If you have an online business, is checking your social media customer service channels the first task after your morning coffee?
Checking your brand’s social media pages, and you always hope to see them flooded with customer messages! There’s Sam complaining about a late delivery. A tweet from Nikki, who’s admiring your latest product. And oh, look—a direct message from Jhon, who’s been trying to track his order for the past week.
This is how “a day in the life of social media customer service” looks like. Your inbox is like a melting pot of feedback, questions, and thank-you notes. Screening through these messages and responding to them is referred to as social media customer support.
What you need to do is accept the feedback and queries and turn every “Hey, can I get a reply here?” into a “Wow, thanks for the quick fix!” For all this, you need a strong social media customer service plan that can help you get into the good books of customers, because 67% of them expect brands to have a social media presence to provide support.
What is social media customer service?
Social media customer service is providing customer service and support through various social media platforms, which includes responses to social media posts, direct messages, and even online reviews. It involves actively listening to customers, identifying engageable messages, and addressing them with relevant information/solutions quickly to ensure customer satisfaction, or CSAT (customer happiness and customer approval).
By providing customer service on social media, you can drive customer engagement on platforms your customers love and spend their maximum time on. This type of engagement builds brand loyalty and enhances the overall customer experience.
Here’s how it works:
- Real-time responsiveness: quickly acknowledging customer inquiries or feedback or brand/product mentions to show you’re attentive and present a positive brand perception.
- Engagement: actively interacting with customers by liking or sharing their posts, initiating conversations, and creating a sense of community.
- Transparency: to uphold brand credibility, be open and honest with customers, especially during times of service disruptions or product issues.
- Personalization: Tailoring responses to customer inquiries by addressing them by name and providing relevant and personalized solutions.
It’s all about giving customers one-on-one priority support without charging extra for it.
Use Social Media Tools
Managing customer service across multiple platforms can be tiring. That’s where social media tools will help you.
Here are some must-have tools:
- Hootsuite: Schedule posts, monitor mentions, and respond to messages from one dashboard.
- Zendesk: Integrate social media with your existing customer service software.
- Sprout Social: Track conversations, analyze performance, and manage multiple accounts.
- Chatbots: Use AI-powered chatbots to handle simple queries and free up your team’s time.
These tools not only save time but also ensure that no customer query slips through the cracks.
How to start customer service on social media
If you’re thinking about offering customer service on your social channels, here are some steps you need to follow:
1: Pick the right support channels
Choosing the right channels for your social media customer service isn’t just about being present on every social media platform; it’s about being where your customers need you the most. Don’t waste your efforts on platforms where your audience doesn’t hang out.
- Customer persona creation: Craft 3-5 detailed personas of your ideal customers, indexing their common characteristics, behaviors, and challenges. Select the social media platforms each persona will like to use. For example, if one of your personas is a young professional woman; platforms like Pinterest, known for a high female user base, might be ideal.
- Demographic analysis: Examine your audience’s age, gender, and other social media demographics using social media reports.
- Direct surveys: Directly ask your audience about their preferred social media platforms through surveys or polls to get unexpected insights.
- Competitor observation: Look at your competitors’ social media activity. If they’re thriving on X, it’s a cue that your audience might be there too.
- Non-competitor brand analysis: Investigate brands with a similar audience but in different industries. For instance, followers of sportswear brands might also be interested in your fitness app.
Channel prioritization is as important as channel selection. If you know which channels your customers and competitors prefer, you can assign more support agents there and get a quicker turnaround.
2: Keep your online space tidy
If inactive accounts exist and they’re not where your audience is, consider deleting or archiving them. An unused account might make your audience think you’re not paying attention.
3: Create a dedicated customer support account
Setting up a separate account just for customer questions and support could make things a lot smoother. This keeps your main account focused on communicating updates while the support account handles the nitty-gritty customer questions.
Most A-list brands, from Amazon to IKEA, have dedicated support accounts for different geographies. However, don’t forget to ensure there’s a unified inbox for all your incoming messages to keep everything streamlined and not a single message is ignored.
4: Make it easy to get support
You need to make sure it’s super easy for customers to get in touch. A “DM us for help” in your bio and a big, visible message button can make it simple.
