Providing good customer service is the key to keeping your existing customers happy and gaining new ones. In recent years, an increasing number of businesses are using social media to boost their customer service.
According to a report released by Gleanster, about 73 percent of companies that took part in a survey said that customer service is the main reason why they invest in social media monitoring.
Here is a look at the importance of social media in achieving and maintaining good customer service….
Why Use Social Media for Customer Service?
Build Personal Relationships with Customers
Social media enables you to interact on a more personal level with your customers, making them feel like they are communicating with a real person, not just an organization or object.
By interacting with your customers more regularly, you can show them that you are concerned about them and want to know their opinions about your company and products. This can help you win their trust.
Respond to Inquiries More Quickly
If you take too long to provide information or assistance for your customers, you may displease and frustrate them, and cause them to stop buying from you.
Social media makes it possible for you to respond to inquiries, requests for assistance and complaints more efficiently. You can achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction by implementing a 24/7 customer assistance service.
Get Feedback
By encouraging your customers to provide feedback via social media, you will have a better understanding of the appeal and effectiveness of your products and services.
You can use your customers’ feedback to make improvements to your current products and services or create new ones to meet their needs more fully.
Monitor Customer Satisfaction
The information you gather on social media can help you determine whether or not your customers are pleased with your products and services.
By reading your customers’ requests, comments and complaints, you will be able to develop a more effective business plan, marketing strategy and customer service program.
How to Use Social Media to Enhance Customer Service?
Social media is a great platform for carrying out a wide range of customer service activities.
To keep your customers interested in your company, you need to provide new materials for them to read or view constantly. These materials can come in the form of blog posts, articles, news, photos or videos, and they should contain interesting and useful information.
Also, you have to make a point to respond to your customers’ requests and inquiries as quickly as possible. If you are planning to develop a new product, you can use social media to get ideas from your customers.
Getting your customers involved in product development does not only help you create better products; it can also make them feel more important.
As much as a positive customer service experience on social media can benefit your company greatly, a negative one can ruin your online reputation and result in loss of customers.
As such, you have to make sure that you plan your customer service strategy properly before you implement it on social media.
About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from social media marketing to online reputation management.
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