The secret is out in living color on the cover of Consumer Reports – how to use social media as the last chance way to get some attention when unhappy with a product or service. This issue shares secrets to great customer service, and social media use is one of them. Consumer Reports states that 84% of consumers who posted complaints to social media used Facebook. The report goes on to suggest that social media can be a highly effective way to resolve customer complaints, even when other approaches fail.
JCPenney is one retailer that was cited as having great customer service via Twitter.
When a customer reached out by phone and learned of the hold times, she quickly went to the company’s Twitter page. She said that their phone wait times were “nuts” and within minutes a representative quickly tweeted a reply. After a bit of back and forth, the issue was resolved.
As the chart indicates, the under 25 demographic shows an indication that they will be the ones who will expect this type of service moving forward, so making sure those wait times are on target will be well worth the effort.
Ann Michaels & Associates, a leader in Customer Experience and Social Media Management, conducted a study on this very topic
How long is too long when it comes to receiving an answer to a product or service question in social media?As the Consumer Reports article shows a consumer expectation, Ann Michaels & Associates set out to look at the disparity between what consumers expect as far as wait time for brands to respond to consumer concerns vs what is actually happening.on social. The study was initiated when it was evident social would serve as a customer service channel – take a look at consumer expectations vs brand response and learn how response time on social shifted over a three year period. Click here to find out the results
Social
media can be your greatest asset and your biggest downfall. Do it right and you
can gain new followers, create loyal customers, and successfully grow your
brand. But a few missteps and you can turn away potential customers.
If
you get your approach wrong, it can quickly destroy your social reputation.
Once your brand’s reputation is damaged, it is very difficult to rectify. And
with so much online competition just a click away, it’s extremely easy for
consumers to find another brand to fill their needs if you turn them off with
the way you use social media, by your tone, or how you post.
So
let’s start with why people follow certain brands on social media:
They are interested in a product or service
They are offered incentives
They are interested in promotions
They find the social media profile entertaining
They wish to communicate with a brand
Their friends or family follow the brand
And
why people unfollow brands on social media:
Too many promotions
Too much tweeting/posting
Irrelevant content
Inappropriate use of jargon or slang that doesn’t comply with brand identity
Erratic posting
Failure to reply to comments /messages
(Source: sproutsocial)
So what social behaviors
are most annoying to consumers? Here’s what to avoid:
1. Poor grammar and
spelling
Poor
spelling and grammar are the top most annoying things to social media users as
a whole, according to market research. (A close second is the abundance of
memes or political cartoons that have no place on a business social media
account). It is way too easy to use spell check or hire a professional editor
to check your posts before publishing them to make sure everything is correct. Your
business page needs to reflect your brand identity, which should always reflect
professionalism and attention to detail.
2. Begging for likes
If
you are too focused on getting likes for your page you will lose credibility
with followers. Social media should be used to engage with your target audience
– not to boost your own ego with how many likes you have. Instead of blatantly
asking for likes, shares, and comments, provide content that encourages your audiences
to engage and gets them excited about being included in the conversation.
3. Improper hashtag use
Some
people really love the hashtag – the more they can squeeze into a single post
the better. But when it comes to any business profile on social media, you need
to use hashtags wisely and appropriately. Use a limited number per post – two
or three at most – and make them count. Only use hashtags that are appropriate
to your business, industry, or individual post.
4. Ignoring criticism
No
matter how great your company is, at some point in time you will receive
negative feedback. It may not be deserved, but you should never ignore it. Always
respond calmly, concisely, and offer to take the issue to a private forum such
as a phone call, email, or direct message. Be polite and non-reactive – you
need to be proactive, even in the face of negativity that is completely
undeserved.
And
address criticism quickly. The longer you wait to address complaints, the
angrier the customer becomes. 89% of consumers read businesses’ responses to
reviews. Read reactions thoroughly, respond quickly, and defuse the situation
before it becomes a major deal.
5. Posting too often
There’s
a fine line between maintain an active presence on social media and completely overwhelming
your audience.
Too
many posts can be aggravating to the point that customers “unfollow” you or
simply result in your posts becoming lost in your followers’ newsfeeds. Be
aware that not every single follower will see every post. You should post to
Facebook once per day – twice at most – during times when you have analyzed
that your posts get the most response. This is critical!
6. Having a bad website
Every interaction a consumer has with
your business counts…whether that is on social media, in a brick and mortar
store, or on your website.