5: Use messaging features on all platforms
Use the native messaging capabilities of each social media platform to improve efficiency and customer experience. For example, Instagram allows for setting up welcome messages, displaying FAQs, automating replies, and using saved replies to streamline customer service processes. Other platforms like Facebook and X offer similar functionalities.
7: Develop a plan for your response strategy
Develop a clear strategy that outlines:
- Expected response times
- Procedures for handling conflicts
- Guidelines for maintaining the brand’s tone of voice
- Specific responsibilities of each team member
This may include setting a goal to respond within an hour (as 40% of consumers expect) and creating templates and escalation processes for complex issues.
Social customer service is meant to be available 24/7, without any break, but your support agents need their nap. To cater to out-of-hours queries, you can use generative AI chatbots that can mimic human agents and moderate their tone without missing a beat.
Social media customer service best practices
Social media customer service is more than just answering queries; it’s about building relationships and enhancing brand perception. Here are the top five tricks of the trade, each with the sweet payoff you can expect:
Respond quickly
Today, every customer expects quick responses. Setting clear expectations for response times and ideally responding within hours can make a big difference. Speedy responses can lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Personalize your interactions
While templates can speed up responses, personalizing replies helps in fostering genuine customer connections. Using the customer’s name and tailoring responses to their specific situation or query makes the customer feel heard and valued.
This helps to build a stronger emotional connection with your customers. It can transform standard service into a memorable experience, encouraging repeat business and positive word-of-mouth.
Use automation wisely
Automation, like chatbots, can be a great tool for handling common questions efficiently or for providing immediate acknowledgments outside business hours. However, it’s important to ensure a smooth handoff to human agents for more complex issues.
This can help improve operational efficiency and ensure 24/7 responsiveness.
Monitor and engage proactively
Actively listen and monitor multiple social channels for mentions of your brand, related keywords, or industry trends. This allows you to engage with customers beyond direct inquiries—joining conversations, offering solutions, or simply showing appreciation for positive mentions.
Proactive engagement can turn potential crises into opportunities and amplify positive sentiments.
Gather and act on feedback
Use social media as a tool to collect customer feedback on your products, services, and customer service experience. Actively solicit feedback through polls or direct questions, and more importantly, demonstrate that you’re acting on it.
This approach can lead to product improvements, enhanced customer service policies, and deeper customer relationships. It shows that your brand values customer input, leading to increased trust and loyalty.
Measure social media customer service with 6 metrics
Keep an eye on the following metrics to know about the results of your strategy. Check these out:
1. Response time: It means how quickly you get back to customer messages. Quick replies can make customers feel important and improve their overall experience with your brand.
2. Resolution rate: This shows the percentage of customer issues resolved through social media. A high resolution rate shows effective problem-solving and impacts customer retention in a positive manner.
3. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score: Direct feedback on customer service interactions. High CSAT scores mean happy customers; low scores signal areas needing improvement.
4. Volume of queries: Tracks the number of customer service inquiries received. A sudden spike might indicate a broader issue with a product or service.
5. Engagement rate: It is about figuring out how much your audience interacts with what you post on social media. Higher engagement can indicate effective communication and a strong community.
6. Customer sentiment: Analyzing the tone of customer messages helps gauge overall sentiment towards your brand. Negative messages can be early warnings of larger issues.
Tips for using social customer service during a crisis
When things get rough and negative comments start rolling in, here’s how to keep cool and handle the situation:
- Responding to negative comments with professionalism diffuses tension and shows you’re in control.
- A simple “We’re really sorry” can go a long way in showing empathy and taking responsibility.
- A stitch in time saves nine. Quick responses can prevent negative sentiments from escalating and show that you’re actively addressing the issue.
- Avoid misinformation; it can fuel a crisis. Ensure your responses are accurate, clear, and consistent across all social media platforms.
- Handle complex situations offline. Politely ask the customer to continue the conversation via direct messages or email. This can lead to a more constructive solution.
- Keep an eye on every gossip about your brand. This can help you resolve issues before they flare up and gauge public sentiment.
- After resolving an issue, never forget to follow up and make sure the customer is satisfied. This shows commitment and loyalty to customer care.
Social media customer service is not just replying to tweets and DMs. It’s about creating “WOW! You fixed it!” moments with your customers. If you want to build strong social media customer service for your brand, you are just a click away. Enter our Apevers and let The Mighty Apes create the best user experience for your customers. Stay tuned for more updates on social media and its new trends.
