We’ve all been in a situation where an experience with a business – local or national – was less than satisfactory, right!? You make an effort to call, and get no call back, or you share your experience with them in a survey and get a generic ‘thank you, we will try to do’ better response. By this time, your blood is boiling and you’ve decided to take your complaint to social media. Once you’ve written your 1-star review, you at least know that other customers will see this review. But did you ever get a response from the business, even on their own social media channel? Nope! Why do companies seem to be so awful at handling these situations?
I don’t really know the answer, but I read an article recently on Clickz.com that suggested that a majority of businesses still put social media under the marketing banner, rather than treating it as a customer service tool. This means that there are conflicting interests competing for that channel space.
Is that why they’re so slow to respond or never respond at all? Maybe they don’t know how to handle the feedback? Or maybe they don’t have time?
Companies may want to MAKE time because 40% of people have taken their business to a competitor based purely on customer service.
How do we START providing good service through social media?
The first thing I will suggest is to take a cue from Nordstrom – they do a seriously nice job! EVERY single question or concern on their Facebook page gets a response!
Here’s another way to answer the question. Success with any form of social media is determined by the quality of service you are able to provide with it – whether it’s a great Facebook page or an awesome Instagram page. If you cannot be responsive on every channel, figure out which channel is most used by your customer base and concentrate on that channel. Just because all businesses are on Facebook, doesn’t mean you need to be on it.
Case in point, just look at these response times on Facebook – Kroger, CostCo and Target may want to reconsider being on that social platform:
Be highly selective about where your business is listed! Remember, half the reason to be on social media is to be interactive, so if you can’t interact, why have it!?
Are you looking to provide better responses rates to your customers? Upright Communications is here to help! Just give us a call.