By Brittney Helmrich
The way you interact with your
customers can truly make or break your business. Especially now, in the age of
social media — word spreads quicker than you can imagine, and all it takes is a
few bad experiences to ruin your business's reputation.
To keep up with the times, it's
important that your business has great customer service, and even more so, an
engaging social media strategy that's equipped to handle customer service
issues as well. Don't just let your Facebook page or Twitter account be a place to share your
content — make it a platform where your customers and readers can feel
comfortable reaching out to you (good or bad), knowing that they'll get a
response.
Not sure where to start? These 10
companies do a great job of managing customer service on their social media
accounts. Follow their lead, and you'll be rocking social media in no time.
AirAsia
Airlines are no stranger to customer
complaints, so it may come as a surprise that AirAsia (and JetBlue, too) has
made this list. However, AirAsia's Facebook presence is outstanding, and the
company goes the extra mile to make sure they reply to as many comments as it
can — and with close to 3 million likes, that's a lot to keep up with. AirAsia
responds to customer inquiries with helpful Web pages and advice, and is always
friendly and personable in its replies, whether it's the middle of the work day
or the middle of the night. The company also runs a lot of fun promotions, like
its "Free Seats Challenge," which gives 12 winning customers a year's
worth of free seats on flights.
JetBlue
JetBlue understands how important it
is not only to engage with happy customers, but to quickly problem-solve and
respond to customers who are dissatisfied with their service. Sure, it's easy
to share good feedback on your page, but a few wrong moves can do serious
damage. JetBlue makes it a point to respond not just to customers who @mention
them, but to customers who talk about the brand in general but didn't tag it in
the post. This means that the company's social media team is likely tracking
and monitoring keywords and relevant hashtags as well, so they can find and
respond to more customers — a key strategy that every company should be using. [Great Customer Service Is Key to Free Publicity ]
Nike
With more than 4 million followers
on Twitter, to say Nike has a huge social following is an understatement. The
company recognizes just how important customer service is, especially on social
media, which is why Nike created a separate Twitter account just for responding
to customer inquiries and issues: @NikeSupport. Nike Support is dedicated to all
things customer service, making it easier for customers to reach out when they
have a problem or a question they want answered. And Nike Support is very
active, and like other companies with great social media customer service, very
quick to respond. If you look at the account's Twitter feed, you'll see replies
every few minutes. This shows customers that they can trust Nike to provide
them with the help they need, when they need it.
Seamless
If you're not already following Seamless
on Twitter, you should change that right away. The popular online food service
company has one of the best social media strategies out there. Seamless'
Twitter account is fun, amusing and foodie-friendly, and shares everything from
mouth-watering food photography to hilarious food puns and memes. The company
also frequently shares discount codes on its feed. Beyond that, however,
Seamless has a stellar customer service strategy, and is very quick to respond
to complaints or website errors. Your lunch order is an hour late? Not to worry
— tweeting at Seamless will almost always garner a response and they'll help
you figure out where your food is as soon as they can. Website down? The
company's social media team lets all of Twitter know when it will be back up,
or at least that they're working on it as fast as they can. And if you have
positive feedback to share, Seamless will also respond with a great sense of
humor — they'll probably even follow you back, too.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock does a great job of
sharing engaging and relevant posts on Twitter — especially photography — but
the stock image company's social media presence is more than just a feed of
clickable content. Shutterstock's social media team makes it a point to
interact with others who share relevant content, and handles both negative and
positive feedback quickly and with grace (and even a sense of humor when
appropriate). Shutterstock also lets users know what department the
company is sending their feedback to so they know they're contributing to
change. For example, in instances when users find mistakes in photos,
Shutterstock's social media team responds and also passes the information on to
the artists, so the images can be fixed and resubmitted. The company has also
been known to respond to users with amusing stock images, the way other Twitter
users might share GIFs or memes.
Starbucks
Starbucks knows how to rock both
Facebook and Twitter in terms of customer service. The coffee giant is active
and quick to respond to customer questions and complaints on its Facebook page,
and is engaging and fun with its customers on Twitter, too. Starbucks knows
when to bring the personality to its replies, and when to hold back and be
professional, showing customers that the brand is both personable and dynamic.
And, like Nike, Starbucks also started a separate Twitter account called @MyStarbucksIdea as
an additional way to engage with customers. This account, while less active
than Starbucks' main Twitter account, is a place where customers can submit and
discuss ideas to make Starbucks better.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is known for being engaging
with customers across its social media platforms, and for having a pleasant and
personable social presence. Additionally, a 2012 study by social media insights
company socialbakers showed
that T-Mobile responded to 86 percent of the questions it received on social
media (over 2,500) over a three-month period. This means that T-Mobile makes it
a point to respond to the vast majority of the customer inquiries it receives.
The mobile phone carrier is also known for taking advantage of its social media
fan base when it comes to searching for new employees, too, taking T-Mobile's
social presence far beyond simple customer service. And, members of T-Mobile's
social media team sign their Twitter replies with their names, so customers
know they're talking to a real person.
Walmart
Walmart has more than 34 million
Facebook fans, so you can imagine that keeping up with the comments the
company's Facebook page receives is no easy feat. However, scroll through any
comment thread on Walmart's posts, and you'll see numerous responses from the
company, both to positive feedback and customer complaints. And while the
retail giant sees complaints often, the company always responds in a friendly
and professional manner as often as possible, and works with customers to solve
their issues or direct them to someone who can be of more assistance.
Whole Foods
Whole Foods' Twitter presence is
truly one to admire. The company shares everything from healthy recipes to
relevant news stories, and hosts Twitter chats, too. And even with nearly 4
million followers, the company manages to respond to Twitter users in a fast,
fun and friendly manner. Whole Foods also knows how to get its followers
talking about the brand on social media, too — it frequently sends out calls to
action, asking Twitter users interesting questions or encouraging them to share
recipes or pictures.
Xbox
Xbox may be all about gaming, but
the company doesn't play around when it comes to its social media strategy. In
fact, Xbox (which also has a separate Twitter account for customer service
purposes, @XboxSupport)
holds the Guinness World Record for most responsive brand on social media —
yes, that's a thing now. Xbox's Twitter team really knows what they're doing.
In the account's "about" section, Xbox clearly lists the hours during
which the team is available to respond so that users know when they're more
likely to get an answer. And with nearly 2 million tweets sent out to date,
there's no question that this brand takes pride in its quick and efficient
response times. But just because Xbox Support is efficient, doesn't mean it's
not fun, too. The Twitter team knows how to be friendly and helpful in
tandem.
By
Brittney Helmrich, Business News Daily Staff Writer
No comments:
Post a Comment