Guest Blog: What Makes a Great Social Customer Service Agent?

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Flavio Martins writes a great article about how businesses perceive their own social customer service. He gives some suggestions for you to use as a checkup on your level of service.  - Shep Hyken

Here’s an interesting figure: 80% of companies believe that they provide a superior customer service… but only 8% of their customers believe they actually provide a superior customer service.

There’s a great disconnect today between the customer service providers deliver and the expectations of their customers.

Is your business one of the few that actually lives up to what it believes? If so, then it’s very likely you’re using some form of social media to enhance your customer relationships.

There’s a reason it’s called customer “service”. To do all that you can to serve your customers is going to enhance that connection you share with them tremendously, and as we’ve touched on so many times before, your bottom line is going to be the reflection of how good your customer service actually is.

Be Personable, Be Social

When people have a negative experience with a business, one of the first things they do is sign into their Facebook and Twitter accounts and proceed to complain.

If people feel cheated, they want to let the whole world know how bad they thought your business was – how they feel you cheated them. This is actually an opportunity in disguise.

You know what customers hate? “Company Policies”. Nobody wants to read through a list of policies or frequently asked questions. They will have a question or complaint, and they want it answered directly, immediately, from a happy and helpful company representative.

So when your customers go on Facebook and start complaining to the world, you can have staff members in place to find these people and to immediately go to these disgruntled customers and address them directly. This isn’t about confronting them, it’s about resolving their problems professionally. When you do this, allowing this person’s social media following to witness how your business takes care if its customers, you’re going to win over more business while making the disgruntled customer happy at the same time. It’s win-win for you.

Always Exceed Expectations

More than 55% of customers don’t expect any of their complaints or inquires to be responded to in less than one hour. What would happen if you were to exceed these expectations? What if you had a social media customer service agent respond to a person in less than 15 minutes, and did everything they could to resolve the customer’s concern? I guarantee one thing – it will dramatically improve the relationship between your business and that customer.

In many cases, providing good customer services doesn’t involve paying a single dime in company expenses. It often only includes making a customer happy, making them feel like they matter, and handling their concerns with concern and empathy. In short, they’re human, and they want to be treated as such.

Is this difficult? Not at all, though it may take some discipline and experience. For the most part it’s simply about being personable, sincere, professional, and making sure things are as convenient as possible for the customer in question.

Making Things Convenient

If a customer poses a question to your business, or even a complaint about how your business handled their problems, then your social media customer service agents should respond to them through the same platform. So when a customer makes a statement on Facebook, don’t send that person a message through their email – respond to them directly through Facebook!

Perception is key. It doesn’t matter how good you treat a customer if they don’t PERCEIVE that you’re treating them well. The intentions of your business may be good, but your customer has to perceive they’re being treated well before they will respond positively.

Here are the four primary things that cause a customer to abandon a brand:

Rude customer service agents
Being passed around to different representatives without resolution
Being forced to follow up on an issue repeatedly
Having to wait too long for an issue to be resolved

Make sure your social media customer service agents avoid these major pitfalls while delivering outstanding positive service. Do so and you’ll expand your business reach (online and offline) and customers will eagerly return to your business again and again.

F lavio Martins is the VP of Operations at DigiCert, Inc. He’s a Marketing and Customer Service leader and strategist. Flavio has been named by Huffington Post as a Top Customer Experience Pro and by ICMI as a Top 50 Contact Center Leader. Follow him on Twitter  @flavmartins – http://wintheustomer.com

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

The post Guest Blog: What Makes a Great Social Customer Service Agent? appeared first on Shep Hyken.