For small businesses of today, customer service has never been so important. It’s where two similar brands can differ, and why consumers would choose Company A over Company B. Customer satisfaction is crucial to your brand, since one small voice can spread like wildfire through social media, resulting in a huge impact on your business.
Consumers are more influential than ever. Their opinion has the power to influence others in their decisions about your products and services. When customer problems aren’t addressed effectively in the proper channels, such as your regular customer service platform, then consumers are more likely to turn to social media pages to seek answers or vent out. Now, as a small business owner, you can see this in a positive or negative light. If you’re effectively monitoring your social media channels, then you can definitely address any customer service issues that come up in it. Also, if you’ve formed an excellent community around your brand, then your community members can actually help you address these concerns by posting their own answers, effectively removing the need to go through regular customer support services.
The problem with traditional customer service systems is the fact that they have become outdated and inefficient. When customers call a helpline, they end up being put on hold for a very long time, or else they’re passed around from person to person, without anyone giving a sufficient answer to their problem. As companies continue to cut costs, many are cutting their budget on customer service, which is definitely not a good idea, since this can end up ruining your brand.
This is why customers now turn to social media to get their concerns addressed, or when they’re really frustrated, to vent. So if you’re not monitoring social media well, then your brand may be impacted by these negative reviews.
As a small business owner, you really need to stay on top of the game. You don’t want to ignore these concerns. You may end up losing customers, and you may not even know about it since customers will simply go to your competition without letting you know.
The key here is monitoring and communicating with your consumers effectively. Make sure that someone who understands social media is really looking out for your brand, and can effectively address any problems or concerns as soon as possible. Because the longer that a problem isn’t addressed, the more that other consumers can see the problem and wonder why no one is offering a solution. The problem can even become bigger – it can become reposted and re-tweeted, and online media sites may even become interested enough in it to post about it. One customer’s problem can become this huge mess that’s out of your control.
When you effectively integrate social communication and customer service, it will benefit your brand. Problems can be addressed quickly and in real time, and your community can even help you by answering the questions and thereby helping the customer. And since the answers are posted where most people can see it, other people experiencing the same problems don’t have to go through your customer support to get their concerns addressed. This can actually end up saving you money in the long run.
But of course, this is not the reason for you to start ignoring the traditional platform for addressing customer concerns. You should continue making sure to offer good support, especially when customers are clearly willing to pay for your products or services. Social media is simply another channel that you can utilize for customer service, but it’s definitely one you cannot ignore.