Social media has become a powerful and almost necessary tool for ordinary citizens and businesses alike.
While the medium has been available for almost two decades, its prominence rose significantly amidst the global health crisis and the establishment of eCommerce businesses. At the height of the pandemic in July 2020, social media usage saw a 10.5% increase.
In today’s business landscape, social media has become a viable tool rather than its initial purpose of convenient communication. More prominent corporations use social media as a PR-facing asset of their business, making it more accessible to customers and adding a more personal feel to the brand.
If you’re an entrepreneur or businessperson looking to capitalize on the benefits of incorporating social media into your organization’s strategies, let this serve as your guide. This blog post will discuss why social media is a great place to extend your business’s customer service and how to integrate it into your strategies.
5 Reasons Why Social Media a Great Tool to Extend Your Business’s Customer Service
The customer service landscape has evolved beyond taking calls from confused or frustrated customers. Now you or your customers can reach out to each other without needing to dial a number. This feature is just one of many that make social media a great customer service tool.
- Better accessibility
Social media can be a great business tool for its ease of accessibility. Due to virtually everyone owning a smart device and the medium’s instantaneous nature, consumers can reach out to you via social media. Your customers won’t have to wait for an email response or even a phone call.
You can attend to their inquiries immediately while simultaneously not requiring you to monitor around the clock. It’s an excellent means of quick and efficient communication between your customers and your business.
- Quicker response
Various social media platforms allow companies to respond to customer service issues in real-time, which is especially helpful when a customer has an urgent concern. Customers can post messages on sites like Facebook or Twitter, and a company representative can respond within minutes to solve the problem.
The ability to respond quickly benefits companies that sell products that customers often need immediate help with. These include electronics that customers don’t yet know how to operate or clothes that may not fit as snugly.
Social media also allows companies to gather customer feedback, which helps them improve their products and services. Companies can use this feedback to create better products, design more user-friendly websites, and provide better customer service.
- More opportunities to upsell and promote your brand
Social media has revolutionized the way we do business. It’s not just a way to reach customers and potential clients. It’s where companies can engage with their audiences and build relationships with them.
The best thing about social media is that it provides more opportunities to upsell and promote your brand. On social media, you can interact with your customers in real-time, giving them more personalized attention and recommendations, which means they might be more likely to buy from you.
You also have access to more data about your audience than ever before, allowing you to make better decisions about marketing your products or services.
- Better feedback channel
Social media is a formidable tool for businesses, and it’s one that many companies don’t use to its full potential. Social media helps businesses connect with their target audience and learn more about them, allowing them to meet their needs better.
Your organization can gain valuable customer feedback about your products and services, which you can use to improve your products and services and boost customer satisfaction.
- More efficient lead generation
If you’re on the hunt for one of the best tools to generate leads and increase sales, social media provides valuable information about your company or products that appeal to potential buyers. It’s also a great way to generate referrals from satisfied customers who want others to know about their experiences with your company or product.
How Businesses Can Implement Customer Service on Social Media
While you may use social media for your personal life, implementing it in your business is an entirely different process. Learn a few essential tips for implementing social media for your eCommerce business.
- Set up brand monitoring on your preferred social media channels
Brand monitoring is the process of keeping track of content published about your brand and its products, services, and reputation. You can gain insights into what others think about you when setting up your brand monitoring efforts through social media, online news sites, or other sources.
Businesses should identify the channels they want to monitor to set up brand monitoring initiatives. Ideally, it would help to consider which platforms are most relevant to your business and whether or not your company already has an active presence. You can do this through a combination of research and trial and error.
- Add chatbots
A chatbot is a software that mimics human conversation. Companies can use chatbots to interact with customers on social media channels and through other means such as live chat or email.
They can quickly answer common questions and queries without requiring the customer to wait for an actual human employee to respond. They can also help significantly decrease customer support tickets, assisting businesses in handling larger customer service requests.
- Create a dedicated social media account for support
A dedicated social media account for inquiries is a great way to streamline support apart from your more marketing-centered main business page.
If you have a lot of customers or get a lot of feedback, it can be difficult and time-consuming to manage all the different requests on your main business page. You might end up with multiple emails or comments unrelated to each other in terms of content or tone.
Support social media accounts allows you to track customer support messages in one place so you can easily see what customers need help with and respond accordingly.
Leveraging Social Media
As a business owner, you’re probably aware of how much potential your business has to grow, and social media provides you with another viable tool to scale. With social media, you can connect with your customers and expand your business’s reach to a worldwide market.
Social media has proven to be an excellent ally for brands willing to learn and leverage their edge on different platforms. Furthermore, extending your reach through customer service will prove invaluable to your organization and customers. Keep these things in mind as you use the power of social media to strengthen your customer service initiatives.
