8 ways Social Media has changed Customer Service

8-ways-Social-Media-has-changed-Customer-Service

Social Media has completely changed the face of customer service and the way consumers interact with a brand. Instead of dialing the call center number and going through the pain of dealing with agents with little or no knowledge of their problems, customers prefer to post their issue on Facebook or Twitter that earns them an immediate response and their queries are solved within a blink of an eye. Companies have nowadays started focusing on omnichannel customer service to serve their clients and potential customers on their preferred channels, hence driving effective customer engagement.

Below, I have explained 8 ways social media has changed customer service. Let’s go through them one by one.

Customer Interaction has Gone Public Now

Many Customers no longer prefer to call the customer service and have a one-to-one interaction with the representative to get their problems resolved. Instead, they want to share their problems with online platforms, especially social media. The companies can’t afford to hamper their brand image in public forums like these and need to take immediate action to solve the problem which also gives them the opportunity to demonstrate how helpful and highly responsive they are. This will definitely create a positive impact on potential customers by showing that you take care of the customers at real-time and that you are very proactive.

Serve customer on their preferred channel with Omnichannel contact center software

According to a study, more than 60% of consumers have already engaged in a customer service transaction using social media. There are both challenges and opportunities for companies here.

Customers Choose their Medium of Communication

There are still many companies who don’t handle customer service on social media. This is really alarming as most of the customers are now choosing social media platforms to interact with companies. Even if the company has all the other channels for customer service, they might suffer and lose their customers to the competitors.

Customers have Plenty of Options Today

If you do not take care of your customer’s issue as soon as possible and fail to provide good customer experience, then you are surely at a risk. Your customer will not take much time to find a viable alternative to your company. All your competitors are present on social media and social networking will lead to your customer switching to your competitor.

Customer can Make or Break a Brand’s Reputation Easily

In a matter of seconds, customers can ruin your company’s reputation by writing a complaint on your Facebook page. Reputation management has now become a core part of customer service over online mediums and companies will have to take care of it without delay as customers want immediate results now and are not willing to wait. Regular social media monitoring can help companies in managing their reputation well.

Companies can Deal with Multiple Customers at Once

Tackling customers over the phone, requires a lot of time as each customer take his/her own time to describe their situation to the contact center agent. However, with the emergence of social media, customer service reps can handle multiple customers at once and can easily deal with customers facing similar issues by posting the solution on a public forum.

Companies can Leverage Social Media Influencers to Build their Brand

Connecting with social media influencers allows you to increase awareness of your brand, create brand advocates and increase online reputation. Maintaining a good and lasting relationship with these influencers will provide your company with an opportunity to improve site ranking, gain more followers and eventually become a social media influencer. They can help you in many ways. By writing a good review about your product they can influence many others to purchase your company’s products. If they share news about your company on social media, it will definitely help in improving your brand’s reputation.

Companies Can Announce Policy Changes Instantly

In the past, companies had to take out advertisements in newspapers to deliver mass messages to consumers about any change in their customer service policy. But things have changed now with social media coming to light. Company can post the changes in social media and will take seconds to spread among their clients.

Customers can Easily Help and Support Each Other

The moment you post a question or a problem or ask for advice, your friends and colleagues instantly reply after seeing the post. Even if somebody is not known to you, but has some knowledge about your problem or has himself facing the same issue, would come to your rescue and support you in reaching out to the company.

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