Dec 29, 2016 By Lauren Kemp

in Marketing, Social Media

3 Important Lessons of Social Customer Service on Twitter From 2016

Another day, another fire to put out.

Working in customer service isn't easy, and working in social customer service is its own unique challenge. Not only are you dealing with angry customers, you're dealing with them in a very public forum. With service becoming a key differentiator for companies and consumers having increasingly high expectations, it's more important than ever to provide better customer experiences.

Every year, companies must put customers first, and this year was no exception. Here are a few lessons from 2016 to help you prepare and improve your customer service on Twitter for 2017:

1. Respond to everyone (or at least try to).

70% of surveyed Twitter users expect a response from brands they reach out to on Twitter. This year, one study found Nike responded to 96% of all customer service inquiries on Twitter - an impressive feat for a global brand with over 6.7 million followers! It's no news that social media has become a channel for consumers to voice their complaints or ask for help, but today's users expect your company to be on social and respond back to them. Leave no stone unturned.

2. Respond fast (especially to complaints).

Not only do consumers expect you to respond to them, they expect you to respond to them fast. 71% of Twitter users expect a brand to respond to their query within an hour. Jet Blue is a good example of a brand that responds to its customers in a timely manner - sometimes within 10 minutes of the complaint being posted!

3. Climb aboard the chatbot train.

Chatbots are becoming the future of social customer service. Just recently, Twitter started rolling out customer service chatbots for businesses. Chatbots help take the pressure off service teams by engaging with consumers through automated messages. As Artificial Intelligence continues to improve, we can expect to see more of these chatbots being used by companies to help solve customer issues. Don't be a laggard and pay attention to this trend.