October 10, 2017

How to deliver genuine customer care on social media

6
minute read

Analyzing billions of human behaviors, working alongside category-leading brands like Qantas, SEEK Jobs, Westpac, IAG and Billabong we’ve learned what it takes to deliver genuine customer care, so we’re sharing how you can too.

Today, social is the service channel of choice for 83% of US consumers (Accenture), so we thought we’d share 5 key lessons these industry leaders have taught us about what it takes to deliver genuine customer care: something McKinsey states can increase the likelihood to renew, recommend or buy additional products by up to 30-50%.

Read on, or…

Understand the context behind every conversation

Ever met a person who can’t remember your name, or how you met, or who you are? Even though you’ve been having a back and forth for days, weeks, or even months?

Now, imagine this awkward encounter taking place between a customer and a brand, on a very public forum: social media.

73% of people say valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service (Forrester), and for Melita Amore from SEEK, acknowledging a brand’s shared history with someone is crucial.

You’ve thought about that individual and their needs.
- Melita Amore, SEEK

“Getting the context right means you can respond in a personalized way and shows you’ve taken the time and thought about that individual and their needs.” Melita Amore, SEEK

To help understand this context, SEEK use the History Column in Lexer Engage to see a comprehensive timeline of previous engagements.

This feature allows them to answer key questions like:

  • What has the person said before?
  • How did the team respond and who responded?
  • Has their experience of the brand been a positive or negative one so far?
  • What internal case-notes have been left on this person?

This information helps deliver a genuine and contextualized response that:

  • Acknowledges shared history
  • Evades double up
  • Boosts brand advocacy

Master a human tone of voice

It’s important to maintain a cohesive brand voice across all channels, and it’s also key to ensure this manifests as a human talking to another human, not in corporate speak. Keep in mind that in the U.S., the estimated cost of customers switching due to poor service is $1.6 trillion (Accenture).

Cost of customers switching due to poor service is $1.6 trillion
- Accenture

There are simple ways you can humanize your engagement

  • Not this: How can we be of service to you today, sir?
  • Not this: Heya, how can we halp??
  • Not this: Hello customer.
  • This: Hi Jason, thanks so much for reaching out.

A good way to achieve this is by creating a ‘fake human character’ for the team to respond as.

This person should manifest the qualities outlined in your brand’s blueprint and have a very distinctly human voice and personality.

They could even be based off a real person actually working at your company, beloved (and potentially hired!) for the uncanny way they embody the brand in everyday interactions.

Once this character has been introduced to your team, use Lexer Engage’s drafting and review features to:

  • Encourage agents in training to submit posts for approval
  • Keep track of their work through bespoke classifications
  • Restrict publishing access to those who have passed the test

Teach the team to mimic your character’s qualities and a cohesive, human voice will begin to inflect each and every response.

Genuine customer care: Cut down response times and pay attention to the individual

Today 42% of customers expect a response within one hour (Convince and Convert) and delivering rapid social customer care directly affects the bottom line, with recent research finding Airline customers will pay $2.33 USD more for good social service, and this figure skyrockets to an extra $19.83 USD if a response is provided within 6 minutes (Twitter).

Airline customers will pay an extra $19.83 USD if a response is provided within 6 minutes
- Twitter Inc

Our clients have improved their response time by bringing queries from all networks into a single inbox updated in real-time.

Using this frontline inbox, they’re rapidly tagging and triaging each query to the right agent for the job, so teams can spend less time sifting through the inbox, and more time crafting a great response.

Our clients cut down response times by:

  • Restricting access to posts on a sensitive topic to subject matter experts to ensure a timely response in times of crisis
  • Ranking and responding to posts by recency
  • Using filtering options in the product to surface priority content in relevant queues
  • Using rules to close content that doesn’t need a response
  • Establishing a clear workflow that allows multiple agents to work out of the same inbox

Speaking of ranking, our clients have also delivered better customer care by paying attention to the qualities of the person behind the post with the Identity Column.

Lexer – Viewing the customer’s context within the workflow

This feature enables clients to:

  • Prioritize objects by the social media influence of the customer or prospect so VIPs aren’t kept waiting
  • Prioritize people who have an affinity for their brand or regularly engage
  • Prioritize complaints to respond to and resolve
  • Focus on prospects or customers who are in the process of buying
  • Prioritize high-value customers who are part of their loyalty programs

Move with your audience, when it comes to resourcing

As a leader in a Social Customer Care team, it can be really challenging to know where to focus time and resources.

  • Do you respond to every single comment? Or just customer service questions?
  • What if the post comes from an Influencer?
  • How do I roster? Is there a 24/7 requirement?

Most brands experience a spike in activity as the working day ends
- CoSchedule

The answers to all these questions come from an analysis of your community.

Start by assessing volumes and response times at different parts of the day and night to ensure the right number of staff are on shift at the appropriate time. Then, monitor trends in content to get a global view of what your community is actually talking to you about.

You’ll learn more about the type of content that speaks to them, as well as the most common types of queries coming through each day and night.

Now, consider your social KPIs:

  • For organic reach, it may be necessary to respond to every post
  • Just starting out? It may be appropriate to dedicate resources to these types of queries to set expectations
  • For likes, tweets and shares, prioritize Influencers

Finally, you’ll come to a judgment call on volume vs the capability of your current team. Considering most brands experience a spike in activity as the working day ends (CoSchedule), there may be a need to resource around conventional working hours, especially if you’re leveraging this activity by posting at the end of the day.

The important thing is to move with your audience, and recognize that social never really sleeps.

Celebrate genuine engagement with genuine customer care

Ticked all the boxes? Report back on your success with powerful analytics and results.

Lexer Engage Team and NPS reporting do this in no time

Lexer NPS enables customer service agents to add a link to a custom NPS survey within the body of a private message on social.

Survey responses can be accessed within Lexer and tracked to individual customers, enabling brands to report on the team and individual performance and identify opportunities to improve the customer experience. Learn more about Lexer’s success to genuinely engage here.

Talk to us today about how you can start using the feature to deliver and celebrate amazing customer care hello@lexer.io

Photo by QuickOrder

Interested in learning more about how Lexer can help you improve customer engagement and maximize results? Book a demo with one of our retail experts today.

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