How to improve your Customer Service using Social Media? Online Relationship Management for Companies

More and more companies are now realizing the importance of Social Media marketing to improve their visibility, credibility and accessibly of their products and services. Customers often research on companies online or ask for information using social media channels. They also share opinions and experiences on companies, products and services online. Anything said on the Internet has the power to spread like wild fire. Internet Marketing can be a cheaper but effective strategy for Companies to promote your services or products. However, Internet has many drawbacks too. Unsatisfied customers or employees can tarnish the Online Reputation of a Company by posting false or negative comments about the Company. Even good businesses can suffer because of false/negative reviews posted by competitors or unsatisfied customers.

Companies should aim at offering Quality, service, and value for money to its Customers if they want to survive in the Business. With the advancement of Technology, it has become a standard practice of many to look at the search results of products before buying them. A negative review on the first page of search results can affect the reputation and sales of a Company. A lot of Companies have now started monitoring their brands, communication, competitors, industry trends and service issues online to improve their products and services. Many Companies are now using Social Media Sites to reach out to Customers and solve their sales and service issues fast before they tarnish the reputation of the Company.

Customer is the King in any Business. So it is of utmost importance to keep the Customers happy. Appreciation of happy customers through social media can greatly influence others to buy a product or service. However, If a customer has a negative experience with a service or brand, they are more likely to share it on social media sites. Such information can go viral and be damaging to the Company. Though satisfied customers may not always write a positive review of the product even if they may be happy about it, an unsatisfied customer may try to ruin the reputation of the Company by posting negative reviews about the Company and Product. The condition can be even worse if the person messed up with is a Blogger or Social Media Expert. Recently there was a report of Samsung threatening to strand two Indian bloggers in Berlin. Luckily for the Bloggers, Nokia stepped in and flew them back. This news spread like wild fire in no time accumulating tons of tweets, Facebook likes and hate comments from all over the world. Samsung apologized to the Bloggers but the damage was already done by then. If you make a search of ‘Samsung Mobile Bloggers’ on Google, you would see this news and lot of negative reviews about the Company.

Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus play an important role in influencing the decision of people whether to buy a product or not. People are seen sharing their experiences about companies, products and services through these sites. Social Media is the cheapest and fastest way to reach out to people. Companies may not be able to censor what people may say about their product or service, but it is possible for them to create happy customers by giving prompt customer service using social media sites. Companies like Citibank and Flipcart are seen using micro blogging sites like twitter to ensure faster customer service.

Most of the major companies have Call centers catering to Customer Service. But most Customers find this facility a stressful experience. It can be quite tiring to press button after button before making a complaint. By adding social media customer service, Companies can stand out from the competition by delivering real time and responsive results to their Customers.

Given below are 10 Tips for using the Social Media to improve the Customer Service.

1. Establish the Companies presence and participation in all major Social Networks. Share information about products, respond to queries and take immediate action on service complaints. Use social media sites to earn your customer’s loyalty, trust, and credibility.
2. Set up Google alerts in Company name to be notified immediately when someone talks about the Company or Product and respond immediately to the comments.
3. Constantly monitor what people say about the Company or brands using Reputation Management tools. It is worth hiring an Expert who can monitor, analyze and optimize search results and bury negative results.
4. Take Customer complaints seriously and attend them immediately even if it means someone has to work on a Holiday. Acknowledge the mistake and work on solving the problems fast.
5. Set up a Business Page for your Business on review sites like Yelp and Zagat as people may look for reviews of products before buying them. If a Reviewer posts a negative complaint, try to remedy it immediately and request the person to delete/change the review.
6. Encourage Positive Reviews of your products and services from satisfied Customers.
7. Use online CRM software to boost your CRM and sales.
8. Educate your employees that Customer Service is the responsibility of every individual in the Company, be it the CEO of the Company or Peon. Avoid the Sales pitch and be helpful to those looking for information. Sales would automatically follow.
9. Educate the Employees to be wise with Social Media as the Reputation of the Company can be affected by their Personal Online Reputation.
10. Encourage Corporate Social Responsibility.

With the help of Social media for customer service, it is now possible for Companies to provide a hassle-free customer service experience to the customers leading to increased customer satisfaction.

Did you find this Hub useful? Feel free to share your experiences and tips on using Social Media sites for Customer Service through comments.