Sep 29, 2014 By Heike Young

in Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Customer Story

Great Customer Service is Great Marketing: Making Social Service Practical with Alex and Ani

In a Wednesday morning breakout session at Connections 2014, we heard from Jessica Woodbury, Senior Manager of Social Media and Customer Engagement for Alex and Ani. Jessica shared a wealth of useful insights about how to make social customer service truly practical for marketers at companies of any size.

Key takeaways from Jessica's session included:

Social customer service is now an imperative. Customers these days expect a real person to answer when they share a request, problem, or compliment on social media.
When companies engage and respond to requests over social, those customers end up spending 20-40% more.
A social customer support team is critical to handling high volumes and escalating issues.
Companies can't use traditional marketing metrics for social customer service. For example, calculating time to resolve an issue isn't practical because not all conversations on social are issues. Customers may be reaching out via social simply to connect or compliment, so it's not all about the negatives.
Many customers consider silence from a brand on social media unacceptable. Customers are growing accustomed to increasingly speedy and helpful customer service on Twitter and Facebook, and many will turn to another brand if they receive radio silence.
Customers are brave in social, sometimes hiding behind anonymity. Not everyone uses their real name on social media, which means that many customers will say things in social that they wouldn't say in real life. Regardless, brands still need to treat each person as if the interaction was happening in real life.
Customers love to share. On average, people tell 53 connections about a bad customer experience. They're also open to sharing good experiences if you exceed their expectations.
Real, individualized responses are important. Some busy brands are trying to auto-respond and use templates for the majority of their responses. While snippets and templates can be helpful, responses should always be tailored to the unique person connecting with the brand on social.
Turn detractors into advocates. Instead of becoming defensive when someone complains on social, use the opportunity to turn that detractor into your biggest fan.
They use the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud social hub to route content and respond accordingly. Marketers on the social team receive messages in their queue based on their areas of expertise. Alex and Ani sorts all messages by category and type to make sure each person gets a response from someone who's very familiar with their need.