Why you need a social media customer service plan

Hi friends, I drove down to LA two weekends ago. I caught the sunset in Big Sur and then [*big mistake*] drove the rest of it at night. There’s nothing quite like literally driving on the sides of winding cliffs in the dark, especially when part of the lane was starting to crumble into the oceanic abyss. LA was a mixed bag. On one hand, I had some good coffee. On the other, I came back with a streaked sunburn that makes me look like a poorly mimicked tiger. Oh well.

Hope you enjoy the issue!

–Jenn

This is an excerpt from a longer piece I wrote for Sprout Social. It’s absolutely applicable to any coffee company who works directly with customers (B2C).

Why is social customer care so important?

The customer experience plays an important role in the success of any business. How the experience plays out has implications on brand loyalty, sales, customer churn, consumer advocacy and customer retention rates.

If you were working in a retail store, you would never ignore a customer who walked up to you and asked you about a product. Yet, brands respond to only half of these messages online. Failing to respond can give you a 43% decrease in customer advocacy while a reply can increase it by 20%.

Social customer care not only addresses the customer that you’re interacting with but also anyone who might be witness to the public exchange. Responding to all direct questions sends a message to customers that you’re watching and actively participating. Selectively responding means you don’t care about all of your customers. In a way, social customer care is a springboard for increased sales and brand loyalty.

According to Statista, 47% of US consumers have a more favorable view of brands who respond to customer service questions or complaints on social media.

Not only is enforcing a positive brand image a major win from great social customer service, but so is brand loyalty. In a report by Microsoft of global consumers, 96% of those surveyed say that customer service is an important factor in which brands they feel loyalty to. It makes sense that happier customers drive repeat sales.

It’s easy to criticize brands who don’t respond but what would be more productive is identifying the root causes. Because even when you do respond, an unsatisfying also leads to brand damage.

In the Sprout Social Index, Edition XII: Call-out Culture, we found that about 50% of consumers stated they would boycott a brand due to a poor response on social. Accompanying this are consumer actions like 41% sharing the bad experience with their network and 26% trying via another channel. It’s not enough to simply respond with a perfunctory message, you have to know how to respond.

To read the full piece, click on the link below.

Why You Need a Social Media Customer Service Plan

Social customer care is foundational to great relationships with customers. Find out how to implement a complete social customer service plan.

Instagram added: anti-bullying measures and user restrictions and a “join chat” sticker for facilitating group discussions

Facebook added: custom audience reach estimates (reinstated) and an option to target a Page’s top fans in a post.

Twitter added: new warning labels for tweets that violate their rules but are being kept for public interest (yeah, huh). It’s testing swipeable custom lists

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