The founder of Chip Bell Group once stated, “Loyal customers, they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.”
It’s a domino effect that starts from you, by building a good foundation with your customers – Relationship – the kind that lasts and reproduce. To help you build trustful and loyal customers, we give you these ten Don’ts of customer service on Social Media platforms:
1. Don’t sound like a robot
Respond in a personalized, sincere way that your target Audience would feel they aren’t talking to an automated reply system or a robot. To build relationship with your human audience, it’s important that you make them feel they are also talking and doing business with another human.
2. Don’t be a snob
Make responding to your audience a priority. If you want to create a good relationship with your customers, make them feel they are valued and part of that community you are building your brand with. Acknowledge Social mentions by retweeting, commenting, or taking part in related conversation.
Your audience would sometimes initiate friendly discussion where you will be expected to reply in the same manner. Bring some sense of humor to your audience and let them laugh along. Your reaction to any given situation is an important key to build a solid relationship with them.
3. Don’t delay
According to statistics 42% of consumers expect a response on social Media within 1 hour, 32% expect a response within half and hour, 57% think response time should be the same during weekends or weeknights as it is during business hours, 72% expect a response within 1 hour if it’s a customer service question or complaint, 40% of consumers who did not have their social media complaints addressed called the company, 38% said they have more negative feelings about a brand when they didn’t receive a timely response, only 36% of consumers who inquire or comment via social media said their issues were resolved quickly and effectively.
Statistics clearly tells that prompt responses are vital in social media engagements. It is important to let the consumers feel that a page can function in real time and that the answer to any query they may raise could reach them just in time they need it. You don’t have to be a large company to do this. With the use of push notifications and email alerts, you could easily respond through your mobile, anytime, anywhere, or you can simply go to the nearest digital marketing agency for social marketing service.
4. Don’t beat around the bush
Your audience’s time is just as precious as yours, so apart from giving them a quick response, give them straight to the point and honest answers they truly need and deserve. This will build trust and a good reputation to your audience and followers; as well as save both ends a lot of productive time.
5. Don’t disrespect
In any situation, always reply in a respectful manner. It is normal to come across irate customers from time to time, every company experiences it, so don’t take it too personally. Give them time to vent and listen to what they have to say with empathy and sincerity. Keep in mind that negative remarks and complaints can be used for further improvement. The language that you use reflects to that of your company as a whole, so make sure to reply in a friendly yet professional manner.
6. Don’t sell
Avoid talking too much about yourself or your brand. Instead of sounding too promotional, try to sound friendly and caring of your target customers. Provide them useful information, tips, guides, inspiring stories, engaging photos and videos, updates, and more. Go off topic once in a while and post or send messages about other subjects that you and your audience are equally interested in. This will increase your engagement, online presence, and followers - who will eventually become more aware of your brand and its value in their lives. Soon the followers and audience you had in the beginning will most likely convert and become loyal customers.
7. Don’t settle with just enough
Don’t just settle to answering specific concerns of your customers or helping them with specific problems. Go extra mile and take the opportunity to convert them to customers who will be more likely to return to your page and make more purchase and significant endorsements to friends and family.
8. Don’t think of what you want
Always listen to what your customers want. With technology, this isn’t too hard to do. Online reputation management or ORM can help you track down what your audience is discussing behind your back, and you can use this process to turn your page, products and services according to their wants and needs.
9. Don’t be inconsistent
Consistency is one key to gain the trust of customers. Make sure you know your target market, your niche, and the purpose of each social media platform you put your business into. When you zero in to your main objective and the exact group of audience you want to target, you become certain of what to offer and to what kind of reputation you want to build among your social networks.
10. Don’t forget proper grammar and spelling
Being on social media exposes you to a massive number of people; most of them would only take a glimpse of what you post and would probably keep scrolling down until they find what interests them most. Your headline or the first line of your social media post could influence the decision of that user to stop and click to that post which will lead them to your social media page or website. It is already important to create a compelling headline, but it is VERY important to use proper spelling and grammar. Most readers would find grammatical and spelling errors a complete turn off, so better proofread your materials before posting them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
