Social Media: When we see those two words together, it represents a revolution in the communications landscape. Over the past several years we’ve been creating communities, building relationships, and providing transparency and brand trust while serving and connecting customers more quickly.
But have you thought about leveraging it – particularly Facebook – to empower your customers to solve problems quicker and have better access to customer support?
Doing so will improve the customer experience because customers happen to be in charge today. They like spending time on social media, which arms them with the ability to criticize or praise companies where everyone will see. And if it’s not good, they too will take their business elsewhere. In fact, 33% would rather use social media than to interact with a company over the telephone.
First, what do you mean by self-service?
Small and medium sized businesses are now turning their attention to creating Facebook pages with self-service solutions. On those pages, it is possible for customers to:
- Pose questions
- Receive support
- Simply interact with your company
- Have their messages and conversations converted to support tickets to empower the support team to respond and perform better
…all without having to overload the customer service support center on the e-commerce site.
An incredible upside to this is the same knowledge base can be used on the Facebook page and the company website. This has the effect of extending the reach of your SMB beyond its current capabilities.
How does integration work?
For example, companies like Zendesk or nanoRep are leading customer self-service companies. They allow for full integration between a Facebook page and a self-service knowledge base, thanks to a smart new widget that connects fans directly to the e-commerce support center.
Using this widget, fans, followers and customers can:
- Interact with live agents
- E-mail support
- Chat with customer reps
- Use the FAQs, forums and on-site blogs
Using this real-time information in tandem with analytical tools will empower the customer support team to perform better.
Don’t Fall Behind – Integration is Happening Right Now
According to a brand new study by Social Media Today, 52% of businesses surveyed say Facebook is the most effective social channel for customer service with Twitter following at 25%.
Facebook as part of your support team and strategy is no strange idea now. Not convinced?
How Self-Service on Social Media Benefits Your SMB
- A self-aware knowledge base can now populate itself with questions/answers in real time
- Self-service support can be used across different management divisions & channels beyond Facebook.
- The customer support operation is centred at the e-commerce site, but self-service on Facebook extends your reach
- Facebook likes/dislikes can instantly be reported back to the company so that more real-time information is shared and changes can be made accordingly
- Leads can be generated as users post positive feedback because of support
- Tracking and monitoring is automatically done – resulting in higher ROI
- Customer satisfaction increases since companies are highly responsive to customer needs and preferences
Customers expect you to respond. Last year, only 36% of customers who ask for assistance via social media have reported receiving effective service BUT 71% who reach out online for assistance expect responses within 5 minutes!
So why will working in self-service functions generate more leads for your business?
Because interactivity and responsiveness feed off one another. Why not lead a revolution in your own communications landscape?
Image credits: Giovanni Saccone, State Farm, Guian Bolisay, Geoff Stearns via Creative Commons
Source: B2C_Business
Combining Customer Support And Facebook to Maximize Your Leads
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