The rising importance of getting social media cusstomer service right
Most businesses these days are looking at new ways to grow their business and there is no doubt that social media customer service is becoming increasingly important.
And as well as traffic to social media increasing, so is the customers expectations on their experience via Social Media.
A large part of those expectations is immediacy, customers have little patience yet Social Media management seems to be quite a slow process.
But why I hear you ask?
This could be due to a variety of reasons lack of clarity around whose responsible to respond to post, when as well as lack of knowledge to answer all queries.
Marketers in theory have knowledge of their fields and lack the technical knowledge and vice versa.
As social media becomes the first port of call for an increasing number of consumers, it’s important that businesses are able to respond effectively via this channel.
The time has come for customer service agents to play a greater role in social media management to ensure that all enquiries and complaints are dealt with quickly, by the best person for the job.
Often it is assumed that social media is the responsibility of just one department but is that realistic?
Discussions on social media vary and can include a wide range of reactions from company news to recommendations and referrals from happy customers and of course complaints.
The best approach is for the professionals to do what they do best.
Leave PR, Brand and Marketing to the experts while call centre staff deal with support issues, complaint handling and if required bring in other departments the complaint is directly related to.
In order for Social media management to run smoothly across the business, it’s important to get the team, processes and technology right.
Setting up the team for success
Setting expectations and performance metrics upfront will help the team know what is expected of them – how they should prioritise responding to social media posts, how quickly a post should be answered and when they should escalate an issue – this will prevent the team (especially those members who already have heavy workloads) from feeling overwhelmed.
Finding a system to ensure good communication is vital if social media customer service is to be of consistently high quality across the business.
The System
Take the time to map out a process for responses. Here are guiding questions to answer:
- Which team members are responsible for which category of posts
- How are posts prioritized?
- How are they passed to the right people?
- Is there a time limit for responding?
- How is performance tracked across this new channel?
- Will you compare it to voice metrics?
Getting the technology right to support the team
The right technology tool can automate specific processes relevant to the needs of your contact centre.
It can do a number of things such as sort enquiries and put them into the correct queue or route them to the best agent.
It can also measure how long it takes an agent to respond to the post, and how many interactions take place before an issue is resolved.
It’s suggested its always best to partner with a specialised call centre technology provider that understands your business needs and can assist in getting the technology right.
This allows you to focus on your customer service and avoid the tech headaches.
Find suppliers of social media customer service technology as well as outsourcers and BPOs who specialise in social media customer care in our CX Directory.
Be the first to comment