{"id":1390,"date":"2019-03-12T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/role-of-social-media-in-customer-service\/"},"modified":"2019-03-12T15:20:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:20:00","slug":"role-of-social-media-in-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/?p=1390","title":{"rendered":"Role of Social Media in Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the advancement in technology, social media has become a force to reckon with when it comes to brand awareness, brand imaging, engaging existing customers and Winning over new customers. So then, we ask ourselves, what role does it play in customer service? Many companies nowadays use <\/span>Twitter and Facebook as a means of engaging clients. Other use it to highlight their effective and efficient customer service, whereas others have invested in social media for brand promotion and awareness. Here are some of the reasons why social media has become important in customer service; <\/span>Connecting with people<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
As of today, Facebook alone has over two billion users. Instagram has over eight hundred million<\/span><\/div>\n
while Twitter has close to four hundred million. These numbers really count. While not everyone<\/span><\/div>\n
may <\/span>be on social media, the numbers suggest that with more generations to come these numbers<\/span><\/div>\n
will <\/span>double or even triple. Can you imagine what these numbers will hold for customer service?<\/span><\/div>\n
Although many companies already make use of social media platforms, some do not use it the right<\/span><\/div>\n
way. You would find that some of the queries raised by customers stay for hours and days without<\/span><\/div>\n
being responded to, some even end up being ignored totally. What happens next is customer<\/span><\/div>\n
satisfaction rates begin to decline.<\/span><\/div>\n
By using social media effectively, the company will be able to communicate with customers, letting<\/span><\/div>\n
their voices heard. Once the customers’ feedback, complaints, praises and concerns are responded<\/span><\/div>\n
to in a compassionate way, then customers get to appreciate the brand, generate positive<\/span><\/div>\n
connections, thus retaining existing clients and winning over the new ones. <\/span><\/div>\n
Winning ways<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Customers love being appreciated, and when you listen to them, they feel that their satisfaction has<\/span><\/div>\n
been prioritized. Once they feel part of the brand, then be assured of having vocal brand advocates<\/span><\/div>\n
courtesy of their satisfaction levels. <\/span><\/div>\n
Statistics show that seventy-five per cent of people is more likely to positive feedback about a<\/span><\/div>\n
product or brand that connect with them sufficiently on social media, interestingly, seventy per cent<\/span><\/div>\n
would be influenced by that and go ahead and make a purchase. Of those, seventy-one per cent<\/span><\/div>\n
who get positive social media support go ahead and recommend the brand to other people.<\/span><\/div>\n
Social media has really revolutionized modes of advertising. Initially, a single person would reach out<\/span><\/div>\n
to one to five people, by word of mouth expressing their disappointment or satisfaction about a<\/span><\/div>\n
product they used. Nowadays, with the use of social media, a single person can reach out to a<\/span><\/div>\n
thousand others on the same. Thus, an effective social media strategy can as well work as a super<\/span><\/div>\n
marketing strategy. In today’s world, customers do trust reviews and feedback from other customers<\/span><\/div>\n
than they do with company advertisements. <\/span><\/div>\n
Brands also win new customers from the kind of engagements they have. Some people will just visit<\/span><\/div>\n
a social media page just to follow these kinds of responses, read through comments and in the<\/span><\/div>\n
process someone might come across a product they are interested in and end up converting into<\/span><\/div>\n
new customers.Have a look at these post by NIC and <\/span>the response by KCB banks.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Increase Customer Loyalty<\/span><\/div>\n
Every day on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or Google, we do press the like button to<\/span><\/div>\n
express some feeling. Now imagine what that emoji does to the recipient? Of course, the feeling of<\/span><\/div>\n
validation that comes with that leaves the person appreciated or loved, leaving them wanting more.<\/span><\/div>\n
The feeling is absolutely the same for the recipient because they would want to reciprocate by liking<\/span><\/div>\n
our posts, because as humans, we feel obliged to give back to people who have given to us, despite<\/span><\/div>\n
how small the gesture is.<\/span><\/div>\n
This relation is true for customer- company situations. If a customer contacts a certain company<\/span><\/div>\n
through social media, and the company in return reaches out in a positive way, the customer<\/span><\/div>\n
becomes closer to the company, thus creates loyalty. According to studies done, eighty-six per cent<\/span><\/div>\n
of <\/span>customers remain loyal to brands that they communicate positively with on social media. The<\/span><\/div>\n
same study identified <\/span>that <\/span>forty-six <\/span>per cent who received personalized responses strengthened their<\/span><\/div>\n
loyalty. <\/span>Thus, with social media, you can strengthen your relationship with the customers and keep<\/span><\/div>\n
them coming back for more!<\/span><\/div>\n
Attract Millennials<\/span><\/div>\n
More of our population is composed of youth and millennials, who make up a big per cent of the<\/span><\/div>\n
customers we serve. For companies, this is an opportunity to explore and grow. After all, ignoring<\/span><\/div>\n
them would be quite a huge mistake.<\/span><\/div>\n
Social media platforms have thus become a tool for companies to meet millennials and strengthen<\/span><\/div>\n
the dominance of their products. Most of the timed, these millennials would post jokes or banter<\/span><\/div>\n
regarding a particular product or service. Engaging them on their terms amazes them, eventually<\/span><\/div>\n
turning them into long term buyers.<\/span><\/div>\n
A company that has mastered this art is Safaricom, which has continued to exert its dominance in<\/span><\/div>\n
the telecommunications industry in Kenya. Here\u2019s a look at how they do it.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Customers Expect It Anyway<\/span><\/div>\n
It is common sense that, whenever you raise a query about a particular product or service, you<\/span><\/div>\n
would expect a reply. Studies show that, of these consumers that demand an answer, sixty-seven per<\/span><\/div>\n
cent would want a reply within twenty-four hours, forty-two per cent within sixty minutes, and a<\/span><\/div>\n
further thirty-two per cent within thirty minutes. This means that the longer the wait, the more<\/span><\/div>\n
impatient and dissatisfied a customer becomes. Eventually, you are bound to lose that customer. The<\/span><\/div>\n
expectations are even higher with millennials.<\/span><\/div>\n
So, to ensure that customer expectations are completely met and to satisfaction, it is important for<\/span><\/div>\n
companies to set up customer service, notably social media support who work 24\/7. Besides<\/span><\/div>\n
engaging them on Facebook and Twitter, it is also essential to research on which platforms the<\/span><\/div>\n
customers are connecting with you from. Instagram and Snapchat have continually increased in<\/span><\/div>\n
popularity, therefore, one can make use of them and tap a few. <\/span><\/div>\n
Conclusion<\/span><\/div>\n
It is not only important for companies to have social media support, but also necessary if they are to<\/span><\/div>\n
create a winning brand and a loyal pool of customers.<\/span><\/div>\n
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With the advancement in technology, social media has become a force to reckon with when it comes to brand awareness, brand imaging, engaging existing customers and Winning over new customers. So then, we ask ourselves, what role does it play in customer service? Many companies nowadays use Twitter and Facebook as a means of engaging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-customer-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerschampion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}