Long gone are the traditional ways of calling a hotline number for assistance or physically going to the brand store. Nowadays, we find ourselves in a time when asking questions is at our fingertips. The popular approach? Integration of customer service and social platforms.
Since today’s support is highly customer-centric, brands are doing everything in their power to ensure they meet customers’ requirements wherever and whenever they want. Besides, merely meeting customers’ expectations isn’t enough anymore. It is the era of proactive customer support.
Brands can leverage the self-reflective element of social media as it makes every interaction on the platform personal and vivid and reach out to the right people at the right time. In fact, according to Statista, with a global penetration rate of 54%, and 147 minutes of social media usage per day, it can clearly be a great platform for offering customer service.
The integration of social media with customer service can not only help businesses meet customer expectations but also provide them with a seamless experience which in turn can drive traffic, sales, and even long-term loyalty. Customers can easily reach out to businesses through their preferred social media platforms and receive quick and personalized responses.
Brands like Starbucks, Nike, Nestle, Tanishq, Netflix, and Spotify have integrated their customer support with socials to improve their customer’s experience and gain a competitive edge in the market.
For a more detailed insight, we have listed 5 top benefits of integrating social media and customer service for the best results for your brand.
5 Top Benefits Of Integrating Customer Service And Social Media
While the impact of social media on your business is a no-brainer, let’s have a look at the top benefits that your brand can reap from this integration.
- Helps In Direct Customer Engagement
Customers want to be listened to, heard, and catered to at the earliest. In fact, according to Sprout Social Index data, 76% of consumers expect a reply within 24 hours on socials.
With social media becoming so handy these days, customers can easily raise a complaint on any product or service, and brands can solve them instantly as well. Thus integrating customer service and social media not only provides customers with an easy and accessible way to communicate with companies but also makes it a powerful tool for facilitating direct customer engagement.
By responding to customer inquiries, complaints, and comments on social media, companies can demonstrate that they are attentive to their customer’s needs and concerns. This fosters a sense of community, bolsters your image as a socially conscious brand, and strengthens your customer’s emotional connection with you.
For example, look at telecommunications giant Telstra’s social account. Their customer support team does a tremendous job responding to everyone. There’s no comment or post that doesn’t elicit a response from their social media team. Because of their 24/7 digital customer care, consumers are more likely to post and connect with the brand.
Furthermore, you can also get your hands on social media analytics tools to track each interaction on different social platforms, which can eventually lead you to deliver a better customer experience.
- Offers Great Visibility To Brands
Social media offers businesses the opportunity to reach a wider audience and increase their visibility. Integrating customer service into social media can be your master plan, as brands can both – provide customer support and promote their products and services.
For example, brands like McDonald’s really does a good job at this. It not only responds to customers with a complaint or questions about a product but also offers helpful and timely suggestions.
Take a look at the image given below and check out the date. They have responded and added a platform for resolution as well. The brand has strategically turned a potentially negative experience into a positive one. In fact, according to Zendesk, 81% of customers say a positive experience with a company makes them go for another purchase. It’s a great strategy for building loyalty and driving sales!
Source: Twitter
Since this positive interaction can be shared on social media, it gives brands greater visibility. More and more people can discover your brand, learn how you prioritize your customers and respond to their problems and offer solutions.
Moreover, through social, brands can also run targeted advertising campaigns, which can be used for product or service promotion to specific demographics. Through this integration, they can respond to customer inquiries and comments on their ads, which can further increase their brand visibility and engagement.
- Cost-Effective Solution For Brands
One of the most significant benefits of social media platforms is they are free to use!
Leveraging this benefit correctly will help brands integrate their customer service into social media for a cost-effective solution. Brands can make use of these platforms to reach out to their customers without incurring high costs. Besides, different brands choose different socials for integration as per the activity of their target audience.
For instance, Starbucks prefers Twitter more for resolving their customer issues, while Zappos has an extremely active customer support team on Facebook. They regularly monitor social conversations and engage with their customers to humanize their brand.
Source: Twitter
Source: Facebook
Moreover, integration is a great option for brands looking for a cost-effective solution. It not only lets brands automate certain customer service tasks, such as providing frequently asked questions and offering self-service options but also leverages social media automation to reduce the workload on customer service teams, allowing them to focus on more complex inquiries and providing a higher level of service to customers.
- Assists In Quick Resolution of Customer Issues
With everything being digital, customers are getting used to faster and faster responses each day. We all have faced this, right?
With almost 59% of the world’s population using social media, they are more comfortable voicing their concerns on these platforms. In fact, according to Sprout Social, 110% of all social media users have taken to these platforms for customer service.
Hence if you haven’t integrated your customer support with the socials, do it the earliest!
When people get stuck with a query regarding a product or purchase, brands can leverage social listening to provide customers with instant assistance within seconds. Ensure to track brand mentions and conversations with the help of social media tools like Hootsuite to keep a tab on customer queries and complaints. However, if you wish to look for better and cheaper tools, try Hootsuite alternatives like Statusbrew, Sprout Social, and Buffer. They can fetch you better results at an affordable price point.
For example, Wix offers exceptional customer service on social media. They have also built their own in-house help desk software to support their users in the best way possible.
Source: Twitter
- Facilitates Greater Personalized Experience
The benefits of integrating social media and customer service cannot end without talking about the personalization that it offers!
In fact, almost 80% of business leaders say customers spend 34% more when they get a personalized experience.
Customers want to have a personalized response for each of the queries they put out on socials. If they are facing something really personal with the product or service, they might want the brand to take it offline and resolve it. This can be possible only due to the integration with social media. Brands can reply to customer queries and complaints on social media to let other viewers know about their agility and solve the issue offline, depending on the severity.
As 73% of customers want companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, integration with social media has helped companies to reach out and offer personalized support, regardless of location and time. Besides, with a huge range of available options, customers also pick their preferred platforms for voicing their concerns.
For instance, in the below image, a customer has chosen Twitter to voice out their concerns about Southwest Airlines’ service.
Source: Twitter
Wrapping It Up
Social media and customer service are two sides of one coin. They are the future of business/customer interactions.
It is as the saying goes, “Neither can survive without the other.”
As brands today need to have a multi-faceted, multi-channel customer service strategy, social media cannot be ignored. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are not only powerful platforms to have real-time interactions with your customers but also to listen and help them out with their queries.
From increased online brand presence to improved customer satisfaction, this integration has revolutionized how brands interact with customers. It has great potential to turn satisfied customers into loyal brand advocates.
So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to start integrating your customer service with social media and reap the rewards for your business.
