In our world of social media, it seems like customer complaints are announced over a nationwide or even worldwide loudspeaker. Fortunately, happy customers can also share their positive reviews with the same effect. For good or for bad people will talk, and what they think of your business can be written all over their friends’ newsfeeds.
Interestingly, while almost every company now uses Facebook for marketing, relatively few are using it for customer service. You can use Facebook to create an image for your company that shows you care about your customers. Here are five ways customer service through Facebook can help you both retain and gain customers.
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1. Inform Product Development and Improve Your Current Offerings
Know what people are saying about your company on Facebook. You can set up alerts for certain words such as “customer service,” “complaint,” “frustrated,” or “question.” This will help you respond to negative comments or customer service issues more quickly.
You can also create a tab on your main Facebook page which invites customers to tell you what they think, offer suggestions or ask questions. This will keep your main page from being clogged up with these types of comments and give you direct feedback for your market research.
2. Lessen the Burden on Your Customer Service Team
You may be a large business with a call center outsourcing services or a small business where you wear the hats of both owner and customer service representative. Either way, Facebook can help lessen the burden of your customer service needs.
You can create a Facebook support community such as the page created by Dell. This allows your customers to ask the community for support. They are in essence helping themselves, but your company gets some of the credit. Don’t be afraid to let customers talk to one another. You might have customers who are well-versed in your product which can help other customers to use the products more capably. Remember to recognize the contributions of these helpful customers.
Other companies such as AT&T have created a customer service app for Facebook. This can help your customers reach information that they need in a timely manner without having to call your company directly.
3. Crowdsource Your Marketing
Customers talking to one another can work to your advantage as they can begin to feel like a part of your brand’s community. They will promote your product and you will crowdsource your marketing. There will, of course, be some negative discussion as well. You will need to monitor what customers are saying so you can respond quickly to negative feedback. Thank them for their input and show that the company desires to meet the needs of its customers.
Remember that customer service isn’t always about complaints. People will also post positive reviews and comments. Acknowledge these as well to encourage more positive feedback and enthusiasm for your brand.
4. Happy Customers Are a Pleasure To Work With
Facebook is accessible customer service. There is no “estimated wait time” on the phone and no apology for “experiencing high call volume.” Your customers don’t have to sit on the phone listening to elevator music as they get more and more frustrated with their complaint or issue. Instead, they can browse pictures of one friend’s new baby and comment on another friend’s new relationship status while you work to find an answer to their question or solution to their problem. They will be in much better spirits when they interact with your company’s Facebook customer service representative.
5. Save Money
While there are some paid services which you can use for marketing and analysis, a Facebook page itself is free. You can create one for each department of your company, all free of charge, and save some money in your customer support budget.
A recent study by Forrester Research showed that three out of four consumers expect a reply to a negative comment on a company Facebook page. Whether it’s your intention or not, customers will most likely use your Facebook page for customer service. Don’t lose customers by letting those comments fill up your page unnoticed. With a little organization, customer service on Facebook can improve your overall business.
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Nice and informative post. Thank you for sharing.
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I have been implementing Facebook into my business with great success. Since I created a facebook page product sales have increased greatly and customers feel better about my products since they can relate to a real person in real time. I think that’s the best benefit from using facebook – letting your customers know they are making business with a real person and letting them get to know you. It definitely makes wonders for your business.
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Thanks a lot for another great post!
I’ll create a page and spread my product!
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This is very true; using the community to help solve a customer’s problem can be very beneficial and cost effective! I hope to start using facebook more often to offer customer service as well.
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@Vanessa, that’s true! Any feedback made on social media has great effect on the targeted company, whether negative or positive. A company will do anything to please their customers, if that much is at stake.
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Very good reasons for using Facebook.
I think the ease of communicating is very, very beneficial for all concerned. It is all a click away. Which is a big advantage over the dreaded telephone queue.
There is also the quality issue, with a written communication you get time to plan your message.
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Very relevant post! My aunt recently had a problem with her internet provider and she got so mad with the way customer service is handles through phone. You know, long holding times, passing the call from one agent to another, etc. She decided to post her concern on her FB wall and tagged the page of her internet provider. Within minutes, her problem was resolved.
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@angeldrb, From my own experience, I’ve noticed that by making your issue public on social media has to be the fastest way to get a valid response.
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I agree that Facebook can lesson the burden of the customer service team. I also think that it will help but a big company like At&t, will have most of the customers helping each other out on their community forums. I really wouldn’t think that At&t would get some of the credit if one customer helps out another though. Overall some great list of reason in this article.
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This is a fact. Facebook has prooved to be a reliable platform for entrepreneurs to market their businesses and customer satisfaction especially in kenya and the east and central africa where rerearch from reliable sources shows that atleast 96% of businesses, both small and large scale use facebook to acquire attention and clients.
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Many people talk about the demise of Facebook, but i think it’s going to be around for a long time. Most people who talk about leaving FB are younger people who no longer think it’s “cool”, mostly because older people are now using it. I see it being valuable for a long time, partly because of the reasons you outline in this article.
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Indeed, just like youtube, facebook has grown over the years to a beast that just can’t be ignored when trying to maintain a business. It’s a easy, and most important, free publicity that can be seen by everyone using this social tool.
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Indeed, just like youtube, facebook has grown over the years to a beast that just can’t be ignored when trying to maintain a business. It’s a easy, and most important, free publicity that can be seen by everyone using this social tool.
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Very useful tips.I agree that Facebook is the best marketing tool for the moment of speaking.
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Facebook always surprises me. I used to always underestimate the “community” aspect of customer service but most of the time they end up solving their own problems.
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I agree. Facebook is most likely the best marketing tool available right now – it’s interactive, everyone uses it, it’s accessible enough for everyone.
I’ve started a little local online sales program, and now I think I’m ready to take it to the next level.
Thanks for the great insight, much appreciated.
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@ Bloggety, this is one of the great idea to promote small business in online. Because this is cost free effective one. At the very short of period your business brand name will be loud all over though Facebook. Almost all the sellers and buyers are in FB, so you can promote you business or your brand awareness through FB easly.
No Need to spend extra money for promoting FB fan pages, because these are cost free. Spend 10-15 minutes in your fan page per day along with your profile updates, share interesting photos,videos and events, this will helps your business growth. Share your FB fan page with your friends also, by this way you will get more likes and impressions. And in FB there is an option for see how many peoples are talking about your FB fan page. At the first few weeks it will low, but you can see the further growth after couple of months.
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I’m not sure if this is such a good idea for smaller businesses. It’s definitely a double edged sword at the very least. I have to ask: If one doesn’t have any extra money to pay for a “social media csr”, how does one find the time to add these tasks to an already overloaded schedule?
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Great tips Lindsey! While they’re already on your Facebook page, it would also be a good idea to keep them engaged with funny, relevant photos and videos. Everyone loves to laugh at a good meme, and all the better if it has your company’s name on it, right?
This would bring up the spirits of your customers even more, whether they aim to complain or praise your services, and they would probably be inclined to share your page with their friends.
Social networking is a beautiful thing. 🙂