Social Media, it is everywhere and everyone is using it. From Big Businesses right down to single consumers. It would be hard not to throw a beach ball into a crowd and hit someone that didn’t have at least one social media account. Businesses should be embracing social media as a way to bring in new customers, and help keep their existing ones as well. When a business and its marketing group focuses on building the relationships it has with its customers it can grow its business. One way it can do this is by talking with its customers that already know the product, and this can be done through social media.
Social Media is a marketing effective strategy that is used by many companies and businesses to bring state-of-the-art thinking into their operations. However, social media has the potential to help businesses grow and even retain their customers.
Customer Service is something that all businesses use and it has had to evolve to match technology and communication, this of course includes social media. Many companies use the most popular social media platforms to converse with the public to gain new customers, retain their current ones and raise sales as well. There are always difficulties when a customer attempts to contact a company’s customer service department and reach a representative. Customers like the personal touch and some customer service options are not very personal:
- E-mail. E-mail’s get lost it is also not a personal way to talk to your customers and sometimes responses can take days. (impersonal)
- Contact form submitting. Unless otherwise stated it is not known where the form goes, when or who from it will be replied. (impersonal)
- Calling the company. Just finding a phone number to call a company’s customer service can be tedious. If you already have the number it may be easier. Customer service can have wait times, transfers and more. (both)
- Finding a representative. Most customers want that personal touch, that friendly , and trustworthy response. It can be costly to have a large number of CSRs to be ready to handle your customer calls when they come in.
When you use social media as your customer service gateway, it can fill in many of the deficiencies that are created by the above options. Although relatively new for way to market your business there are many reasons you should start immediately. Remember many people use social media and most of them start in the morning over coffee, why not get them started first thing in the morning thinking about your company, brand, or products through social media?
So what are your reasons to start using social media to help your business? Try these on for size:
Help to encourage your brand and mentions of it
The more you do on your social media platforms the more chances you will have to be able to call attention to your brand. Your customers will talk about you in their posts, which will filter down into their contacts and their friends contacts etc, etc. Even when customers come to you with a concern on social media that is still brand visibility. It gives you a way to show off your problem-solving skills while correcting the problem effectively. More activity and more brand mentions will help your SEO rankings.
Social Media is an immediate way to communicate with your customers
When customers are upset they want answers right away, and don’t want to wait for it. People as a whole are impatient, and we don’t like to wait on hold, wait for e-mails etc. We like things to be done in real time, and quickly. Social Media can give them that immediacy that they crave; as soon as a post is made on one of your social media sites you can respond back quickly. This will help with customers that have tech problems during a meeting, or any number of things that need to be fixed ASAP. You must make sure that your social media team is ready for anything that is thrown their way or it can cause more problems.
Social Media makes your company feel more human to the customer, not just a robotic customer service system responding as you need them. Customers use social media on their phones, tablets, computers, laptops and other handheld devices, so it is easy for them to see what you are saying and responses you are giving to questions and problems posed to you. It is important to think before you respond as Social media is a broad spectrum, something that is on Facebook will most definitely wind up on Google+ as well. This means if a customer gets angry and you respond badly to it the post on Facebook, a copy of that question and response will wind up on many other social media sites. The opposite also can happen your respond well they are happy and it blossoms into a happy post.
Conversations on Social Media are Translucent
Social Media is like a growing tree and needs to be remembered that way. For example if the wind blows and a leaf falls, it lands on the branch below next to another leaf. Imagine that as a post it is blown from site to site. This can be good or bad for a company depending on the nature of the post. Just remember that if a customer is upset they want to anyone and everyone to know it, and social media is the new avenue to use. This translucency helps to show possible customers how well you handle problems. If handled in a timely, effective manner then you will give your customers/followers the confidence in your business and in your product.
Social Media users will also talk about their experience as well, this type of socializing between your customers is advantageous as if it is a good experience it can bring you new customers and possibly retain others. Social Media users post hundreds of posts daily and have hundreds of followers this means the word can get out about anything they wish it too.
It is easy to follow-up with your customers after a question or problem
It is easy to follow-up with your customers after a question or problem as you can respond in a post to find out how things are working for them. If your solution to their problem was not helpful you are able to continuing helping them. No reason to go through a round of e-mails or calling to try and get the problem resolved. It also helps that the public sees a visible follow-up between you and the customer as well. As it shows that you are actually trying to help the customer from your end.
One of the main reasons that you should start using Social Media if you haven’t is that it will help eliminate that dreaded funnel. When your customers try to contact you they want to speak to you the same way they contacted you. They don’t want a message telling them to contact you on Facebook if they called you. By the same token, they don’t want to see a message telling them to call you if they contacted you through Facebook. They feel like they are jumping through the virtual hoop so to speak, and it makes it feel like they are not important to you and it is very impersonal.
Make sure that you Resolve any customers issues quickly and efficiently no matter what media you choose to use.. However, social media marketing is becoming a broad spectrum to use for companies to speak with their customers now, including to help resolve and answer any of the questions they may have. Using social media will give you a more substantial, and personal relationship with your customers, and will help to increase the visibility of your label in the process.
