Social media customer care is currently the rising star amongst consumers. In 2020 and 2021, businesses were forced to take note that their once tried-and-true customer care and customer service techniques were not as effective as they could be. Now is the time to leverage that social-first customer care team!
The public (namely, Millennials and Gen Z) have proven that they will use social media as their research tool for deep dives on brands, sharing their experiences with businesses, and even purchasing products via social. But don’t discount Gen X and the Boomer generation because they have embraced social media in their own right.
Customer care strategy happens to be one of our specialties at B Squared Media. Read on for our tips on how to leverage social-first customer care for your business.
Build Customer Loyalty
First of all, a strong sense of customer loyalty is elusive. Millennials and Gen Z will go with what speaks to them at the moment. Having said that, there are ways you can build loyalty with your customers. And guess what? It starts with social-first customer care.
One of the ways to leverage social-first customer care is by engaging with customers daily. These are a few suggestions on how you can build your customer loyalty:
- Be a transparent brand. In other words, if you have a misstep, own up to it. And if your brand stands for something, say it! It’s been shown that 51% of Gen Z (ages 18-23) prefer brands that align with their ideals.
[Source: Sprout Social]
- Engage with all the positive and negative comments. We’ve said this countless times, but acknowledgment is key for loyalty. Loyalty is earned with every affirmation in the comments and DMs.
- Calls-to-action (CTAs) further provide recognition. When you propose a CTA to your audience (ex: What would you like us to share next?), then they know their opinions count. Furthermore, when you reshare their content, you earn loyalty via UGC (user-generated content).
These actions pave the way to customer loyalty, one way of leveraging social-first customer care.
Be Your Own Bullhorn
Secondly, customer care on social media provides a voice to both the consumer and the brand. But how do you want that voice to sound? These tips should help:
- Tone of voice is loud. In other words, a chaotic tone of voice shows customers that you are not on the same page as your team. The reverse is that customer care teams on social media are at their strongest when they are consistent. Provide the team with guidelines on language and tone. Nothing screams consistency more than having a seamless tone of voice representing the brand.
[Source: Dove on Twitter]
- Social scripts are great guidelines to lean on. In addition to having a consistent tone of voice, it’s also important to have scripts ready to help align with empathy when handling customer issues. These are helpful in a pinch, but feel free to go off-script when necessary. Feel free to use our 25 scripts that will help you align with customers.
- Take the public conversation to the DMs. Customers tend to rant publicly about brands more than they do in direct messages. When this happens, you can leverage your social-first customer care team by reaching out directly to the public comment. At that point, it’s wise to let them know you’ve also sent a DM so you can further help with the issue they are experiencing. Why comment publicly and privately? It’s simple – you want to make sure anyone following this public comment sees that the brand has been responsive and is actively working to resolve the issue.
Don’t be known as a brand that only replies to the negative. And don’t be the brand only replying to positive and ignoring the icky stuff either! You can leverage your social-first customer care team by being effective before an issue arises. Engage with all the comments to create an approachable relationship. Trust us, it helps in the long run!
Social-First Customer Care Is Necessary
Summing up, by leveraging social-first customer care, you are building a relationship with your consumers. And that relationship is easily a two-way street. It’s never been more accessible for brands to communicate directly with their customer base (and vice versa) than it is now.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are just a few of the platforms that have provided customers and brands with voices. When attention is given, good or bad, the customer experience is elevated.
How do you leverage social-first customer care? Let us know in the comments below!
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1 Comment. Leave new
Great information! It’s easy to only respond to the positive comments, but it’s so true that you’ve got to respond to the negative as well! ☺