As we know, the internet, plays a huge part in our daily lives, both on a personal and a business level. Over recent years, various social media platforms have emerged and are now used across the world for both, personal and business purposes. At a business level, they play a huge part in customer engagement and understanding, making them invaluable to businesses of all sizes.
Use social media to interact with customers in real time, not just online, but also to create offline relationships.
It is important to make your brand interactive for the customer. The purchase process is a journey and must be engaging and appealing for them. But there are more ways you can engage with customers to let them know that they matter than just liking and posting updates on social media platforms.
Replying to a post makes the customer feel special, and the brand can add on to it by simply going beyond what’s asked of you and supplying more personalized information or recommendations. This is however possible only when the brand knows the customer well to create unique tailored marketing campaigns for the customer and ensuring social media engagement.
Imagine your company’s typical customer.
Maybe she is a 22-year old student who follows your food blog’s Instagram account to get food inspiration.
She reaches out to you on Instagram and writes, “Great recipe ideas! I am going to try out this recipe soon.”
Your reply – “Thanks followers name! Do share the pictures with us and tag us in your post!”
Later on, you can also repost their creations on your IG page.
Something as simple as replying to a potential customer on social media can help build a positive relationship. It shows the brand’s commitment towards its audience.
Making your tone of voice resonate largely depends on how well you understand your audience. To get to know your followers better, build customer personas, which are high-level summaries of your target customers. Position your brand carefully in alignment with your target market.
Think of your customers as people you can build long term relationships with, not just one-time visitors who happen to stroll on by.
Just because interactions take place online, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t be real.
Having a chat section for your site and encouraging customers to initiate dialogue with you is a great way to provide personalised customer service in a convenient way, while letting people know that they are dealing with a real person and not a faceless company.
Brands should also try to make their content accessible to people with disabilities. Thoughtful image descriptions when posting on social media should be used. The description will also make the entire experience better and more inclusive for all of your customers. Alongside, brands must take a stand on a social issue as it goes a long way in creating a brand story. Customers are extremely aware and appreciate companies that are socially sensitive.
Good service means happy customers, this results in good word of mouth reputation. These customers then become your brand evangelists. People are more than happy to blog or post positive experiences about good service, and in order to achieve this, you need real relationships with your customers.
At the end of the day, brands need to realize that they would not receive any benefit out of setting up brand social media profiles on every network and calling it a day. You have to make use of them and create a network of loyal brand advocates out of it. Social media should be a tool for achieving good customer service, acting like a supplement and not the replacement for it.
