As PR professionals, we are often asked to provide counsel or create strategies around social media platforms on behalf of our clients. We all know that social media is an excellent way to engage with target audiences, develop brand voice, establish thought leadership, and share useful content. However, one element has failed to be included in overall social media strategies by an alarming number of brands.
On Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016, our client, Rational Interaction, an award-winning, full-service agency based in Seattle, released a report analyzing how major brands were using social media to provide customer service, what they’re calling “Social Customer Care.” Based on the results, you could say that they actually analyzed how brands aren’t using social media for customer care. Astonishingly, according to Rational, 92.5 percent of brands are failing to provide proper customer support through social media.
When collecting data, Rational focused on brands in three verticals – technology, retail and healthcare – and concentrated on the use of Twitter because it is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, way for consumers to interact with brands. While other social mediums have large user bases and brand presence, Twitter has 360 million users and over 67 percent of those users (that’s 207 million users) are looking for customer support from brands through Twitter. The point is, that is a lot of customers you don’t want to be ignoring.
Brands stand to lose a lot when customers go unanswered or unacknowledged. Currently 58 percent of Twitter users never get a response from a brand and ultimately this has an impact on the bottom line, with two-thirds of customers reducing spending with a brand after a poor customer service experience. Not only that, but consumers don’t usually keep their bad experiences to themselves, with 60 percent of Twitter users tweeting about their negative interaction, or lack thereof.
So what’s the solution to this obvious problem? There are a couple of tactics that brands can work into their overall social media strategy. First, consider having a specific support handle for customer service. Keep the main company handle that focuses on sharing company updates, industry trends, and the occasional meme. Then create a completely separate handle for support and questions. Not only will this make it easier to track and respond to all inbound inquiries, it will also help maintain the negative or unhappy comments and feedback in one controlled area.
Another tactic to consider is responding to every customer. Yes, this is a large task, but as demonstrated by the data, a very important one! If you run into a product issue or a problem that affects a number of customers, address it broadly, then focus on each individual. The initial and final response to the customer should be done in a public forum. If the problem is a long, complicated one, move the conversation to a private forum, like direct messaging, but be sure to begin and end communication publically. This allows your other customers to see that you are willing to address the issue, offer help and ultimately, find a solution.
Brands that begin adopting these methods into their social media plans quickly will have an advantage over many brands. Ninety-six percent of customer service requests go unanswered by global brands that lack a dedicated, localized customer support handle, such as Adidas, AT&T and Sephora. Making these changes and implementing a proper Social Customer Care program for your social media accounts has the potential to not only reduce the negative perceptions of a brand, but ultimately have larger impacts on the bottom line. What other important social media tactics would you include in your plan?
Find more data from Rational Interaction’s Social Customer Care report here: http://bit.ly/2bye9iA