Embracing Social Media to Enhance Customer Experience
Many companies have developed robust social media platforms for marketing and advertising, but aren’t quite sure how to manage customers who visit a company’s site to lodge a customer service inquiry, simply vent or even express satisfaction with a product or service.
They simply run away from customers. Yet, these same companies would never ignore a customer phone call or email, probably because it seems more controllable than the social media environment.
We all are aware that consumers are using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as their primary communications outlet and that to communicate effectively today, we must be present at every customer touchpoint. I know we have all tried different approaches and learned a few lessons along the way.
At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, we have found that delivering strong customer service through social media channels strengthens customer relationships and increases brand loyalty.
Over the course of time, we have identified three vital elements of social media customer care and it starts with open, honest communications and then dives into the culture of our organization with a "no-holds barred" approach to always take care of the customer.
The Benefit of Transparency
Successful social media customer care means responding to all inquiries, “the good, the bad, the contentious and the ugly.”
Organizations worry that by responding to customer service inquiries within social media, it can trigger a wave of negative publicity, something we all want to avoid.
However, they fail to recognize that customer relationships are based on engagement, not just listening and outreach.
At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, a leading destination for floral and gourmet gifts, we deliver 25 million gifts a year, with 1 million gifts delivered during the peak Valentine's season. At times, we may miss the mark, deliveries may not make it on time. We deliver perishable products and there could be quality issues. Sometimes that means our brand will take some lumps on our social media platforms. Nothing makes us more upset and we work very hard to communicate with transparency on our social platforms to make things right. No matter what, we 100% stand by our commitment to our customers to make sure we deliver a smile.
That commitment is evident on our social platforms, as we answer every single customer inquiry, allowing full transparency to service an issue, in an effort to take care of the customer. This commitment and transparency has helped us strengthen and build trust with our 30 million customers today.
Employee Buy-In Is Imperative
The commitment to social media customer care must come from the C-suite, which is often a stumbling block. Many executives are not avid users of Facebook or Twitter, considering those platforms as tools mainly for their teen-age kids and many company departments live in silos and don’t see the social communications as touching their group.
At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, we have corporate mantra that “everyone is a part of social media. Our best product is our customer experience.”
During key seasons, we convene a “morning huddle” of staffers each day to discuss what is and what isn’t working. These high-intensity, standing room-only sessions recap yesterday’s operational highlights, marketing and service results and reset strategy, if necessary.
The morning huddle features a cross-functional group of employees from various departments. The insight shared in these meetings includes our customer feedback, which at times, are shared in our engagement with customers on our social platforms. In fact, we have signature products that are a direct result of feedback from our customers. If we notice that a product is receiving high customer service inquiries, we have the opportunity to discuss the feedback with our product development team.
Outside Insights Can Help Make the Right Changes
There are many outside organizations that can provide the necessary “stress tests” of customer service platforms across various metrics to gain insights for enhancing the customer experience. They analyze social media, phone and email response times; chat/engagement; shipping and delivery.
At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, we have found that investing in third-party insights to monitor our email, phone and web experience and provide in-depth reports helps us perform better. For instance, after each key holiday season, we obtain third-party insight and immediately look at how we can enhance our customer experience. Insight shared with us from StellaService, an online customer service monitoring organization, has helped us recognize the need for increased customer service support within social media. To date, we have moved our customer service response time from nine minutes to five minutes within social media, offering a more enhanced customer experience.
Social media customer service care is especially important in today’s demanding retail sector, where consumers have an opportunity to choose from a variety of retailers. It provides a competitive edge and turns one-time transactions into customer relationships building brand loyalty and repeat business.