With social media becoming a regular part of even more people’s lives, we’ve seen more and more consumers take to brand social accounts to vent their frustrations and resolve problems. In fact, many larger companies have created customer service-specific Twitter accounts, and have begun stationing customer service reps to respond to social complaints. This trend doesn’t just apply to larger business, though. Research by Sage found that 11% of small businesses are using social to improve their customer service. If you think your customer service workflow could use a little help, here’s how you can use social to make some improvements.
Look for patterns.
Yes, people often turn to social to complain simply because it’s the most convenient way to get their message across, but that’s not the case for all unsatisfied customers. Often, customers will turn to social as a last resort, so pay attention to why they are doing so. Is there a pattern emerging among the customers? Are they turning to social because your email is unresponsive? Because your call center puts them on hold for too long? See if you can pinpoint why the other methods of contacting a customer service rep are sending them to social and see what you can do to improve it.
Look for common, recurring product/service problems.
Twitter, Facebook and brand-related message boards can be a great way to determine if there is a recurring product or service problem. Are people running into issues because they are misunderstanding directions? Is there a better way that this problem could be addressed? If you don’t have a FAQ for your brand, this might be a good way to start one and answering common problems that people continue to run into while freeing up your phone lines.
Look for tasks you can migrate elsewhere.
Are there recurring tasks that are bogging down your team and keeping them from addressing other customer issues? How can you shift those tasks elsewhere? For example, if you offer a monthly service and find your customer service team spending most of their time fielding calls to adjust service rates or cancel subscriptions, you might want to consider migrating that task to your brand’s site and giving customers the opportunity to handle it themselves.
Moving your customer service team to handle social concerns? We’ve laid out the right and wrong way to deal with customer complaints on social.
