Meeting your customers where they are is part of a proactive customer service approach, and with the rise of social media, customers can now be heard whenever they want.  They no longer have to wait on hold, and can express their satisfaction, or lack thereof, however they want.

Here are four reasons to make your case for a move towards a more social customer service strategy.

Speed

Spending time waiting in a contact center queue is no longer a viable option for some of today’s customers.  The speed of our communications has continued to increase and today’s customers expect increasingly quick response times.  Social media offers quick ways to resolve customer issues, if you’re prepared to effectively handle them.

Hyper-Personalization

If a customer calls your contact center, they provide your agents with their basic account information so they know who’s calling and can move forward with the issue at hand.  When a customer tweets you a question or posts it to your Facebook Page, their name and basic information is available for your brand to use to identify them quickly.  Today’s social customer expects you to utilize the wealth of information their social accounts provide not simply to advertise to them, but to personalize your customer service process.  Understand who they are to they don’t have to tell you every time.

Cost-to-Value Opportunity

Customers have become more self-sufficient when it comes to seeking out solutions to their support issues.  Online forums and message boards have it possible for groups to aggregate their experiences with a brand in one place, and rely on those arenas for information. If your brand enables customers to self-serve this way-perhaps in a forum you own-customers will be happy with easy access to a wealth of knowledge, and you’ll be happy keeping contact center costs down.  Just be sure to keep an ear on the conversations and jump in with supplemental knowledge, or corrections, whenever necessary.

The Candid Web

Customers’ online behavior patterns are now a key piece of your customer picture.  Unlike the often anonymous opinions that come out of market research or focus groups, online commentary is ongoing and largely unprompted, offering a rich picture of who your customers are, what they’re interested in outside your specific services, and how they wish to be communicated with. These channels simply cannot be ignored if your brand is to collect the most complete profile of your customers and prospects.

For a more in-depth look at incorporating social media into your brand’s customer service plan, download the ebook below.