The importance of customer service in the digital era

Customer service has always been an important part of customer retention, but never more so than now. In today’s modern world, businesses are a fundamental part of the digital ecosystem, interacting with consumers across a wide swath of the internet, with an enormous number of consumer touchpoints that cover just about every action a consumer can take online. Over the last decade, the distance between businesses and their consumers has been consistently decreased, particularly with the continued growth of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that allow businesses and consumers to interact directly and share the same space. The result of this is that businesses are able to get to know their customers on a more intimate level than ever before and build relationships that are more personal than the traditional business-customer model.

However, the flip side of this digital trend is that consumers expectations are high, as well. With nearly every business just a tweet away, consumers expect instant access to businesses for customer support regardless of whether or not that business is prepared to respond quickly or effectively. Furthermore, much of this interaction occurs in public spaces, meaning that what could easily have at one point been a one-on-one conversation now takes place in a forum seen by potentially hundreds or thousands of current and potential customers. For an underprepared business, there’s a latent danger to a poorly handled Facebook post or Yelp review. On the other hand, businesses that excel in this category can turn good customer service into a competitive advantage.

Quick response times and a friendly online presence can help a business turn a potential crisis  into an opportunity to cultivate brand loyalty and an appreciative audience. Here are some strategies to help you mitigate viral disasters and gain brand ambassadors through providing excellent customer service in a digital world:

    1. Actively monitor social media for questions, comments, and feedback. When someone is looking for customer service, social media is often the first place they will go. Make it a habit to check in routinely throughout the day and interact with your customers and set up notifications for comments and mentions. If you have a larger number of social profiles, it’s a good idea to think about using a monitoring tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to help you monitor your accounts.
    2. Look for conversations beyond your brand pages. While your social media accounts are a good place to start, feedback is not always placed as obvious as a Google review. To really provide outstanding customer service and interaction online, you should always try to know where your audience is talking about your company. Whether that’s Facebook groups, Reddit, or a tiny forum somewhere, knowing where and what your customers are talking about can help you intercept any negative situations before they become bigger problems in a more public space.
    3. Consider supplementing your staff with help of a support bot. We may not have flying cars yet, but we certainly have plenty of conversational robots,or “chatbots” as they are commonly referred to. Chatbots are a great addition to a website or a social page and can help answer common questions or redirect customers to information that will help them on your website– and many of them can interface directly with live support as well, allowing for customers with more in-depth questions to get the help they need. For a powerful bot that’s easy to build, one great way way to get started is with Chatfuel for Facebook, or Drift for websites.
    4. Have a plan to handle a crisis. No matter how well you manage your online presence, there’s always a chance that a customer will have a bad experience and head right to social media. This might be a terrible Yelp review or an irate Twitter user, but the process is similar– pick up on the problem and immediately triage the situation by taking the conversation out of the public’s view through direct messages or a clarifying phone call. No matter the process of rectifying the issue, make sure you publicly respond to the customer and apologize if the situation calls for it– you don’t want to look like their concerns are falling on deaf ears.
    5. Don’t forget to recognize positive feedback. With all the concern about mitigating negative interactions, it can be easy to forget that many of your customers are doing just fine. Take time to thank your customers for their business and respond to any positive comments you receive with a friendly attitude. These actions may be simple, but go a long way towards fostering relationships with your customers. Treat your customers like they matter, because they do!

Managing your digital presence isn’t the easiest task, but hopefully the strategies above will help you improve your online interaction with your customers. For further study, take a look at some of the businesses you think of as having good online customer service and find out what’s working well for them. In the meanwhile, feel free to contact us and we’ll help you think through your digital strategy!