5 Things The Most Customer Service Savvy Companies Know About Social Media
Managing social media is like coaching a football team. The Offense makes plays. They create communities, pages, and campaigns that excite fans and increase the fan-base. The Defense keeps bad things from happening. They monitor online posts and respond when they can solve problems, spread helpful information, and correct mistakes.
Defense isn't sexy, but without a consistent, diligent Defense the whole team is vulnerable.
Here are five ways the most customer service savvy companies are not just improving their Defense, but turning Defense into point-scoring Offense.
(1) Customer service savvy companies acknowledge community input:
Big brands get more online mentions than a company can – or should – respond to. Decision trees are developed to identify which postings deserve a response, what responses should be made, and what problems should be escalated. The Defense assuages complainers and douses flamers before bad experiences go viral. No new news here.
While nipping problems in the bud is crucial, social media, at its best, is comprised of community members who interact. They advise each other. They solve problems. The savviest companies acknowledge that contribution and put community-provided solutions into their knowledgebase. They state their thanks publicly, frequently, and tangibly (with freebies, coupons or something more exciting) when possible.
(2) They have strategies to identify the biggest social media threats:
We've all heard that a happy customer tells two people and an unhappy customer tells ten. We've heard the modernized version where angry online customer tells thousands.
The reality, however, is that an angry post in a major forum or popular blog is more dangerous than a snippy twit with 11 followers. While many companies embrace the mantra that every unhappy customer is important, some posts are simply more volatile than others. That's why the most customer service savvy companies put technology and people resources into identifying influencers.
(3) They value traditional customer service systems:
A good customer service phone call is the result of extensive training and an ever-improving knowledgebase. Calls are evaluated and scored -- often. Good agents are rewarded. Less-than-stellar agents get training. As every customer service professional knows, there's more to a call than meets the ear.
Perhaps because social media posts are spontaneous and/or short, the people who monitor social media don't generally receive the preparatory training that call center agents do.
The savviest companies, on the other hand, treat social media as another channel of customer service. Their "agents" are trained to deliver messages that are consistent with the brand and have easy access to details about products and promotions.
(4) Customer service savvy companies recognize that we live in an instant gratification world:
Social media is 24/7/ 365, but the realities of staffing may dictate that social media responses are made during business hours.
When a near-instant response isn't an option, the most customer service savvy companies have trained their Defense to acknowledge the company's delayed reply– and apologize if too much time has passed. A courteous, "Just saw your post from last night and wanted to get right back to you," can go a long way towards remediating a customer's sense of having posted into nothingness.
(5) They know there's a "voice" in each social media post
Call center agents have many clues about a caller – from tone of voice to data on their previous inquiries. Social media agents may have as little as 140 characters or an anonymous screen name like BadAssJeff. Not to mention that some millennials have an online vocabulary that isn't second nature to people who are, uh, a bit older.
Just as the best call center agents are taught to project a helpful tone of voice, the most customer service savvy companies also monitor the language, abbreviations, and "style" of their Defense. They develop the best practices for tweets that are often different from the best practices of forum posts, blog comments, or fan page postings.
Questions and Answers
Selecting a Social Media Monitoring Service explains why it's important to listen to consumer discussion (word-of-mouth) on the Internet, provides approaches to use of free search engines to monitor social media, and offers guidance on selection of a commercial media monitoring service.
Social media can be used as one of the most powerful marketing tools for your business. These days more people are visiting social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and Google Plus.
If you want to reach your potential customers and expand your business across the globe, social media marketing (SMM) is the means to do it. However, it becomes necessary to take a note here that though social media marketing is effective in promoting your business across the globe, the role of social media marketing agency is important in making this happen.
The article discusses about the far reaching benefits of social media marketing service and how it benefits the small scale business houses.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a process of promoting website on search engines like Google, yahoo, MSN and others in various forms like paid placement, contextual advertising, organic search marketing and paid inclusion.
Great marketing skill and strategies are the secrets to flourishing business as it bridge the gap between business deal and customer. Through marketing strategies a company can determine the demands and choice of targeted audience, what kind of products are in need of target market and what should they serve o fulfill their requirements.
Internet is the platform of online flash games, where you can choose your own choice game for entertainment and bid. Here you can play a variety of games that available on different websites.
Looking for a way to make some more profits from your business? You already have a huge advantage – your existing customers – to help you find out what people want.
Looking for a way to make some more profits from your business? Never forget who your best customers are, and you might be surprised how quickly they can impact on your profits.
Electricity turned out to be a basic necessity for everybody and almost all gadgets and equipments that you use today are powered by this energy. However, it is generally risky if not properly used. Apparently, all specialists who are working with electrical energy stick to safety measures in order to avoid any harmful accidents. In cities like Anaheim, home owners turn to professionals such as Anaheim electricians to deal with electrical problems.
In today's era of globalization and modernization with too much focus on building strong and effective client relationship, the role of business phone answering services can not be ruled out. In this article we will discuss how a business can achieve success through business phone answering services.
Raccoons are one of many wildlife pests that wreak havoc on personal property. Not only do they cause damage, they also carry diseases and create messes. If you are experiencing raccoon troubles, then a call to a pest control service that handles raccoon removal might be in order.
If you find yourself victim of an auto accident and the stress of financial issues are too hard to bear, consider car accident lawsuit funding to ease the burden of your finances.
If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of a slip and fall accident, then it may be beneficial to apply for slip and fall lawsuit funding. These personal injury cases can be quite expensive even if you are the victim, and applying for lawsuit funding may ease the pain of your finances.
When you have a pending lawsuit, cash advances in the form of lawsuit funding helps pay the bills and get you back on your feet.
Use this guide to determine if you are eligible for lawsuit settlement funding and learn how to apply.
Discuss this Article
