Feedback, specifically the lack thereof, is an enormous issue for the customer service-​oriented salesperson. You send out surveys, reach out to your clients, and do everything just shy of begging, but customers just don’t seem motivated to respond. However, there exist magical places where people seem to do nothing but express their opinions, and in excruciating detail. The best part? You have easy, free access to them. What are these magical places? Social media sites.

In his article “5 Ways in which Social Listening can help shape Customer Experience,” Ganesh Mukundan highlights some advantages social media can give customer service-​oriented salespeople. The first being the broad spectrum of your audience. Billions of people are active on a number of social media sites. Social media gives your business a voice that reaches everyone who follows your page and your page also shows up as a recommendation to people who are likely to have an interest in it. Literally everything you post is available to billions of interested people.

33% of consumers use social media as a preferred method of contact when reaching out to brands, according to Nielsen research. And for an obvious reason: they feel genuinely heard. Customers know that if they post any type of review of a business on social media, even if the brand doesn’t respond, their voice will be “heard” by hundreds of other users. This is where you can harvest all the brutally honest feedback you need. And react to it instantaneously.

You know how people rant about their negative experiences on social media to feel validated by others? You can be one of those people helping to turn around the negative situation. With social media, you have the ability to read and reply to your customer’s problems and concerns in real time. By being active on social media, you are executing, in one of the most noticeable ways possible, proactive customer service on a personal level. Not many people view social media engagement as a traditional business tool, so use it to personalize your service and impress your clients.