Building relations with customers via social media and the way these channels are managed is an essential element of the brand’s success. Social Media can positively influence sales and to a large extent brand loyalty and connection.
And although social media was initially used primarily for personal use and to maintain personal interactions, with their development and growing popularity they’ve become a valuable tool to build a community around brands.
Here we’re going to discuss the importance of Social Media in driving customer service. We’ll give you a quick take away answer here, then dive into more details…
What is the role of social media in customer service? The use of social media plays a significant role in customer service. The mutual benefits of easy brand accessibility via Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and others allow easy customer contact and engaging social interaction, providing brand building and widescale contact through multiple channels.
From an entrepreneur’s perspective, it saves a lot of time and money. In addition, the use of social networking sites allows you to reach a much wider group of customers than using traditional methods.
This form of contact is extremely convenient for customers as it taps into their social network and social time, it allows for quick contact with the customer service department, without the need to make endless inconvenient phone calls.
It’s worth it for a business to use numerous social media channels at the same time to provide customers with the freedom to choose their preferred form of contact.
Thanks to the ability to speak directly with brands via social media channels, it means many customers feel “closer” to the brand and therefore can emotionally connect and invest in it.
Plus, they’re more likely to use this form of contact that’s molded around their daily lifestyles, which also ensures greater and flexible accessibility. Using such a solution will not only increase the effectiveness of activities in this area but will also have a positive impact on the company’s image for convenience and social interaction.
Social media and the culture of customer service
Implementing a social media strategy in your customer service model will give you a chance to communicate with consumers at a level that ensures they feel part of your story, and encourages them to recommend your brand to others.
One of the main changes that must be made in order to implement an effective customer service strategy is a change in your “corporate” way of thinking. Customer service should not be limited to immediate patching of holes and solving new problems – but should consist of reaching out, anticipating the needs of customers before they’re even aware they have a need.
Below are a few elements that will help you integrate your company with the social media customer service standard.
Activate internal communication channels – The more complex the structure of your company, the harder it is for employees to understand how their roles and tasks affect the whole company and the customer. Increasing openness in communication between people employed in your company will help them better appreciate their place in the organization and better understand the problems they’re supposed to solve. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to keep employees constantly informed about what also applies to other activities than those that fall within the scope of their duties. This can be done in the form of meetings and/or short and concise internal newsletters.
Build employee value and trust – Conducting business and customer-oriented communication requires the company to trust its employees. If you believe that an employee is able to represent the brand and to provide a consumer-oriented, competent service. Then as management, you should show this trust by enabling employees to speak on behalf of the company and introduce some freedom in building relationships with customers.
Share feedback – One of the key methods to understand customer needs and where they’re coming from is to share consumer feedback with relevant departments in your company. It’s best practice to create complementary statements, complaints or brand suggestions and share them with the people working in the company. What’s more, it’s also worth providing a gateway for employees and departments who might have an idea for solving a given problem. In this way, all employees have a chance to get to know the customer and their needs better.
Customers In Social Media – How To Get Them?
Brand awareness – if someone doesn’t know about your business, it’s hard to buy any of your products or invest in your services. Building awareness among potential customers that your brand even exists is the first task facing anyone who wants to reach them online. But also the first step in establishing long-term relationships. Enhancing the image – of course, building brand awareness is a long-term process and is geared towards more and more new customers. At the same time, however, you should take care of those who know your brand a little better – first of all, not letting them forget about you. Secondly, when providing useful content – it’s worth investing in webinars, training or e-books – generally speaking, generate high-quality, valuable content that customers want.
Commitment – once the customer knows your brand, you can say that we’re halfway there. However, there is still a long way to go to complete the full cycle of his journey. In the vast majority of business models, the customer’s adventure with the brand starts with a free trial period, a product sample, a discount code…. even if the purchase is made at full price, you might still treat it as the first episode of a longer (preferably infinite!) adventure with the goods you supply.
“Generate high-quality, valuable content that customers want”
How To Increase Sales Through Social Media?
If you want to increase sales in the long term through social media activities, you need to also be prepared to use this channel for customer service too.
Many e-commerce companies are already using both Facebook and Instagram to not only sell effectively but also to give potential customers detailed information.
Social media is useful within the whole sales process. Unfortunately, their role often ends with building awareness and traffic on the site, but they can provide extensive capabilities beyond awareness, that can help you strengthen every step of the way that a customer goes toward making a purchase.
In short, you can use social media to intently move leads to the final phase, which is the purchase.
Social media as a sales tool
Build loyalty and trust through conversation – by responding quickly enough, you will show that customers can count on your support and professional service. Moreover, your answer can be used not only by the inquirer but also by other people interested in a given topic. Therefore, in order to increase sales, social networking platforms require you to engage in discussions – and you should.
Use Messenger – For your customers, contacting your brand through private messages in social media is already a standard. For many, this is the most convenient way, because they do not have to leave Facebook and contact the brand when it is convenient for them.
Facebook Messenger has the added advantage of being a private channel, so if you encourage them to use this method …and get your customers used to ask questions in this medium, then a lot of potentially “uncomfortable” discussions will remain private.
Manage reviews – Another spec that builds the credibility of your brand in the eyes of users, are reviews and recommendations. As you know, customer reviews have a big influence on the purchase decisions of other potential customers.
If you already have satisfied customers, encourage them to leave a short review. It doesn’t have to be a complex or official review – people like to give opinions and share their experiences.
Customer service via Facebook
Currently, much of the communication on the Internet takes place via social networking sites. One of the most popular platforms is Facebook Messenger.
This solution enables faster response to customer inquiries, which plays a key role in building a positive image of the company.
Facebook enables contact with the customer not only via messages but also via the company’s own fanpage. Here, customers can publish opinions about the company. It’s also an ideal forum for business advertising. By publishing the content on the company’s fan page you will likely get a larger customer base and a chance to improve the image of the company.
Instagram, an efficient customer service tool
Another noteworthy solution is to use the Instagram platform. This portal allows not only the publication of marketing content but also direct contact with customers through messages and comments.
In addition, the content published on Instagram is enriched with interesting photos, striking images attract the attention of new customers and can positively influence the image of the company.
Customer service on Twitter
More and more brands use Twitter for their customer service activities. Remember to answer all the questions and provide a quick response. By using the right keywords in the content published on this platform, you’ll be able to broaden your reach to potential customers.
How to reach your customers on YouTube?
YouTube is also a great tool that will help you promote your business. It’ worth exploiting this method in order to reach an already wide and growing audience. Additionally, you can use the platform to publish manuals and other content to help you solve problems reported by your customers.
Customers will be able to submit inquiries in a convenient way, and an attractive profile on individual portals will certainly improve the image of your company and encourage new customers to use its services.
