these and put them to good use, with the single aim of creating the best customer experience for your target markets.

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