13 Brands That are Nailing Social Customer Care and What to Learn From Them
Nailing social customer care is a must-do. Social media is no longer simply about driving traffic and brand awareness for organizations. It’s a popular place for customers to reach out to them too. Because social media is public and thriving, it’s essential to answer questions, stay active, and provide quality support alongside your social marketing efforts.
Looking for ideas on how you can nail social customer care? These thirteen brands can show you the way:
1. Glossier
Glossier’s Twitter page is high volume and always active and their team manages to switch seemingly effortlessly between promoting products, sharing tips, and helping customers. They answer questions directly on the feed when possible—which is great for giving customers, other than the one who originally asked, a chance to see it too—and only switch to other communication methods when private account details are necessary.
2. Nike
Nike is a giant company, which means their customer care and social media demands are pretty giant too. To better serve their customers, they’ve created a dedicated Twitter account for support inquiries. This is a great option for organizations with a lot of customers or an exceptionally high volume.
Since Nike is a worldwide brand, @NikeSupport provides support in languages other than English, and they’ve included the details right in their Twitter profile:
If your team can offer support in multiple languages, this is a great way to let people know which ones so they can choose the one they’re most comfortable speaking and limit expectations to the languages your team can cover.
3. WordPress.com
WordPress.com hosts many millions of websites, including lots of sites and blogs which they host for free. While a person running a free blog may have trouble reaching them quickly through their private support options, Twitter is always open and available to all. WordPress.com’s Twitter feed shares lots of content from sites they host and their own editorial features, while also answering customer questions throughout the day.
The content they share is often aimed at inspiring and helping customers make the most of their website or blog:
Beyond the content, their team handles lots of support questions right on Twitter too. Like Glossier, they sometimes have to move to private channels but aim to answer publicly, when possible. They’re great at providing brief details and linking to a support doc for further explanation as they’ve done here:
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4. Southwest Airlines
One look at Southwest’s Twitter account and you’ll notice two things right away: They reply to messages—from lost bag checks and updates on delays—around the clock, and they take the time to thank people who share compliments too. It’s obvious their team knows timeliness is essential for any organization selling a time-sensitive service and they take their work seriously while having fun too. The extra touch of friendliness and messages signed with agent names add a welcoming feel to a feed that would otherwise be all business.
5. Whole Foods
With almost 500 physical stores in two countries, online ordering, and a wide variety of products, the Whole Foods social team has to balance caring for it all. If you’re supporting a service or product tied to a physical location too, watch how Whole Foods does it for a masterclass. In many cases, when a customer reaches out to them, before they can even try to help, they need more information—like the store location—and they do an excellent job of gathering details and responding consistently and quickly.
On Facebook, Whole Foods shares lots of content around their products, including recipes and tips. Beyond replies related to the posts themselves, the comments are filled with people reaching out for help too, and their social team handles things there just as well:
6. Skyscanner
When a Skyscanner user shared a problem in a suggested itinerary—their tool suggested at 47 year layover—their support agent rolled with it and extended the joke.
Why did Skyscanner’s humorous reply go over so well? Two reasons: First, the customer wasn’t particularly angry, just perplexed so making light of the issue wasn’t likely to annoy him or anyone following along on social. Second, the agent concluded her reply with suggestions of how to spend the very long layover with a quick note thanking the user for sharing the issue and letting him know that the team would look into it.
7. Netflix
Netflix is a fantastic example of excellent customer care on social media. On their main Twitter account, they post pop culture content related to their shows and movies and interact with people constantly. One look at their feed gives you a great sense of the community they’ve developed.
For technical issues, they direct people to a separate account (@NetflixHelps), and also post status updates on issues there too. To assist people in getting the help they need, their account includes all the essential details like device and error, right in the profile, as well information on how else they can be reached.
One key thing to note about how Netflix does support is how they limit it. One look at their Facebook page makes it clear that’s not the spot they provide help. One recent post on The Innocent Man, their new documentary, received over 500 comments in under two days, making that space pretty impossible to cover for a support team.
Use Netflix as an example for when it’s best to choose your channels. On Facebook, they stick to pop culture and promoting their content, while on Twitter they do it all. Like Netflix, consider your audience, demand, and your team’s capabilities as you map out the best plan for your organization too.
8. LUS Brands
Instagram is a great fit for products with great visuals, like beauty brands. LUS Brands does an excellent job of sharing their products, posting tips and tricks, and providing support on Instagram.
They regularly post how-to photos or videos, with details, in the caption and Instagram Story. They also publish a companion blog post with even more information. Their content leads to customer questions on Instagram. It’s obvious that their team is ready to help anytime, since they reply to just about every single question or comment.
9. Spotify
Like Netflix, Spotify troubleshoots technical issues right on Twitter. They have a dedicated support account (@SpotifyCare) where they help users and post status updates on any ongoing issues.
To better serve their customers, they’ve included important details in their profile too. In this case, by directing people to DM with payment issues, they’re allowing some users to skip the step of tweeting and waiting and get right to the private message where they can get the account help they need.
10. Starbucks
Starbucks is a perfect example of how to develop a conversational style on social media. Their Twitter account is full of light-hearted interactions, checking in on their followers favorite drink orders, and recent store visits. Opening up to that kind of consistent interaction makes people feel invited to reach out and be heard—because they are! When a customer knows you’re listening, they’re more likely to contact you when there’s a problem and give you a chance to fix it, instead of fuming in silence or ranting to their friends.
11. Buffer
Buffer is a top-notch example of a SaaS organization that has a great social media support. Agents sign their names and use customer names, when possible, for a personal touch. Their focus is clearly on creating an engaged, welcoming community and they’re doing it well. In addition to providing great support right on their feed, they also make the account worth a follow, thanks to their high-quality content.
12. May Designs
The product line May Designs creates is perfect for Instagram. Their customized notebooks and colorful stationery photographs appeal to a large number of people on Instagram.
That combined with a responsive team is a perfect pairing for success. The details they share about their products on Instagram makes it easier for people to select products.
13. Nordstrom
They’re known for their generous return policy and great customer service and have now carried that reputation to social support too.
Nordstrom customer service is legendary, and they’ve been providing it since 1901—long before social media came along. Their decision to provide the same customer service over the web too was clearly the right one. If they hadn’t, today’s customers would still try to reach them online—because that’s just how people communicate these days—and they’d be leaving a lot of people unhappy, in spite of their fantastic efforts to provide the best service elsewhere.
Even their Twitter profile instantly lets you know how important taking care of customers is to them:
Armed with our top tips for winning at social customer support and using these brands as inspiration to develop your social media support plan, your organization is bound for success in social support.
