BY Rachel Cagle
How important is social media in your customer service strategy? If you didn’t answer, “extremely,” you need to make some changes. Right now. According to Clutch’s How Social Media Is Transforming PR and the Consumer-Business Relationship report, social media is a primary way consumers are connecting with businesses.
For starters, when 76% of consumers post comments to a business on social media, they expect the outreach to be answered. And they want those answers in a timely manner, with 83% anticipating a response within 24 hours and 38% planning to have a response within an hour of posting. Those percentages only go up the younger the consumer gets.
Why are these responses so important? According to Clutch, 58% of consumers view businesses’ social media pages as an easy avenue for customer service. “On social … the larger community as a whole sees you trying to address the customer,” said Jason Sherman, founder and CEO of PR firm SHERMAN Communications and Marketing, Inc. “Everything is being tracked. You have an awareness of being heard that you never had before.” Through social media, your clients know that, even if they’re not being heard by you, they at least have the satisfaction of knowing others visiting your page will see their comments.
That’s why handle customer outreach on social media is so critical. If you deliver a good experience to customers on your social channels, 72% of those consumers will recommend you to others.
Social media is viewed as an informal way to interact with businesses. It gives you the chance to interact with clients on a more human level using shorter, more personalized messages. The double-edge sword of social media means that everyone on the planet is able to see what your clients are posting and how you’re responding. So, respond. It shows you care and are actually involved in the service you claim to be giving. Even if it’s a negative post, it takes guts to admit you were wrong and offer a solution in front of everyone, and a great deal of viewers will respect that.