Social Media is not only a great tool for marketing, it’s also a great customer service tool. Why you ask? Because it’s where people “hang out” online. It’s also where people share stuff. They’re not just sharing what they did on vacation, their sharing the experiences that they have with businesses like yours. Sometimes those experiences are good, sometimes they’re not so good. Regardless, when people share things about your business, it’s an opportunity to serve them and build your relationship with them. Here are 5 simple steps you can use to put a Social Media Customer Service Plan in place for your business.
1. Empower your Team to Make Customers Happy
This sounds easy right? It is if you have the right people in the right seat on the bus. Hopefully, this is the case for you and your business. If so, you will be comfortable empowering your team to resolve a customer’s issue without necessarily having to get permission from you, or their boss.
2. Ensure your Team has access to your Social Media Accounts
Make sure the people you have empowered to make customers happy, also have access as Admins to your Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media Accounts. If you are sitting there thinking, “I don’t know if I trust my team with Admin privileges…” then you either need a new team, or you need to spend more time with them so they can gain your trust.
3. Set up a monitoring schedule and strategy
This can be as simple as checking your Social Media Accounts two or three times per day. In case it’s not obvious, be sure to set up email notifications for all of your Social Media Accounts that allow it. Text message notifications can be handy as well, especially for Twitter Accounts. Remember, whenever a customer reaches out to you, you want to reach back out to them as quickly as possible. As you business grows, you might even consider some of the fancy Social Media Monitoring Software that is now available.
4. Be present, active, and socially engaging
Remember, these are Social Networks not sales networks. Is it ok to sell, sure, but be social about how you do so. The more present and active you and your business is on Facebook, the more comfortable your customers will feel engaging with you and offering both positive and negative feedback on your products and services.
5. Assess and refine
As with all plans and strategies, it makes sense to regularly assess how things are working and refine as necessary. One thing I love about being a small business is the ability to act and change things quickly. I don’t need the approval of 7 people plus the Board of Directors, I just need to make a decision and things get changed. Determine what is working for you and what is not and implement changes quickly so that you are creating Customers for Life.
What would you add to this? Is your business actively involved in working a Social Media Customer Service Plan? Tell me what you think in the comments below.
