Customer Service in a Web 2.0 World

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With marketing and social media gurus advocating a 24-hour turnaround time for customer service requests – and some organizations following this advice – keeping up can very quickly go into overdrive. Especially since not every small business has the resources to dedicate to monitoring their social media channels around the clock.

Customer service solution for small businesses

It’s a harried world and burnout is always looming with our constant connections. However, timely and effective management of service requests aren’t as out of reach as we might think. We’d like to offer a few suggestions to help you get started.
1. Get Acquainted Get to know who your customers are, what channels they frequent, how much time they spend there and exactly what they’re saying about you. Your demographic will most certainly be comprised of a mix of people who engage and interact and those who silently follow just to stay updated. Once you know where they are, tailor your customer service structure to pay more attention to meet the voices where they are.
2. Be Discerning When people come calling online, it’s not necessary to drop everything to respond right away. Twitter followers, especially, seem to expect very quick responses to their queries (and complaints). It’s an easy trap to fall into, but it’s important to take a moment to understand the level of urgency with each request. If the request can wait a while, then it’s perfectly okay to let it simmer.
3. Stay “Traditional” and flexible. Because social media channels are more economical and elicit a much faster response and metrics, there’s no reason for traditional media outlets to be ignored or left by the wayside.  You can expend a lot of effort in humanizing your presence online, but very little replaces actual human contact and a live person handling customer service interaction.

Tiffany

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