Now more than ever, customers are turning to social media as a method of pre-purchase research, often with a short window of time before committing to buy or resorting to an alternative. The difference between purchasing from your business and another can often depend on your digital footprint, how easy it is to connect with your team, and the impression your brand voice leaves with viewers.
We will dive into these three areas below and explain the potential impact each can bring your business.
Digital Footprint – What Is It and How Can I Improve It?
A digital footprint is your portfolio of online assets. For example, your website, social media profiles, testimonials, and business listings quickly indicate the relevance of your business based on a consumer need.
Ways to improve your footprint include continuously questioning if you are reaching your desired audience on the most relevant platforms – stay with us. The full breadth of social media is only for some. There is no need to venture into TikTok if this is not your audience or appropriate for your key messaging, so a combination of Facebook and LinkedIn may be more appropriate. Either way, having a developed social media presence is becoming a prominent indicator of relevance for digital natives.
The goal is to shorten the time and effort it takes for a potential customer to gather essential information about your business. This information includes opening hours, prices, location, experience, and business values. Making this information easy to find saves time for the customer.
Using Social Media as a Service Channel
Marketing and customer service go hand in hand because each depends on the other to manage relationships. We recommend leveraging your social media as a service channel because it creates direct communication with your customers and allows you to differentiate your business’ personality from competitors.
What do we mean by service channel? The short answer is making yourself available to answer customer queries, respond to engagement, and interact with people online. To achieve these three areas of social interaction, you must keep it timely. A recent study from McKinsey found that 40% of consumers who reach out to a business on social media expect a response within the first hour, but this is only possible for some.
We are not recommending you stay glued to your phone but encourage you to set a schedule for regular monitoring with boundaries. Setting yourself a specific window for monitoring social media builds consistency and realistic expectations with customers. For example, if you don’t have much time to manage social media, set aside time daily to check your messages to keep communication frequency consistent.
We recommend that 1-2 people take responsibility for all social channels to address comments or messages within 24 hours. We also recommend communicating the hours your business monitors your social accounts using an automated message.
Communicating Your Brand Personality
Now is the time to ask yourself, who is [insert your business here]? What do you value, how do you want to make people feel, and where is it essential for you to show up for your consumers? Once you can answer these questions confidently, we recommend developing a specific tone and unified communication method with your followers online. For example, a few questions to ask yourself include: are you comfortable using emojis? How formal or informal would you like your interaction? Should the customer feel like they’re talking to a friend?
Your public engagements and interactions on social media leave an impression. Responding to comments, reviews, and direct messages are all low-cost ways to re-engage with your customers and make them feel valued. For example, if you are a florist and a customer tags your business in a post, commenting on it reaffirms to your customer that you appreciate their business. The lasting impression can sway their decision to purchase from you the next time they want flowers.
We hope these have been helpful tips on using social media for customer service. If this is something you would like to implement but is currently beyond your bandwidth, please contact Dubzz. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your needs and develop your online identity.
