With the arrival of social media and networks, companies have seen how customer service has experienced important changes while opening a whole world of opportunities to connect and establish better links and relationships with consumers.
In this new social era where companies intend to be more social than ever, customers expect immediate responses when they seek help to their problems or different types of complaints.
Instead of shying away from social media, smart companies must step up and take advantage of these social channels as an important means of serving consumers in order to improve their reputation and achieve greater loyalty and trust among their customers. customers.
But how can companies establish social media as an effective customer service channel? For this, we highlight several aspects that will help us in this purpose.
Fast but effective attention
When clients and consumers turn to the media to express their criticisms or problems, they expect brands to respond and respond to them as quickly as possible without falling into oblivion.
According to a recent study developed in the United Kingdom, 25% of users of social media, these customers or consumers who use social media and networks to expose their complaints to companies and brands, expect to receive their response in an estimated time of one hour, while a 6% reduces this time to 10 minutes.
The risks of neglecting these types of messages or delaying them excessively over time can generate a problem of distrust and increase the negative perception of the brand itself, such as that of a company that does not know the answer or does not care enough for it. respond quickly.
In this sense, companies must take into account that although most consumers on social networks are not generally in favor of publishing negative comments, this occurs only after a bad experience. Therefore, addressing these types of complaints or complaints to try to solve the problem, can reduce the negative effects while helping to generate greater loyalty and confidence.
Be Transparent and act in a visible way
The possibility of establishing a private communication through social networks such as Facebook or Twitter is very good, but when it comes to offering a customer service, it is best that companies act and be displayed transparently and visibly without the need for reveal any type of confidential information.
The explanation is simple. The answers and solutions that we can offer to a client can help hundreds of other clients at the same time. We must therefore think of each message and interaction as a resource that the rest of users or future clients can access or consult as a help guide or reference, and even serve so that the clients themselves can direct other users to the answers and solutions offered. previously. In addition to this form, customers will be more prepared to direct other users and consumers to the page or reference that can be used to solve many of the most common doubts and problems.
The great advantage of social media and networks is the ability to generate and promote an online community around a brand, making it possible for the clients themselves to be the ones to join actively as part of the conversation and offering support to the Own brand.
Coherence and Constancy. An essential key
If we really want our customer service to be fast, effective, it is extremely important to make sure that all the answers we offer to our clients remain consistent across all established channels.
That is, if a common question or question posed is published through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, the context of each response must contain the same solution for each and every one of them. Contradictory responses can cause confusion and increased dissatisfaction among customers, also increasing their level of distrust.
Customers not only expect a good experience with the products, but also the service designed to attend to their queries, complaints and problems is also. Increasing trust and credibility through the different responses and aids channels, can undoubtedly be the main factor to generate greater brand loyalty among customers.
Organization and professional qualification
If perseverance can help us create ambassadors for our brand, organization in all these processes is also an extremely important aspect to achieve this goal.
While it is true that the integration of companies or brands in social networks remains a challenge, maintaining a successful presence in a single medium or social network can mean investing resources, efforts and above all, an important part of our time. Trying to do it through multiple networks is impossible if our staff is not well qualified and organized.
These aspects are vital and important since the clients themselves can perceive and quickly perceive a bad organization or an undue attention. Regarding the qualification of professionals, we must bear in mind that these will be our greatest representatives of our brand in the media and social networks, and both the reliability of their responses, reactions as well as their way of acting and knowledge of their own business and products or services can be determinant in the negative or positive perception that is generated in the clients themselves.
Some guidelines for action demonstrating knowing how to deal with these aspects correctly in conversations initiated with clients will help us gain greater respect and trust from the brand’s loyal customers.
A humane treatment, the secret of conversation
Customers hate to treat like machines unable to solve their problems. In the same way, the treatment offered by companies must maintain its more human aspect, offering customer support without excessive formalities.
This also implies that when dealing with clients, they do not feel identified as a number or reference within a large database, but that they are treated as real people with their own names. People tend to respond better when they feel like they are talking to other people, so with our customer service we should make customers feel as if they are asking a question on the wall of any other friend within their own social networks .
The creation of this type of relationship with the client should be the priority of any business and company, because with them we will be able to establish stronger relationships and bonds while increasing the level of trust between both parties, as well as brand loyalty.