These days, social media and customer services are essentially one and the same. Companies are better able to take care of their customers, and customers are better able to connect with the companies they support. No matter how large or how small your company is, there are a few things you can do to better organize your online customer services.
Respond in a Timely Manner
Technology has accelerated our expectations, and that has never been truer than when it comes to social media. Take a lesson from airline companies dealing with customers with lost luggage and work on responding to social media questions and comments as quickly as possible, at least within 60 minutes. If not, you risk angering and potentially losing a customer.
Use Tools to Better Manage Your Social Media
While it’s good to have several different social media accounts, those multiple accounts can become a bit of a hassle when you have so many different lines of communication to keep up with. If you find that you’re constantly feeling overwhelmed, consider offering customers live chat and implementing social media tools like HootSuite, Tweetdeck and Klout to manage all of your platforms in a single place.
Make Your Responses More Personal
Instead of sounding like a robot in your responses, make them more personal and inject them with a bit of personality. A canned response can not only send the wrong message about your company, it can also anger the person and make it seem as if you don’t pay attention to what’s being said. A bit of humor can also help to lighten the mood while making sure the individual is still being taken care of.
Train Your Customer Service Employees
Utilizing the most effective and up-to-date online customer support strategies and technology won’t do your company or your employees much good if your customer services team doesn’t know how to use the technology or strategies the right way. Before you cut your team lose to dominate the world of customer service, train them properly and thoroughly. Not only that, but you should update and refresh their training as necessary. Just as businesses aren’t operated the same now as they were ten years ago, the same is true of customer service. Give your team the tools and education they need to stand the best chance of succeeding.
Have a Backup Plan in Place
Just as there are bound to be people complaining about your products or services no matter what you do, there are bound to be times where you experience a power loss or lose your network connections. Despite unfortunate circumstances, your customers still want answers to their questions and want to have their concerns addressed. Have a customer service backup plan in place to handle these situations and make sure your company’s reputation doesn’t take a hit during times of technological crisis. For instance, you might have to temporarily outsource your customer service department. If you do, you’ll want your outsourced team to be familiar with how you handle customers to keep things flowing as smoothly and as normally as possible.
An organization is one of the essential cornerstones of operating a successful business. Keep your online customer service department well organized and informed and you’re sure to remain in your customers’ good graces.
Original Source : LinkedIn
