With over 2 billion Facebook users, +700 million Instagram users, and +300 million Twitter users, it’s no longer enough for brands to be merely present on social media. They need to be active and engaging. Today’s customers want their voices heard and problems resolved quickly and effortlessly whenever they reach out to brands on social media. And if brands are not part of the conversation – they will be left behind. Obviously, it’s no longer a question if your business should listen to customers on social media – it’s a question of how you listen and, what’s even more important, how you respond. By delivering great customer support on social media, you can truly build stronger relationships with customers and improve customer loyalty. In fact, according to Aberdeen, companies that have a well-crafted social customer service approach experience 92% customer retention.
Continue readingTag: social media customer service
How Positive Emotions Keep Customers Coming Back
Think of something you like to do regularly, whether it’s jogging, reading, or eating ice cream. What keeps you coming back? Chances are it feels good, and the emotions you associate with the activity make you want to do it again. In short, positive emotions lead to loyalty. It seems like a simple equation, but how a brand should go about inspiring positive emotions in customers is a complex question. Emerging studies in behavioral science are telling us more and more about the relationship between emotions and decision-making. In the meantime, there are a few simple things any brand can do to spark positive, loyalty-inspiring emotions in customers.
Continue readingYour Customers Don’t Want to Call You for Support Anymore (Infographic)
In spite of all the tech advancements available for businesses today, many still operate under the presumption that their customers prefer the “good old days” of picking up the phone and relying on a human agent for all their customer support needs. While there will always be place for phone in customer service, in reality the majority of customers don’t really want to go back to the “good old days” and call you to get their questions answered. The infographic below provides some impressive stats drawn from various researches proving that self-service, online chat and social media are becoming the preferred customer support channels for a growing number of consumers. It’s no wonder that customers all over the world increasingly leverage these channels for customer service, as they allow them to get quick, accurate and relevant answers with no need to being put on hold or having to deal with unfriendly agents.
Continue readingBrands Ignoring Consumers on Social Media Are in Trouble (Infographic)
Gone are the days when we didn’t need to worry about using social media for customer support. But today, it’s not even a question. According to the Sprout Social report 90% of people surveyed have used social media in some way to communicate directly with a brand. The bad news is that brands reply to just 11% of people leaving the majority of inquiries ignored. It means that most businesses continue to use social media as a promotional marketing tool instead of a two-way customer communication channel. In fact social media has already become the preferred customer service channel for millennials, and it is growing in popularity for older groups too. What’s more, whenever people turn to social for customer support, they want a response much faster than most organizations are either willing or able to provide. The same survey found that the average time it takes brands to respond to a social media message is 10 hours, though most people consider under 4 hours reasonable.
Continue reading5 Reasons Companies Fail To Meet Social Media Expectations
The automotive body repair shop is typically a dusty, smelly, male-dominated facility. Since the beginning of time this industry has been labeled as untrustworthy, legitimizing the status quo of caveat emptor. Only recently have shops been trying to revolutionize the trade by offering clean facilities, wi-fi, coffee and play areas for kids. Some, like Toronto-based Hilary Ann started a crowdfunding campaign and subsequently launched an all-female auto body shop, Ink & Iron Automotive. Her business got every auto body shop in the city curious and talking about the changes it would bring. In other words, a single business can raise the expectation bar and disrupt the entire industry – forcing others to either adapt to new conditions or see demise. Social media is really no different.
Continue reading12 Reasons I Want Customer Service on Social Media
It goes without saying that today’s gigantic Twitter and Facebook user base makes brands more accessible than ever. Customer service via social media can no longer be considered as a luxury but as an essential component of any customer service strategy – for two simple reasons: Everyone’s thumbs are practically connected to their cellphones – it gives little room for companies to consider alternatives. Your brand is already online (whether you like it or not) and ignoring social media can be detrimental to your success as a company. Instead of talking about what businesses should or shouldn’t do, let’s examine what social media does to customers and their expectations. Technology has changed to the point that a customer can learn anything they want about a product (or brand) on their own, before they even speak to a company representative. With all this power comes great responsibility, so here’s my reasons for using social media for customer support (I encourage brands to take notice):
Continue readingHow Social Media Is Affecting Customer Service (Infographic)
Complaining customers are, unfortunately, an inevitable fact of business life. The way you respond to and handle their complaints will determine whether your customers share on social media how terrible your company is or will remain happily loyal to your brand. Today social media channels are used not only for chatting with friends, they have also become a powerful source of sharing experiences and complaining about products or services. However, it would seem that businesses are somewhat lagging behind with their customer service “responsibilities” online. Because of this, customers are becoming confused, frustrated and, perhaps most significantly, impatient. Customers will no longer bear with unresponsive or unsatisfactory customer service online. They will look elsewhere and share their damaging reviews on your dealings with them. This in return will undoubtedly taint your business and ultimately lead to a major loss in profit.
Continue readingSocial Media Customer Service: Why It Can’t Be Ignored [Infographic]
In this age of growing customer service demands social media cannot be used only for marketing purpose. More and more customers post their complaints, questions and share their experience about different companies through social media channels. Those brands which assist their customers in Facebook, Twitter, monitor forums and discussion boards notice positive feedback from customers and new customers coming from social media networks.
Continue readingThe 5 Musts of Social Media Customer Service
If you’re using social media purely as a marketing tool, you’re probably doing it wrong. Social media networks have become a prominent channel for customer service. Yet, there’s still a huge gap between what consumers want from customer service on social media and what many businesses are actually delivering. Here’s the 5 musts of social media customer service to help your business bridge this gap and improve your social customer support performance. 1. Never ignore social media customer service The very first and the most important step is simply realizing that social customer service matters. You might be skeptical of various statistics reflecting the social media role in customer service, but you can’t deny the fact that customer feedback on social media is public and visible to anyone. While consumers are more likely to turn to social media for sharing their negative experiences with companies, your brand’s reputation might be hurt if you let things go hang.
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