Customer Service for the Social World

The fundamental misbelief that businesses have regarding ‘customer service’, is the belief that it exists during set hours. Traditionally, businesses had customer service hours where you could talk to someone face-to-face that then expanded to call centers, sometimes across the world, where customers were able to call for assistance. The Internet then made it possible to conduct live chats with customers, and Knowledge base pages began emerging which allowed customers to search for their resolutions on their own. In the age of social media that includes communicating with your customers on popular sites such as Twitter and Facebook. What is important to note about social media, as it relates to customer service, is that regardless if your business is not on Twitter or Facebook, chances are a conversation about your business is occurring. The best thing that you can do as a business owner is to be able to moderate, influence, and engage in the conversation – with the intention of evoking a favorable impression of your business.

Customers are quick to voice their displeasure or delight with a product or service; traditionally customers would spread an experience about your business via word of mouth. Now, customers are quick to voice their experiences with a Tweet, status update, or a review on Yelp. It is in the best interest for businesses to think of ‘customer service’ as a chance to converse with your customers – wherever that may be; in person, phone, or social media. Nothing is worse for a business than having a negative (or positive) conversation about your brand, and not being aware of it; valuable insights can be gleamed from these conversations that can help your business improve its core functions and Knowledge base.

There are several tools that businesses can use to provide customer service. If want to incorporate some of the customer service tools available, please contact us . Some of the tools can be used to track keywords on Twitter related to your business so that you can instantly respond to any concerns/inquiries your customer may have.

Live Chat: there are programs out there that can engage potential customers whom are viewing your site; allowing you to have a chance to provide proactive customer service. This is beneficial for customers because they can ask questions in real-time and it mimics the real life customer service experience, but in a virtual realm.

Whether you like it or not, your customers and potential customers are having a discussion about you. Your Customer Service strategy for your business should include a solid social media/Internet component that aims to engage and communicate with your customers.