Many brands consciously set goals for social media engagement, both for community purposes as well as formalized social customer service. Goals, communicated across your organization, are key for understanding what you want to achieve. Yet at the operational level, thinking through and documenting rules of engagement in a concise playbook is equally important.

A playbook crystallizes your thinking on what process agents should follow as they engage customers on social media. It should cover most common scenarios based on real-world observation of social media inquiries on your brand’s social channels. Your playbook should also take into account the common processes all agents should use to record details of their handling of customers who engage with your brand. 

When building your playbook, it’s important to consider some of the following topics: 

• How will you determine what posts are worth responding to? 
• How will responses differ based on the type of issue? 
• What categories of issues might you see on social media? Different products, languages, functional issues (billing, shipping, defects), and sentiment should all be considered. 
• To what degree will agents offer scripted responses? 
• Consider also how you will route issues to the right teams or individuals who can resolve a specific type of problem. 

Because of the spontaneity and real-time nature of social, you should strongly consider giving agents some leeway in responding in their own words, but given the PR risks, it’s a good idea to have clear guidelines for what not to say. Also be sure to build in a process whereby a consultation from a social media manager or PR expert within the organization might be actioned. 

Overall, a playbook should be easily understood, as short as possible, and perhaps even accessible to agents physically within their desk environment. One great idea, perhaps heretical in the digital age, is to print laminated copies of the playbook (or at least an excerpted “Quick Reference” version) for employees to tack to their cubicle walls.

Remember, strategy is wonderful, but execution brings it to reality. A social customer service playbook is how you bring your strategy to life, connecting your customers on social media to people and resources that can resolve their problems. 

For more insight on establishing transformative social customer service within your organization, visit our website or refer to our e-book, 8 Steps to Transformative Social Customer Service.