For
the 64% of you who have a website, remember
that this may be the first impression someone has of your business? If they
have a poor user experience, chances are they will not follow you on social media
or become a loyal customer. The site should look professional and clean,
include a menu so users can easily find the information they are looking for,
and have links to your social media accounts.
On
social media consumers are looking for deeper connections with the brands they
choose. They take time out of their day to read your posts, watch your videos,
and like and share your content. When done properly, social media marketing can
create loyal brand ambassadors that will increase the growth and success of
your company.
So
work mindfully to make sure you avoid the above mentioned social media
mistakes.
It
takes a mere second and can actually make someone’s day. Smiling is probably
the most underrated gesture we can bestow upon one another. Think about how
many people you interact with during the day. Or maybe people you just walk by.
How easy would it be just to smile at them? You never know what kind of day
someone is having so why not try to make it just a little better.
A
smile can also do wonders for your business and the customer experience. Many companies
strive to achieve a great product or service but forget the other side. Customers
want to buy a complete package that includes your product and the customer
service that comes with it; this experience includes the sale, purchase, and
post-sale. Your goal is not just getting your customer to buy and go, but that
they will return and bring more customers with them.
The simple
action of smiling can have a dramatic impact on the way you relate to a
customer and the impression that this will give about your brand. No matter
whether you interact with a client in person, by phone, live call, chat or
email, a good attitude will always be useful.
What your smile can do to your customers
Studies have shown a good smile can increase confidence by
up to 10%.
It helps build a good first impression of your business; a
customer will always prefer to do business with someone who is happy.
Smiling improves your mood and therefore the attitude in
which you face everyday situations, including your sales work and customer
support.
A smile is contagious and humans tend to copy emotions, so
a good attitude on your part can improve your customers as well.
The smile during phone support
Did
you know that smiling on the phone can help you reflect a positive attitude?
Customers can tell, even over the phone, what kind of mood you are in. A startup company that offers internet phone calls explained; “Most of our sales and support processes are managed by phone
contact, so we can tell you from our experience that our customers know when we
smile and that’s why we do it. In fact, many customers gave us great feedback
about our customer service and it all starts with a smile.”
How do you measure the business
benefits of a smile?
It’s no
secret who does customer service the best—Trader Joe’s, Chick-fil-A and
Southwest Airlines—and you will rarely see an unhappy employee. These companies
go above and beyond to give every customer a memorable experience.
QuikTrip Corp., a Tulsa, Oklahoma based chain famous for its
in-house analytics and memorable customer service, just clinched the 2019 CSP Intouch
Insight Mystery Shop, their fourth win in the program’s 15-year history. The
study includes both a covert and a revealed audit, with shoppers sizing up 10
participating brands on everything from greetings to gas-island cleanliness.
Chet
Cadieux, chairman and CEO of QuikTrip, says, You can’t solve everything with
math,” he says. “It just so happens that … you can use analytics to hire the
right people to begin with. And if you hire friendly, sincere people, they’re
generally, on most days, going to be friendly and sincere to the people they’re
taking care of.”
84% of
QuikTrip shoppers agreed that they were greeted in a courteous manner, placing
the chain nearly 20 percentage points ahead of the average. Another measure of
QuikTrip’s customer-service strengths is how well it scored on the question
“Would you recommend this store to others?” Based on the Net Promoter Score, a
metric that measures consumers’ loyalty to a brand by having them rate their
willingness to recommend it on a scale of 1 to 10, QuikTrip received more 9s and
10s than any other retailer.
That’s
significant, says Cameron Watt, president and CEO of Ottawa, Ontario-based
Intouch Insight, which conducts the mystery shop on CSP’s behalf.
In the CSP Intouch Insight Mystery Shop, shoppers are not necessarily regular
customers of the brands they are visiting, Watt says. But the fact that
QuikTrip scored so high with these shoppers is considerable, “because you
create customer loyalty one customer at a time,” he says.
“If a person
goes there and they enjoyed the experience enough at your brand, even though
they usually shop at another brand, and they’d be willing to recommend you, I
think that would be very highly correlated to your ability to drive customer
loyalty,” Watt says.
For its part, QuikTrip is most interested in how its customers weigh the individual variables of the c-store shopping experience. Its internal mystery shop assesses employees’ ability to hit these needs, and a large percentage of their compensation is based on their performance in this measure. Consumers’ expectations for c-store service may be modest, but for a retailer to consistently hit the mark on friendly and fast with nearly every transaction is a triumph. Ensuring a high batting average means hiring right the first time.
