Brands on social media have an unrivaled opportunity to connect with their customers. Beyond driving brand consideration and sales, social media is becoming many customers' first point of contact for customer service. A positive customer experience can affect brand loyalty, brand awareness, and sales. Think of it this way: every person who interacts with your brand's social media is a potential customer. You wouldn't ignore a customer walking into your physical store, and it's crucial your social media audience is treated the same.

According to Sprout Social, failing to respond to social media messages can give you a 43% decrease in customer advocacy, while a reply can increase it by 20%. Your social media interactions, both public and private, let customers know you’re listening and monitoring. Let’s break down the key pieces to a successful customer service strategy.

Customer Service Tone and Voice

Similar to your brand’s tone and voice in captions, establish a tone and voice for customer service, both publicly and privately. Fans and followers will associate this ‘personality’ with the brand, so it is important that this customer service voice is aligned with your brand.

This tone and voice can be humorous, informational, sarcastic, whatever feels most in line with the direction of your brand. Not only is your customer service on social media a means for assisting customers, but it is a great opportunity to provide a valuable and memorable brand interaction with your followers.

A unique take on the customer service experience via social is Chipotle. The famous burrito brand actually has their community managers speak to customers as themselves and by name, as opposed to the anonymous ‘we.’ Not only do these personalities answer and resolve customers’ issues, followers have now started leaving comments just to chat with the team! People are more likely to be loyal to brands with a human aspect, and this is an excellent technique for achieving that connection.

Importance of Response Speed

Social media has made everything immediate, and customer expectations have followed suit. A quick response speed to both negative and positive sentiments lets customers know their experience is top priority.

83% of people expect companies to respond to a social media question or complaint within a day. While this isn’t always possible depending on the volume of comments and messages, a prompt and thorough response is key.

Respond to everything.

People want to feel like they are heard, and even a small reply to a positive comment creates that connection with the customer. A customer who has gone out of their way to leave a positive comment should be rewarded with a response from the brand, and when they are they’ll be more likely to repeat this positive interaction. Win, win! People are more likely to purchase and be loyal to brands that are easy to get a hold of, so attention and speed keeps customers coming back for more.

Personalization

Have you ever called a customer service phone number for assistance, only to receive the dreaded automated voice on the other end? Social media is no different.

Customers become frustrated with obvious canned responses, and respond more positively when they feel there is a real human on the other end assisting them.

When possible, refer to customers by name and write personal responses. These little touches assure you’re real and show the customer you’re going the extra mile (and who doesn’t like that?)

For brands with a high volume of comments and messages, you can customize chatbots and auto responses to pull in names and customer info to create that personalized experience.

Be Proactive

After you’ve solidified your customer response strategy, you can focus on becoming proactive. If customers often reach out with the same questions, this is a hint to create some self-service, easily accessible resources.

Having an easy to find FAQ landing page is an easy source to direct customers to. A great tool to utilize is Instagram stories to answer questions. (Hint: Save your responses in a highlight to refer customers to later!)

Other interactive social strategies such as a Live Q&A, IGTV interviews, and behind-the-scenes stories create a more personal connection with the customer and highlight brand transparency, all while answering questions before they even come your way.

Customer service is the unsung hero of your social media strategy, and while not the flashiest, it is crucial to the overall customer experience. With 52% of all brand discovery happening on public channels like social media, it’s important you’re prepared to provide a well-rounded customer experience via social.