Why Social Media is One of the Best Support Tools and What We Can Learn from 3 Brands
Today, consumers turn to what people are saying about a brand online before deciding to make a purchase. And on social media, more people can view what people are saying about your brand than ever before. 65% of social media users say that they use social media platforms to find information about brands, services, and products. At least 80% of consumers turn to social media to get advice about products, too.
What people are saying about your brand online can either make or break your online presence. That’s why you need to address both the good and the bad comments on social media. But you have to take it a step further by providing solutions and support right then and there.
Why Social Media Support Matters
If you’re wondering why social media support is such a big deal, the statistics don’t lie. 69% of people believe that quick problem resolution is what makes customer service good. As many as 30% of people will make the switch over to a competitor if you don’t respond to their query on social media.
As of 2017, daily global social media users were on social media for 135 minutes per day, an increase from the average of 126 minutes every day from the previous year. It’s important to respond as quickly as possible on your social media accounts, like Starbucks.
Starbucks — Get Creative and Respond Quickly
On social media, the average response time is 24 hours. But people want to hear back from you much sooner than that. In fact, 42% of customers want a response within 60 minutes of contacting you. So you have to be on top of your game and write back as soon as possible.
Starbucks executes social media customer service quickly and effectively. They usually respond to customer comments within hours of receiving them. Sometimes, they even respond in an hour or less.
Starbucks is no stranger to getting creative on social media, either. They made accounts for specific seasonal beverages, like the Pumpkin Spice Latte. More than 100,000 Twitter users follow the account.
Starbucks also created a Twitter support channel just for their customer’s ideas.
On Instagram, the brand has an account for nearly every country that Starbucks stores can be found.
Don’t be afraid to get creative and make more than one account on each platform. Don’t forget to respond as quickly as possible on each one. When you’re providing social media support, you might have to take things offline every once in a while.
T-Mobile — Know When to Take Things Offline
Most customer issues can be resolved with a few messages back-and-forth. But sometimes, you might have to take some interactions offline to provide more effective solutions or deal with a difficult customer.
Don’t be afraid to invite customers to shoot you an email or a direct message if you need personal information to help them or if the interaction is escalating. Take this example from T-Mobile’s Twitter page, for instance —
They ask customers to send them direct messages often so that they can get all of the sensitive details needed to solve a problem. The brand does the same thing on its Facebook account, too.
And on Instagram.
Clearly, T-Mobile’s strategy for requesting direct messages is working. They earned the highest score in history on JD Power’s 2018 Wireless Customer Survey. Over 300 people are part of the company’s social media team, which is a considerable increase from the team of 24 they had just four years ago.
“We’re there, we’re responding, and we’re really good at the experience part of it as well, so we have a lot of repeat customers,” says Director of Social Media Services, Michelle Mattson. Talk to customers one-on-one like T-Mobile, and you might see similar results in customer satisfaction.
Monitor brand mentions so that you never miss a thing.
Tesla — Monitor Brand Mentions to Find Those in Need of Support
Listening to social media is a great way to make sure that you never miss a post. Tesla was monitoring their mentions when a product suggestion was made to them on Twitter, and they implemented the change a week later.
A different customer asked Musk if the seat configuration of the car could automatically adjust based on who is entering the vehicle.
Pro tip: Find out how customers are responding to your brand on social media using a good support tool.
Conclusion
What people are saying about your brand online is important. It can help or hurt your reputation. More people can see commentary about companies than ever before on social media. That’s why you have to help customers with bad comments and complaints before people get the wrong idea about you.
You need to create social accounts on the platforms that your customers are using so that you can see their customer service queries and answer them quickly, like Starbucks. Know when to make the conversation private, too. If you need sensitive information or things get tense, ask the customer to send you an email or a direct message, like T-Mobile. Don’t forget to track brand mentions, like Tesla, with our social media help desk so that you never miss a customer in need of support.
Start providing great social media support today to make sure that a negative post doesn’t crush your reputation.
