Using Social Media for Customer Service
Category : Social Media
Know the ways a angry customer is trying to reach you!
Customers are learning how to use social media for customer service. Your ability to monitor and respond to this is crucial. How are they using it? Some ways are less obvious and more damaging than others!
A customer can post straight on your Facebook page but in general it’s not very visible, send you a message but only you see it, or for maximum impact for all to see they can post a comment on an ad or a regular post. The ad can be the most vulnerable since it’s something you are paying for. It’s important you respond fully to the concern as the post will have a wide distribution.
While Facebook comments can be deleted by your company, Twitter Tweets can’t. They are much more visible to the general public. They simply follow and ‘Tweet’ to your page with a message limited to 280 characters. The public posts will appear to people who follow your company and the customer. What you want to do here is ask the customer to reach out to you via direct message where the public can’t see and where there isn’t a character limit and you can authenticate them and their claims. Keep in mind a customer can also amp up their complaint by posting their complaint and tagging your company. Then it appears to all your company’s followers. It’s much more visible to you and the public while also much more damaging to your brand. Responding by taking it to private direct message is crucial but also addressing it with an apology is crucial to help all who see it know you address customer concerns / complaints.
More information
You can find more information from the customer perspective at Consumer Reports, “How to Solve a Customer Service Problem Using Facebook or Twitter“.