Tips for Stellar Social Support

Now that many customers use social media tools to connect with others, customer service representatives have many opportunities to deliver social customer support. This type of support costs companies less and takes up less time, making it beneficial for both agents and customers. For best results, your company should follow these tips when implementing social customer support guidelines.

You must develop a layered team if you plan to provide social customer support. This means hiring people to interact with customers, monitor social activity and analyze the results of customer interactions. Each group of employees should receive training specific to their support duties. The workers responsible for interacting with customers should receive in-depth training on putting customers at ease and defusing tense situations. Analyzers should be taught how to determine if a support interaction is successful. By creating three distinct roles and delivering comprehensive training to each group, you'll be able to do a better job of delivering social customer support.

Once you establish online support policies, use tracking software to manage customer requests and make sure agents are assigned to those requests in a timely manner. Some companies also make tools for managing social media activity. These tools make it easier to respond to customer requests in a short amount of time, putting people at ease and helping your company make a good impression on customers in need of assistance.

Track customer interactions and make note of any recurring issues. If customers consistently complain about the quality of a particular product, this is a sign you need to talk with your manufacturer about your expectations. If you receive a high number of complaints from people who have received the wrong items, you'll know you have to improve your picking and packing policies. Most companies use social customer support to improve customer service, but you can also use it to identify problems with other departments in your company.

Empower employees to resolve customer complaints without having to check with a supervisor or manager. If your support agents have to get permission for everything, it will take a long time to resolve each issue. Employees who are allowed to act independently can solve basic queries in a short amount of time, leaving only the complex issues for supervisors to resolve. Reducing the length of time it takes to resolve an issue makes it easier to build strong customer relationships.

Providing customer support via social networks is a great way to save customers time and money. To help your efforts succeed, make sure you have the right team in place before you implement a new social customer support program. Once your program is up and running, track every interaction and use the information to identify problems in other areas of your organization.

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