Social media is now a widely used marketing tool to build brand awareness. Aside from this though, businesses are now also leveraging social media to provide customer service.
Customers nowadays are present in multiple social media channels. This made businesses realize that they can uze these platforms to engage with their target markets and provide what is known as social care.
In fact, one study reveals that 80% of businesses now believe that they are providing excellent customer service on social media, something we often see referred to as customer experience.
However, only 8% of customers agree.
This just goes to show that providing customer service through social media entails a lot more than most companies think it does.
You first need to have a clear customer service strategy in place.
Then train a team that will help roll out the action plan for you.
If you don’t have the time and the manpower to do so, outsource your social media management to third party service providers or call centers, who are experts in the field.
In fact, The Social Media Industry Report of 2012 revealed that the number of respondents who were outsourcing their social media efforts had increased to 28% in 2011 from only 14% in 2010.
Call centers who use social media as a communications platform will benefit from the following:
Real-time response
Customers these days have become more demanding. They expect your customer service team to address their concerns as quickly as possible.
Being present on social media will give your customers more channels to reach you immediately. Similarly, this gives your call center an opportunity to address their concerns in real time.
Brand Engagement
Another separate study from Buffer revealed that customers who experience engagement with brands over social media spend 20% to 40% more with the company.
Customers love feeling involved but this will not be achieved if you simply post about your brand on social media.
It is a two-way street. Your call center can use this as an opportunity to engage customers in conversations to make them feel that they are important to you.
Customer Feedback
Without social media, companies usually need to spend tons of money on surveys or focus groups.
Social media makes it easier, faster and less costly for your call center to gather relevant feedback from customers through their comments and “likes” and through tools that provide social media analysis, which can track brand mentions, measure engagement and other useful information
Customer Loyalty
Yet another survey (courtesy of NM Incite) indicated that 71% of social care users are likely to recommend a brand based on their most recent experience.
This is a big deal considering that customers these days rely heavily on good reviews and feedback from others before trying out a brand.
Therefore, a good call center must be able to make good use of social media not only to develop brand ambassadors who will not only stay loyal to you but will also invite new leads.
Summary
Given the right strategy, the right tools and the right team, social care provides businesses with a lot of value-added benefits. The key then is on finding the right partner for you.
Feature image credit: Flickr user dionh, License: CC BY (commercial reuse with modification)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
Alleli Aspili
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