Page 80 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

only option consumers had was to get on the phone and wait patiently until they
could speak to a representative. Often, the outcome was less than satisfactory.

Presently, consumers make it a point to seek out companies that offer them a
voice on social platforms. The SmartInsights study from 2017 found that:

» Sixty-three percent of customers expect companies to offer customer service
via their social media channels.
» Ninety percent of social media users have already used social media as a way
to communicate with a brand or a business.
» Customers prefer social media 34.5 percent of the time for customer
service compared to 24.7 percent for live chat, 19.4 percent for email,
and 16.1 percent for toll-free phone service.

If you are dissatisfied with a purchase or service, you can use social media to
tweet, post, or otherwise rate your way onto the radar screen of the company in
question.

Here are some post-sales SMM tactics that you can use to improve customer
service:

» Demonstrate that you are really able to do something.

It will be readily apparent if your employees on social media are not really
empowered to actually help customers. It’s great to listen, but if you don’t take
action, listening will prove to be a hollow exercise.
» Provide links on social platforms to information, discounts, and special
promotions.

It’s all about the customer, so make sure that your response always has real,
demonstrable value. Ask your management what options you have for reward-
ing the customer. How about a private briefing about your next product?
» Offer tips and video from customer service on FAQs.
Don’t wait for a hail of tweets to show up. If you know there’s a problem,
create content that speaks to it. Then go back and show the customer how
your solution cut customer service calls in half. That will get management’s
attention and buy-in.
» Use different platforms for different kinds of customer service.
Make sure that you have several levels of response available to the customer.
For example, you can use a specific Twitter handle that’s separate from your
primary brand’s Twitter handle for quick responses. For questions that require

64 PART 1 Getting Started with Social Media Marketing