In February 2012, Cafe Hon, Baltimore became a hot topic amongst the people on social media after getting featured on an episode of a “Kitchen Nightmares US.”, where Chef Gordon Ramsay tries to save sinking restaurant business’. The owner of the cafe, Denise Whiting had a falling out with the customers and the locals because of which she was heavily losing her business and the public relations battle. There is a reason one must listen to the opinions and the customer with respect which was not the case of the owner of Cafe Hon.As social media is a powerful platform in today’s time, the reviews of the people can either make or break your business. It is essential to handle customers with respect and not go “ Denise Whiting” on the customers. This will only declare war against the people and as you know it, it is a war you’re never going to win. You need to learn how to handle both positive and negative feedback of the people. Whether you’re a big company or a startup, you must know how to engage with your customers.
In this post, you are going to learn why social media customer service is so important and what it will do to take build your business.
1) Connect With The People
With 2 billion people on Facebook, over 700 million on Instagram, with more than 328 million on Twitter, it is not necessary that every customer will be on all the social media platforms, although a large amount of people will be on them, customer care holds a lot of potential. Even though most of the companies use these platforms, they lack the knowledge of using it correctly. If a brand responds after 10 hours, the customer will lose interest or any hope with the brand. About 4 hours in understandable but anything over that is poor communication. Why you need to connect with the people in a proper way? Well, an effective social media customer service will connect your customers, which will be a proof that the opinions are heard. In a timely and compassionate way, you must be able to respond to inquiries, feedback, positive and negative reviews. This will give you build your brands reputation as a brand that cares for their customers and this will increase the flow of positive and productive connections.
2) Gaining More Fans –
A customer gets a good feeling when they know that their voice is being heard. You can turn customers into vocal brand advocates by simply listening to them and by giving social media customer service first preference. Customer satisfaction should your priority. More people are willing to give a positive feedback about a brand if there is a good connection with people on social media while people among them will even go and make a purchase. As you know, these things talk on social media, people who have good experience with the people on social media are going to suggest the product or the brand to the other people. Social Media has revolutionized immensely regarding advertising. So positive comments and recommendations gives out a lot. If the customer is really happy with the brand, the number of people they’re going to reach will be hundreds and not just four or five. Thus, a good social media strategy can increase the contacts and build more trust than the advertisements.
3) Customer Loyalty –
The “Like” button on Facebook has been hit more than 1.15 trillion times with the count rising day by day. Other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr also have a similar feature, making the like button on Facebook not unique. Whether it is thumbs or a heart, the recipient feels really good every time it is pressed which makes them to ask for more. You do feel a certain rush in you every time someone likes something you posted on Facebook or Instagram. So why do people keep liking posts on social media? What do they expect in return? Its simple, a good relation. A closeness is built when we like others posts. We feel the need to return the support that we receive from the people, in however small way it may be. The same goes for relations with the company and the customers. You should reach out the people in a positive way if they try to reach out to the company. You’ll gain more loyalty if the customer feels closer to you. The more the customers engage with your company on the social media, the more loyal they’re going to be.
4) Minimizing Churn Rate –
It is a big deal that social media customer service can minimize the churn rate. It is quite simple to get back the same customers rather than attracting new ones. Companies or brands that know how to approach a customer on social media are mostly like to retain the customers. You can solve the issues the customers face with your product or service there and then. This is possible only if you have an active social media presence and strong support system. Sometimes, these issues don’t even come via other channels. A customer judges the brand based on the price and quality. Customer would want to leave the competition to you if your armed with a top-notch social media customer service strategy.
So these were a few points on why social media customer service is important for your company. Be careful about these points if you really want to build a strong relation with your customers and grow your business. If you liked what you read, don’t forget to share it with the world. Thanks for reading.