Provide Customer Service through Social Media

You probably would have heard a lot about social media marketing, but did you ever think that you can provide customer service through social media?

Yes, social media should not be used only as a great marketing tool but it should also be used as a medium to maintain and grow brand reputation. We all know that people use (at least most of them) social media to vent out their disappointments or appreciation. So if a bunch of people are not happy with the service that you are providing or the product that you are selling, then the very first place you will see them venting out their frustration would be through social media.

It’s all about damage control. Social media is a high speed road where virality runs both ways. If your product release can go viral fast, then bad reputations can also be created in the same speed, in fact it will be created much faster.

But it doesn’t mean every tweet needs to replied back. You cannot do anything about people who are never satisfied with your products and actually have no authentic reason behind it. But if a few of them are facing the same problem then, there is a definite issue that needs to be rectified.

I have mentioned a few points on how providing customer service through social media can be beneficial and why every business need to consider it.

Let’s start with a scenario:

Say, I am using an internet service and I have problems with it (which is in real, pathetic) more often than not. We all know how important internet is and how often we use it in our daily lives. So what do I do to vent out my frustration? I go ahead write a tweet with a bad review and post it on twitter with a hash # tag. Something on the lines of how the service suc**.

If there is no one who is facing the same sort of issue then my posting would not make any dent on the company’s reputation. But what if there are many people who are facing the same problem? Then this issue could really get serious and within no time the company would lose its reputation, at least some of its reputation, if not all.

•  So, how would it be if there are people from the company who are monitoring tweets? They find my tweet and other’s with the same issue.

• They reply back to me with my twitter id asking me what exactly the problem is.

• The first thing that their reply does is – It will stop me from sending out any more tweets, because I would get the feeling that somebody from the company is listening to my problem.

• So I will get involved in explaining what exactly happened rather than sending more negative tweets about the company.

• This is noticed by others facing the problem and they start responding the same way i.e they will try and rectify the problem rather than tweeting any more bad reviews.

As a company you would have accomplished a lot of things.

• Stop the virality of the bad reputation. There was no other way that the company would have stopped me or others from sending more negative tweets about the service.

• By responding to our tweets you made us feel that you care for us as customers and that you really value us.

• Apart from providing the customer service you as a company also grow brand reputation.

• Even a thank you tweet from me and others towards the company will build their reputation.

• As other people reading the tweets will know that they will find support whenever they need incase they choose your service.

• And what is the better way of building brand reputation than getting happy and satisfied customers?

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