Customer Experience Management, also known as CEM, is a way of tracking customer perceptions of your brand. Although you may already know the ins and outs of CEM, you may not realise how big a role social media has in shaping this.
At a time when customers will flock to a company’s social media to contact them, rather than ringing up or sending an angry email, it is more imperative than ever to offer your customers a superior experience.
After all, who’s going to go into business with a company that has angry messages directed to them about their products or services plastered all over the internet?
But don’t let this put you off from having active social media accounts. Customers value companies who are active online for the convenience, but it’s important that they are catered for throughout the end to end customer journey.
This journey is becoming more and more online orientated. From the initial perception, to eventually making a sale, social media has a lot to answer for. It is also very useful for dealing with questions and diffusing complaints.
Social Customer Service Tips
A heavy dose of helpfulness and empathy goes a long way, the worst thing that you can do is argue the odds with a customer who is already cursing you for the world to see.
A great rule to go by is: if you wouldn’t say it face-to-face, or on the phone, then you definitely shouldn’t say it online! It doesn't matter if you are angry or hurt, the customer and the reputation of the company should always come first.
Facebook and Twitter are the social platforms that are predominately used by customers to ask questions, complain, or leave reviews, so these are the channels that should be monitored the most for customer service.
A high level of online customer service has a lasting impact, as other potential, and previous, customers will see how well it was dealt with and champion your brand.
The Good
We’ve had our own run-in with brilliant customer service when we were putting up some flat-pack office drawers from Ikea that didn’t come with instructions. Once we tweeted Ikea they gave us a speedy and helpful response that made us like the brand even more!
The Bad
American Air attempted to stay on top of their tweets with automation but this did not go well in the slightest! Automation may seem like a speedy solution, but it will only result in frustration from people who want to be listened to on a more personal level.
The Ugly
This restaurant thought that it would be a good idea to go off on a rant and insult a paying customer who complained about their food. As you can imagine, the extremely aggressive personal attack did not go down well at all, and the restaurant is now permanently closed.
The Funny
Humour is a great way to diffuse a situation and to grow deeper connections with your customers, and Sainsbury's did this brilliantly by making some fishy puns. It just shows that customer service can be fun and effective at the same time.
Need a Hand?
One of the biggest issues that businesses face is that their employees don't have the time on top of other work tasks to properly manage or monitor their social media accounts, but we can help. We offer full social media management which means that we monitor your accounts at all times to speedily respond to messages and let you know if there are complaints or problems ASAP. To find out more check out our case studies, or give us a call and we can tell you everything that you need to know.
