In the digital age of instant information, more businesses rely on social customer care strategies more than ever. No matter the size of the company, you still want to respond to your customers who have ideas for improvements, want to leave a compliment or make a complaint.
However, you might not have the manpower or funds to hire a customer service team to immediately log, track and respond to customer concerns. But instead of thinking about the office full of people with headsets in cubicles taking phone calls, imagine you and your employees managing all queries through a social customer service platform.
Some may believe this is a pretty great idea, but you and your employees simply don't have the customer service background.
That's fine.
On social media, you earn so much respect as a business by simply being present and talking to your audience. Social customer care is all about engagement, which means as you work toward building customer relationships, you fill your customer service needs.
@acdc_whatupdoe How was it?
- Whole Foods Market (@WholeFoods) April 17, 2016
What is Social Customer Care?
If you're still unsure on what is social customer care, you're not alone. Numerous businesses don't have a social customer care plan because they can't separate the idea of social customer care and customer service.
Simply put, social customer care provides support through multiple social media channels, whether it's B2B or B2C. This strategy addresses customer loyalty and increases sales through social media engagement and interactions. According to a Nielsen report, more than one-third of customers prefer to contact businesses for customer support questions through social media.
In fact, a ZenDesk report discovered customer support expectations are quickly growing for businesses. Of those surveyed, 45% of customers said they would try any channel for support as long as it resolves the issue. Additionally, 89% of respondents said speed of resolution and response time was the most important factor to getting a question resolved.
The need for faster responses drives customers to reach out to businesses on social media. The problem is, how do you answer these concerns on social without taking up a ton of your time to do everything else? Don't worry. We'll get to that soon enough.
How Social Customer Care Equals Engagement
Again, you might not need or have the luxury to build a true customer service team for your business, but you can manage your customer's problems effectively on social media. Social customer care is about engaging your audience and being a source for customers to reach out to you.
With social media, you have the best chance to resolve, address and connect with customers instantaneously without the office cubicles and angry people on the phone. Your audience simply wants an outlet where they can quickly reach you and social media is the perfect platform to take your communications with them.
@LeDonAycaguer Please send us a Direct Message with your phone number and security PIN. Visit https://t.co/mChmX3RWk7 to see how. EP
- Sprint Care (@sprintcare) April 19, 2016
The Q4 2015 Sprout Social Index explained 8 out of 9 customer service questions to businesses were not resolved within 72 hours. This is a huge deal for businesses who want to maintain customer service and be present across all social networks. Answering questions on social builds trust and ultimately creates a social relationship that could lead to future purchases.
Seeing an ROI on Your Social Media Customer Service
It's important to know how critical social customer care relates to your engagement, reputation and ultimately your bottom line. It's not easy convincing a business on social engagement, but once you can provide the social media analytics, the numbers suddenly speak clearly.
@slackhq thanks for the response and awesome service! I just want to post emoji's
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