9 Ways Top Brands Use Social Media for Better Customer Service

Social Media is playing a very powerful role in providing a better customer service. A traveler once tweeted above the inferior services provided by a Hotel in USA. The hotel, on seeing the tweet, responded immediately that they would take appropriate remedial measures.

They took the appropriate actions and the traveler wrote in the next tweet that he would like to spend more time in the hotel.

Similar stories are posted online by many customers for respective brands. These stories represent the importance of social media for providing better customer service.

While using a social media, every brand holds discussions to debate on three major questions:

-How does an organization integrate customer care with other functions such as marketing in a company? #integration
-How can the efforts of few individuals be implemented on a brand? #scaling
-How can an organization use social media to deal with brand crisis or negative posts? #crisis

Here we discuss 9 ways which can be used by the brands to use social media for providing a better customer service.  

Integration

1. One team should not own social media. (KLM)

KLM, a Dutch airline, had a taste of the social media in April 2010 because of the Icelandic ash cloud which affected the grounded flights and Europe for over a week. Rebooking tool was immediately created by KLM on Facebook. A team was created to provide various functions like operations, PR, marketing and customer service.

It was a forced integration for the largest airline of the world that was created to show that the company was using social media as a major tool. They have recently introduced a 24×7 customer support on Facebook and Twitter which has proved to be very effective.

2. Make the customer service people feel good. (Zappos)

Customer service discussion would be incomplete if the Zappos story is not included. Zappos urges its each employee to take a customer service training for four weeks. It makes the most of the holiday season by making its employees work directly with the customers.

3. Experience it to know more about it. (Telus)

Telus, a Canadian brand of Telecom, says that one can understand the complete concept only if he has experienced it. The executives of Telus were exposed to the actual conversations the customers had on various social media networks with the service representatives. There was a time when Telus was known to offer a poor customer service. They used social media very effectively and became one of the popular telecom companies in Canada.

Scaling

4. Integrate the data with real impactful stories. (Citi)

Frank Eliason of Citi became the star of the social customer service world. His Twitter account changed the corporate culture of the brand. He explained how the social media problems could be fixed by the brands. He emphasized that the data should be combined with real impactful stories to bring a change.

5. Consider the personal passions of the employees. (Best Buy)

Best Buy encouraged all its employees to use the tools of social media. Various content creation initiatives and training programs were conducted for them. The best aspect was that the employees were encouraged to share their passions for technology. These could be used in their jobs.

6. Check out the ROI formula to justify yourself. (Xbox)

Every brand devises its own strategy to answer the ROI question. Xbox had its own strategy for devising the ROI formula:

Xbox customers on Twitter x percentage of people who would like to call instead of a tweet xAverage cost per call = the money saved

Though it is not an appropriate methodology but you need to find the right way to view your data.

Crisis

7. Don’t panic. (Four Seasons)

Do not panic if you receive a negative feedback from the customers. A customer tweeted for the inferior services of Hotel Four Seasons. The Hotel took the complaint positively and worked upon various actions to be taken. At times, such a feedback is important for bringing a change and offering better results. If the brand gets annoyed with this negative feedback, it will further deteriorates its reputation.

8. Don’t interact with the trolls. (Samsung)

Samsung says that you should not engage everyone online. There are certain people who only want to get engaged in a fight or try to grab attention on the social networks like Twitter. These trolls must be ignored. You should respond to the content with a customer-centric or real strategic reason. You can only scale effectively if your responses are prioritized.

9. Understand the concern of the customer but respond defensively. (Comcast)

While responding to any complaint made by the customer, be empathetic yet defensive at the same time. A social representative of comcast, Kip Wetzel emphasized that one should be genuine and respond in detail. Write the facts but you do not have to degrade your brand. Justify yourself and in case of any flaw, accept it and take the required measures.