Social Customer Care
What Is Social Customer Care?
Social customer care is the actual service customers have with companies through social media channels. You no longer have to pick up the phone and call a company. You can tweet to the company, connect with them on Facebook, instant message them, connect through LinkedIn, and so on.
The people who respond to these social media interactions are often the same people who would have picked up the phone. The interaction simply happens on a different channel. Increasingly, people are using their smartphones or mobile devices not for calls but for the apps companies create for connecting with customers. This trend has gotten stronger every year.
There are different ways customer care can be offered:
1. Reactive Customer Care
Social customer care can be grouped into two subcategories: reactive versus proactive. With reactive customer care, someone might post a comment to a review site like TripAdvisor and the company responds. Usually, companies respond only to negative reviews or social media posts.
With reactive customer care, timing is important. The moment somebody posts a comment about your business on social media, especially if it’s negative, you need to respond in a matter of minutes, not hours or days.
2. Proactive Customer Care
With proactive customer service, you enhance the customer’s experience by sharing great content related to your industry. A restaurant might post a favorite recipe. As a speaker and customer service expert. Whether you share blog posts, tweets, quotes, memes, or something else, this content is part of the customer experience.
Using social media to share important or timely messages is another way to offer proactive customer service.
Humor in Social Customer Care
When you’re creating videos, tweeting, or offering other forms of social customer care, think about ways to make it fun or add levity. Humor done well can endear your brand to customers and it can go viral.
Please note, humor can also work against a company when it’s used to offer criticism.