Consumers are talking about companies and their experiences like never before. They wish to share their experiences with strangers that have an opinion. According to a recent survey, consumers that have a bad experience share it with 57 people, and if they have a good experience they will tell on average 42 people. This figure could be treated as a bare minimum. With the influx of social medias, consumers have been influenced to share their experiences at every stage, and each shared experience has the resource and competence to reach millions of consumers. This is the age of social medias.
Social media platforms have facilitated companies to frequently interact with their customers. This when treated as an opportunity to build customer loyalty and customer retention, social medias are double-edged swords. These platforms have allowed customers to air their complaints and problems with zero hesitance to the social world.
Social media has given customers a platform to voice their complaints and expectations to prompt responses, but has also provided customers to improve their resolution strategy and value proposition. But if social medias are handled badly, it could ruin the reputation of the business, but if handled rightly, social medias can be used to transform a negative experience into a positive for the company, it would incentivise the customer to remain with the company. Here are a few tips, that could help you get on to the better side of the customer with social medias. Extinguish a social wildfire, before it begins.
- Be responsive: Always be responsive when handling customer complaints. Customers expect a quick reply from the company when they have raised a complaint. Quick resolution would make the customer feel important and valuable, this would turn them into evangelists in the future.
- Multi-channel communications: Make sure customers multiple channels are provided to distressed customers to reach companies. And always go for consistency in them, seamless exchange and an integrated platform is what the customers expect from a company in which they have invested their time and resource.
- Customer is always right: This might be a bitter pill to swallow, probably illogical, but it should be accepted. Acknowledge the customers complaints and problems and try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Never ignore a customer’s complaint or refuse to accept the complaint as legitimate. On social media, think and act beyond the customer, thinks about the audience that is watching your every move, waiting for you to flaw. Customers are able to observe the efforts that you put in, when finding a solution to their problem, and they will repay you by staying loyal to your company and help you in winning over more customers. Spending money on social media monitoring software and tools can be one of your best investments ever made.
