Find and Interact with Customers

One challenge brands face in customer service and marketing is, knowing where to find their customers. When you know where your customers usually hang out, you will have a better understanding of where to direct a considerable portion of your resources and time.

Currently, Facebook and Twitter are the platforms with the highest number of users. They are also the primary target of social care, although platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and a host of others are beginning to gain massive popularity in this regard. The number of users on these platforms is also increasing, steadily.

As a brand, your marketing effort can help you drive traffic to your targeted social sites. But locating consumers on a platform that they are already socializing in and familiar with can make a massive difference in your campaign. Conduct search on popular social media sites to know if your brand has been mentioned in the past. You may find something about your brand and take advantage of the opportunity to establish and boost your online presence. Also, leaving dialogue about your product or services to online users isn’t a good idea. You might not have a better chance to correct any wrong impression about your brand than when the discussion is heating up during that period.

Consumers are highly influential and powerful regarding the brand image, especially on social media platforms. When customers or social media users say something about your brand online, it echoes throughout the various platforms and can even appear on search engines. The point here is that neglecting conversations or dialogues about your brand on social media can affect brand image, especially if they are negative comments. Reports from Conversocial indicate that 88% of consumers are unlikely going to patronize a brand that left questions unanswered on any of the social media platforms. So, the best approach is to remain active on social media, search for and respond to questions left by satisfied or unsatisfied customers.

Never ignore comments left by customers on social media. Identify comments or questions that need private replies. Get into the customer’s inbox, and provide the perfect answer that will clear all doubts. Once satisfied, you can ask the customer to revisit where he or she left the previous complaint, and say something sweet about your services or products. A little review of such can go a long way regarding your brand’s image.

Opportunity to Listen to Customer Complaints

Being on the lookout to know when your brand name is mentioned on any of the social networks is essential. Many marketers and businesses are already making use of several social media monitoring software to ensure they don’t miss out on crucial conversations about them online.

Reports from the prominent Institute of Customer Service reveals that 1 out of 3 customers prefers to communicate with a company via social media before making a purchase. In most cases, customers also seek advice on social media before patronizing a brand for the first. They believe reviews from other social media users like them, are not biased.

The thing is no matter how full-proof a marketing strategy may seem, social media still has a significant role to play in the success of that plan. So, it is vital for brands not only to collect but analyze the social media activities of customers to have a better understanding of issues a lot of customers on social media are talking about regarding their products or services. Based on company size, you can collect these reports on a weekly or monthly basis. Of course, bigger companies don’t have to do this frequently.

Promotes Engagement and Feedback

Social media connects brands and customers. Unlike email communication, it gives brands the opportunity to interact with customers and acquire useful feedback on time. Interaction via social media is also quick and easy for companies and customers. The reason is that people check their social media accounts more often than their emails.

Social media also creates opportunities for brands to address angry customers before the issue escalates. And when you communicate with them privately via social media, you get the chance to identify their primary problem faster and proffer the right solution that will sweeten their minds. And unlike phone calls, using social media to communicate with customers is cost-effective for the brand and customers, just like working or writing from home. You don’t get to spend money on gas to move from home to the office every day.

Brand Image Can Be Affected

Social media gives room for everyone to voice out their minds. It is not like your blog where you can disable comments section or moderate comments. Whatever customers write on their social media pages or yours about your brand whether positive or negative will remain there permanently. And the worst part is if the comments are negative, many leads that eventual stumble upon them might no longer pick up interest in doing business with you.

While many unhappy customers will willingly contact you through other channels or via social media privately, others might leave their negative comments on your page. It might also take a while for you to discover and react to those comments. And by the time you reply the customer, the damage might have already been done.

Inability to Respond to Complaints Can Send the Wrong Signal

Adopting the right strategy will make social media useful for customer service. Depending on company size, it might be difficult to respond to customers quickly in the manner in which customers would prefer. Also, the inability to reply to your customers on time can send a wrong signal that you are ignoring them. They sometimes feel you should be more active like them on social media. And an unhappy customer may consider not doing business with you any longer. It happens in every sector.