How top Brands use Social Media Customer Service and Support?

In this digital world it’s hard to imagine any brand or business without a social media customer service and support. Although many brands manage to come in this field, they fail to make it work like other top brands do. As McDonald’s once said, “Our head of social media is the customer.” This key element is lacking in many businesses today. They fail to give the customer the position and importance they deserve which is why they behind other brands who listens to their customers.

According to SmartInsights, Over a quarter (28%) of consumers have used social media to communicate with a company in the last year. So, it’s obvious that as a brand you should be on social media customer service and be good at it.

Here’s how the top brands use their social media customer service and support for you to watch and learn!

1. Make their positive interaction public and complaints are mostly solved privately.

Top brands are very smart with their customer care. Customer care is about everyone who witness your interaction on social media, it’s about reputation and these brands know it well. Which is why most brands respond to direct questions on social media especially queries about their products to get free advertising. In fact, Brandwatch suggests that 76% of consumers are likely to recommend the brand following friendly service. So, most popular brands are actively interaction in social media especially positive interactions. But when it comes to solving complaints, most brands apologize publicly but try to resolve the problem in private to ensure that there is no negative advertising from it. Even Review trackers survey says that, 51.7% of consumers expect businesses to respond to their negative review within seven days.

2. Setting customer’s expectation, meeting and exceeding it.

Brandwatch suggests that, handling customer service requests via social media channels is up to 12 times cheaper than handling the same requests by phone. So, social media customer service and care is comparatively easier for many brands today but they still manage to disappoint their customers. As a business and brand, you need to set expectation for your consumers and meet them at every step. In fact, a study in twitter suggests that, behind price and brand reputation, cultural relevance drives 23% of a consumer’s purchase decision. That is why top brands try to meet their customers expectation and create a culture of trust between their customers.

3. Manage their messages.

Popular brands often juggle between different social media to provide best customer service. This process can often be lethargic which is why they use trackers to manage their messages across all social media. In fact, Datareportal shows that, The average social media user visits six different social networks per month. So, if you’re dealing with a volume of messages split across multiple networks, a single view that aggregates messages in one place means less app switching and more focus on responses. Many top brands manage incoming messages and track them all so they can respond in a timely manner, you should do the same.

4. Internal tracking system/s

Social media customer service is a loop that includes continuous improvement across product and services and this include keeping a track of whatever is being done. In fact, according to Ledgeview partners, “Globally, 55% of consumers have higher expectations for customer service than one year ago.” Which is why most top brands preferring constant growth in customer care. As a brand it’s important that you have a way to monitor common issues that can be addressed at a company level, such as correcting an ongoing issue in your shipping process or identifying a recurring product defect. Many brands generate reports to make sure their plan is succeeding; these can be in form of a spreadsheet or a software whatever is easier for you and your brand. Even Microsoft has noted that, “Customers continue to believe customer service is getting better at 63%.”

5. Easy to find and a unique customer service voice.

Top brands try to be unique in every way possible including having a common voice over all their platforms. But first of all, it’s important that your customers can find you easily. Most top brands add customer service information in the contact bar, even on-site, they add and publicize the different channels a customer can use to contact them. Therefore, you should add your contact and website in every social media platform so that our consumers can reach you. In fact, according to datareportal, 42% of people that have social media use it to research products. Having multiple people manage social media means that there’s more chance of your voice getting diluted, so, create a voice strategy so everyone on your team knows how to represent the brand on social media. Social media support needs to feel like it’s coming from a human.

As a business and brand owner, you need to decide why it’s important for your brand to have the plan and what benefits and consequences might result from it. As Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb said, “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.”

Top brands use their social media service and support that they see fit for their brands and it works well for them as they make sure they listen to their customers at the end of the day. The key to any successful brand is satisfied customers, so, you should make your customers happy and your brand will flourish.