Why You Should Be Investing in Social Customer Support
Social media isn’t just a hot spot for marketing these days. It’s so much more than that.
Once you hook a customer by engaging them with a tweet or a post on your Facebook page, more hard work lies ahead.
Why? Because social media is now the top customer service channel1, preferred over other support methods like email or voice.
Aside from the fact that you should be present on social media since that’s where your customers are, there are actually several reasons to invest in social customer support.
For example, there are huge benefits that come with racking up brand mentions and responding to them.
The Benefits of Brand Mentions
If your brand racks up a large number of interactions on social media, you’ll have more chances to point links back to your own brand.
When your customers mention your brand, all of their followers will then be able to see it, whether they tag you or not.
Each day, there are more than 2.1 million negative mentions2 about brands on social media.
Even if users mention you because of an issue they have with you, you’ll gain brand visibility from their post.
And if you use their post as an opportunity to solve the problem quickly, you can build trust with everyone who sees the interaction.
If they need technical help, you can also post links from your website in your response to provide more information or more accurate help.
Since all of these interactions will encourage more engagement, you can use them to boost SEO rankings in addition to providing customer service.
Only a small portion of brand mentions on Twitter actually include an @ mention. And sometimes, customers can misspell your product or company name.
That’s why you should monitor keywords and brand mentions with a social listening tool, like Freshdesk’s social media helpdesk.
Social media also influences purchasing decisions, which is why your social customer support strategy has to be top notch.
Social Media Influences Purchasing Decisions
Nearly every major social media platform has invested in advertising options to encourage marketers to use their channel to run personalized, targeted campaigns.
More than 50% of U.S. residents3 say they use Facebook several times per day. For Instagram and Twitter, that number is lower, at just over 30%.
The large userbase on Facebook is good news for marketers on the platform, who are now able to:
– Create campaigns and ads to send out to users
– Manage their own pages and accounts
– Create and manage data on custom audience targeting
– Run analytics and custom dashboards
What’s more, Crowdtap research shows that 64% of the 3,000 individuals surveyed say that they use social media to find shopping inspiration.
This is largely because retailers can now target consumers and offer them personalized deals and products on social platforms.
A huge chunk of social media users (46%)4 say that they use social platforms when they’re already thinking of making a purchase, while 40% of users decide what to buy based on what they see across social channels.
The bottom line? If you want to sell more, target users on social media.
When it comes to holiday purchases, peer recommendations can be more influential than an influencer endorsement.
Encourage people to share their experience with your products on social media to boost the number of recommendations for your brand floating around online.
Use a social sharing button with a discount code to give people an incentive.
Once a user shares a recommendation, respond to them and engage in a conversation about what they had to say.
Not all support includes running damage control. Sometimes support can include simply having a conversation with a loyal customer and thanking them for mentioning your brand.
Another reason to invest in social customer support is that the payoff of your investment can be huge.
The ROI is Huge
The ROI of investing in social support can be tremendous, especially if one of your support posts goes viral like this humorous response to a customer from Wendy’s:
Studies show that most companies measure the ROI of their social media advertising5 strategies by measuring engagement or leads.
But measuring the ROI of social customer support isn’t as straightforward.
However, social support can decrease the overall cost to provide support while increasing customer loyalty, since agents can complete several interactions all at once.
This has the potential to reduce the cost per issue on social media to as little as $1.
And just being present on social media will impact your customers in a big way, since they expect brands to have a presence online.
That means that it’s easiest to measure the ROI of social support by tracking customer retention rates.
Why? Because it costs seven times more6 to acquire a new customer than it does to retain one.
By responding effectively to a customer and keeping them from leaving your brand and going to a competitor, you’ll save some big bucks.
Conclusion
If you aren’t investing in a social media support strategy these days, you’re missing out on some huge benefits.
Like all the good that comes along with more brand mentions across platforms, such as increased SEO rankings.
To monitor brand mentions, use a social listening tool like the one included with our social media helpdesk.
Social media can also influence users’ purchasing decisions, so push for customers to share their experiences with your brand online.
The ROI of investing in social customer support can be huge. Especially since it costs seven times more to gain a new customer than it does to retain one.
By solving the issues of current customers quickly and effectively on social media, you’ll reduce the risk of losing them to a competitor and having to gain a new customer to take their place.
Invest in your brand’s social customer support today to put your name on the map, increase purchases, and retain your current customers while showing new ones how much you care.
Main illustration: Vinodhkumar Neelakandan
Source:
1 – https://www.krusecontrolinc.com/study-social-media-is-preferred-customer-service-channel/
2 – https://brandbuddha.com/branding-stats/
3 – https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/11/07/facebook-statistics
4 – https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/understanding-role-organic-paid-social-media/
5 – https://digitalmarketingcommunity.com/indicators/measuring-roi-social-media-ads-2018/
6 – https://promorepublic.com/en/blog/12-ways-to-get-more-sales/
