![\"Social](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/social-media-customer-service.png\")
There are a number of important reasons that your social media strategy should include a specific plan for customer care. In fact, the only reason you shouldn\u2019t have a social customer care plan is because you\u2019re still developing it!<\/p>\nThere are a number of important reasons that your social media strategy should include a specific plan for customer care. In fact, the only reason you shouldn\u2019t have a social customer care plan is because you\u2019re still developing it!<\/p>\n
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Otherwise, you\u2019re not only missing out on a great opportunity to cut costs and provide better service \u2014 you might be hemorrhaging angry customers.<\/p>\n
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While most businesses simply assume their social platforms should act as vehicles for self-promotion and fan interaction, their customers are actually thinking something entirely different.<\/p>\n
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Nielsen reports<\/a> that one-third of users prefer to contact brands via social media rather than by telephone. More than that, 67% of consumers have already used a company\u2019s social site for customer service<\/a>. Compare that with the mere 33% of consumers that actually interact with a company\u2019s social page for marketing \u2014 the very reason most businesses start their social presence in the first place \u2013 and he irony here is staggering.<\/p>\n Businesses overwhelmingly consider their social properties as marketing vehicles \u2014 little more than ad space and a place to cultivate a greater audience to consume those ads. Yet the numbers plainly demonstrate that your customers aren\u2019t solely \u2014or even primarily \u2014 looking for information about your business, or for coupons, or for sales on your social media sites. They\u2019re looking for your help!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The fact that one-third of your customers prefer social media for customer care over traditional avenues should be more than enough to encourage you to start preparing today. While social media may not be your <\/em>preferred method of interacting with your customers, your customers don\u2019t know that \u2014 nor do they care.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Regardless of the size of your business, enough brands and businesses have embraced a strategy of being proactive when it comes to customer service on social media that it has now become the standard for all brands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These days, it\u2019s simply not enough to just be present on social media.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let a closed ear create bad customer relationships. You never listen! <\/em><\/p>\n Whether you realize it or not, an expectation exists among your customers that they should be able to route their questions, comments and issues directly to you through any (or all) of your many social presences. If those customers are reaching out to you via social media and you\u2019re not responding, you\u2019re going to have a lot of unhappy customers with a lot of unresolved issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gartner has shown<\/a> that a failure to respond via your social channels can lead to a 15% increase in churn rate for existing customers. On the flip side, when customers received satisfactory engagement and responses to their customer service requests on social media, they spent 20-40% more money<\/strong> with that company. They also were three times more likely<\/a> to recommend that company.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The financial kickbacks don\u2019t just come in the form of bigger purchases \u2014\u00a0social customer care is very affordable<\/a>. The average customer service interaction via phone costs $6. Emails? Up to $5 per interaction. But with social media, businesses can expect to see a cost of less than $1 per interaction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s important to remember that high-quality social interactions are key. Without the right speed, follow through and tact, things can go bad. A single negative social post<\/a> can have as much impact as five positive posts. That\u2019s a lot of work to overcome an issue that could have been avoided in the first place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Some estimates have the volume of social customer service incidents overtaking those by phone as early as 2017. If you don\u2019t have a plan in place yet to use your social media for customer service, you\u2019re already behind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While no single strategy will be appropriate for every business, there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure you\u2019re prepared for most social customer service interactions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most customers will find a response time of 24-hours-or-less to be perfectly reasonable. You can always communicate that expectation in an initial response and provide the customer with alternative avenues of contact if they need a speedier resolution.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of course, having an experienced partner<\/a> is always a huge benefit! In the end, as long as you\u2019re consistent and communicate your expectations to employees and customers, you\u2019ll do great. When it comes to social customer service, the only answer that\u2019s always wrong is no answer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a number of important reasons that your social media strategy should include a specific plan for customer care. In fact, the only reason you shouldn\u2019t have a social customer care plan is because you\u2019re still developing it! Otherwise, you\u2019re not only missing out on a great opportunity to cut costs and provide […] KEEP READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bad](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/bad-customer-relationships.png\")
<\/p>\nIgnorance isn\u2019t bliss<\/h3>\n
Great expectations, great rewards<\/h3>\n
The best time to start is yesterday<\/h3>\n
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