Social media has introduced a whole new way to communicate with your customers. Without a clear strategy for making this communication effective, however, you could quickly alienate your best customers. This is about more than just great customer service; it’s about embracing the rules of a social media world and acting accordingly.
For instance, one of the worst things you could do is embrace a “one-size-fits-all” approach to your social media communications. If you have an auto responder set to a “thanks for your support” message to every comment or notification, how will that play out with the customer who has a complaint? American Airlines was heavily criticized for this very activity, failing to recognize the importance of actually paying attention to the messages.
In fact, consumers expect a much different response via social media than other channels. Most expect a response within the hour, yet according to a Social Media marketing University survey, only 17.6 percent of brands are actually even trying to accomplish this goal. What’s worse is that more than one in five companies rarely or never respond. Given the difficulty in measuring the return on investment from social media activity, it’s not difficult to understand why some companies fail to make the right effort.
A recent Business2Community post explored this concept and the challenges companies face when they fail to interact with customers in a timely manner. One of the key recommendations for readers was to listen to their customers. While this is an important rule for social media interactions, it’s an important rule across the board. Fortunately, you can implement VoIP call recording to help.
Call centers have been using VoIP call recording for years to capture calls and make sense of the information shared. The activity is often a part of training and quality assurance. With speech analytics and quality monitoring, you can make it so much more. It provides the opportunity to dig in and really listen to what customers have to say. And, believe it or not, customers will share a considerable amount of information when given the chance.
While VoIP call recording can’t set your social media interaction strategy for you, it does allow you to mine the information shared through live calls to see if customers are frustrated with your approach to social media. If you aren’t being very responsive, they’ll let you know. This information is golden as it gives you the opportunity to do something about it.
Keep in mind that social media is rapidly changing. The good news is that a little focused attention on the voice of the customer can put you in a better place moving forward.
Edited by Alisen Downey