Social media management focused on customer service

Written by Fani Sánchez

Today, the more traditional customer service channels, such as the telephone, are still used when seeking support to resolve problems or doubts. People don’t want to give up hearing a human voice (even if it’s at the end of a long tunnel full of machines and ice-cold voiceovers) on the other end of the line. And that’s fine, it’s something that doesn’t have to be lost. But we should not overlook the use that the new and not so new generations are making of social networks. Brand pages on Facebook, Twitter profiles or even applications such as Skype or Twitter have begun to have a different use than the one for which they were originally created and are emerging as another channel for customer service.

The IV Study of Brand Activity in Social Media, published in April 2016, states that social networks are already the customer service channel par excellence and not just a communication channel. Another piece of information provided by the study is that 75% of users who follow a brand on social networks generate some response to them.

In an era where immediacy has become the way of life for most of us, the patience of our potential customers has been waning: they want short response times and more direct communication with brands and companies. And for brands, make no mistake, good management of social networks as a customer service channel can provide invaluable feedback on what users think and how to improve their services and products in order to grow.

Users want immediacy: short response times and direct communication channels.

Advantages of new customer service channels

The truth is that, a priori, the advantages for a user are not greater than for a brand, but they do have fewer advantages. While the advantages are rather tools that can be turned against you if you don’t know how to use them, the user does not have to respond to a greater purpose than satisfying his needs or be accountable to anything beyond his own self. Therefore, the margin of error is much smaller. Shall we comment on some of these advantages?

Here and now

Most users use mainstream social networks such as Facebook or Instagram and applications such as Whatsapp at least once a day. When they want to communicate with a brand, many people look to see if they have a Facebook page instead of doing a Google search such as “Company X phone number”. It is practically a reflex action. With just a few clicks, and without waiting, you can send a message that you expect to be answered with relative immediacy. This action is already perceived as much more direct (and also requires less effort) than a call.

Saves time and money

Leaving a message on social networks is quick and does not require a lot of attention. You can send it, disconnect and go on with your routine while waiting for a reply. On the other hand, a classic switchboard means that you have to look for the phone, call (with the consequent and almost inevitable expense) and, probably, talk to a few machines and wait an indeterminate amount of time for the right person to answer. It can be exhausting.

Advantages of the new service channels for the brand

In the case of the advantages for brands, it goes without saying that each and every one has a double edge and

More information, faster.

Communication in social networks is another way to test users’ opinions and suggestions, as well as the most common doubts and problems. As a brand, we can compile all this information and create a repository of frequently asked questions (thus saving future response times to other customers with the same concerns), support strategic decisions and take the temperature of your market.

Problems… or opportunities?

If there is a problem with a customer or user that is handled correctly, it can become an opportunity to generate a good image, especially if it is solved in public (although this is not always advisable). Likewise, a dissatisfied customer can become a loyal customer.

Lower costs

This is one of the most obvious factors. Traditional customer service involves maintenance of telephone lines, purchase and maintenance of switchboards, more jobs… If your industry or brand doesn’t require as much deployment, moving much of the customer service to social media is an option for you.

Once you have a presence in certain social networks, you should take care of them and maintain them as if they were just another channel for customer service.Just as a physical store is open every day and has a stable schedule, and the clerks respond one by one to the customers who come there, it must meet certain requirements of attention to users who interact with the brand in its social networks.

Recommendations for customer service in social networks

Some tips for effective customer service in social networks:

Increase the visibility of your social channels

Social channels where the brand is active should be as visible as possible. Displaying icons on customized bags or product packaging, signage on company vehicles, in physical stores, promotional signage or business cards, as well as on the web. The ease with which potential customers can find us on social networks will in turn help communication flow easily.

Uses monitoring tools

Using monitoring tools to centralize processes and streamline your interactions will save you time and improve organization. You can gather your main social media profiles in a single tool and monitor user mentions and your direct message inbox. For example, Hootsuite.

Give visibility to your opening hours

If we are talking about a company with a physical presence or a local business that serves the public, many social networks allow you to stipulate the opening hours of the physical office, which in most cases is extensible to the opening hours on social networks.

If this is not the case and you do not have a physical establishment or a switchboard that is operational at certain times, we should also stipulate a schedule that a user can adhere to. In this way, if you write at ungodly hours or from another time zone and we are not going to answer you for several hours, we will avoid your frustration for not receiving an answer within a certain period of time.

Shortening response times as much as possible

Response times in social networks should not exceed 24 hours. Whether we receive mentions, direct messages or comments on our publications, being quick to respond (if necessary) will provoke positive feelings for our brand: attentive, involved and trustworthy. Facebook currently calculates a brand’s response rate when receiving messages and displays it publicly on its page, so it is convenient to work on this aspect.

Facebook also allows us to answer users automatically when we are absent and there are tools that send automatic messages, but we do not recommend them except for cases of this type, where we are sure that we will be able to attend to the user shortly and we want them to know it or, in the complete opposite case: when we are going to be absent for several days due to vacations or similar issues.

It is well born to be grateful

As my grandmother used to say, to be grateful is to be well born. Whether you receive a negative or positive comment, it is important to thank the user for taking the time and trouble to write it, always showing respect for their opinion. We must then show our immediate willingness to reach a satisfactory solution for him. In this sense, it is very important that all the staff that attends your channels receive the appropriate training to have the same “psychology” and tone towards the user. The left hand in these cases is very important, because sometimes they will come complaining and angry.

Qualified personnel…in social networks or in customer service?

Social media support staff should have the same training on your brand, products and services as traditional customer support staff. The more questions or complaints that can be handled directly from social networks without having to resort to third parties (and therefore delaying the resolution time), the shorter the resolution time, the greater the user satisfaction and the better the user’s perception of our brand. When a user comes to a brand through social networks and is referred to a phone number, it is frustrating to say the least. Unless there are major causes (very specific, technical problems, etc.), we should try to avoid these situations.

If you are going to refer the consultation… do it elegantly.

Many brands do not answer or resolve certain queries and refer you to a telephone number. Although it is not the option we advocate in this article, it does not have to be a drama. The key? Make the client see that you are leaving them in expert hands and that you are the best option to satisfactorily and quickly solve their problem. In any case, we always recommend that we are the ones who take your data and contact you and not the other way around, for your convenience. A time slot can be agreed with the user to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Maximizes information input to the maximum extent possible

Customer questions and complaints are valuable information that can be collected and published on the web in the form of FAQs, on social networks in the form of infographics or status updates, or fed into the script of your switchboard managers. In this way, the time savings will be twofold: for the brand and for other users. We will have the answer at hand and ready.

Greases the flow of communication between departments

We recommend that there is always a profile in the company in charge of collecting complaints and doubts from all customer service channels, create a database with it, elaborate statistics and evaluate if there is any point to improve in the company. Communication between departments is essential and this information must be used in the best possible way.

Possibility of an exclusive Twitter profile for customer service

On Twitter, depending on your industry, you should consider having a dedicated social media profile for customer service. In sectors where customer service is fundamental or very popular with users, such as the telephone industry, or for brands that want to differentiate their corporate communication or content from their interactions with customers, it would be a reasonable approach to create an exclusive profile for this purpose.

Depending on your company’s organization chart and available resources, it will be easier or less easy to follow these recommendations. In any case, we encourage you to establish social networks as another communication channel.