Small businesses are using social media more and more to improve their presence online. For very little monetary investment, customer service social media is a vital part of keeping consumers satisfied and positive about your small businesses’ services. So, here are the most essential customer service social media tips for small business owners:
1. Start simple: Answer customer service complaints ASAP on social media
This is where your customers live, so it will show them that you, as a company, are paying extra attention to detail and care about their happiness and satisfaction. It will humanize your brand and keep your followers loyal as well. Remember to own up to your mistakes immediately and ask for more information about the incident, so it sounds like a) you care, and b) you're going to take action to fix it. Customers appreciate when their feedback or complaint has an effect.
2. Social media is an important starting point, but not an ending point
When you respond to a concern via Facebook or Twitter, sometimes the customer or consumer may feel like they aren’t being fully helped. Always make an effort to reach out to the customer/consumer through email or phone if they prefer that way of communication after making the connection. Also, "close the loop" by offering them some sort of discount, so they're incentivized to come back to your business for another visit. This will bring the whole interaction full circle and be very rewarding to the customer.
3. Encourage customers to give feedback on your social media channels
We know what you're thinking - that this could do more harm than good if they have a bad experience at your restaurant, bar or store. However, we've seen that it ultimately does more good than harm. This kind of interaction with your company instantly builds loyalty and generates many positive Yelp reviews, tweets & more that outweigh the negatives. Give people incentives to do so by offering a reward in return. A little goes a long way.
4. Consider separating your primary social media channels from your customer service ones
This tip is more relevant to businesses with multiple locations, an overwhelming number of customers, or much greater customer service needs. Take a look at the DISQUS Help Twitter handle as an example - obviously this is a technology company, but small businesses can easily apply the same technique. With a dedicated channel to customer service social media can be far less overwhelming and give your primary brand account a squeaky clean image online.
5. Train your staff how to engage in customer service through social media
If your small business is just starting out, you might be able to handle customer service social media on your own. However, it might be time to offload that work to a freelancer, marketing team member or your junior staffers, so they can rotate the responsibility of responding to customers with a app like Hootsuite. There are different analytical and communication skills that come into play online, that are quite different than on the phone or in person, so it helps to have social media savvy people operating those channels.
Follow these additional customer service social media tips to make sure that your small business maintains a strong and loyal consumer base!
Once you’ve read through our customer service social media tips, take a hard look at your business music service and check out Rockbot to improve the sound of your business, save costs, engage more customers!
