Long gone are the days when the only mediums for customer support were call centers and emails. These channels alone can no longer meet current customer demands, so they need to be combined with more dynamic approaches.
The boom in social media has created new solutions for customer care. Twitter is one of the most popular, and a favourite among companies and customers alike. That is because Twitter is easy to use, cost-effective, and it is easier to keep track of conversations. In addition, by using the public domain for customer service, you can build a positive reputation for your company.
In this article, you’ll learn the tips that will help you to provide high-performing customer service on Twitter.
1. Monitor Brand Mentions
The key to good customer service is being proactive with your approach. You can achieve this by monitoring your brand mentions on Twitter. People can reach out to you on Twitter either through direct messaging or through @mentions or #hashtags.
Plus, your customer service team should continually monitor mentions and hashtags related to your brand name, product name, or any other keyword that is unique to your business. You should also check Twitter for common misspellings of your brand name.
2. Provide Quick Proactive Responses
Prompt answers are essential in customer service. It is therefore important to monitor Twitter for frequent references. Being prompt with your responses will help you maintain a good relationship with your customers.
It will also help you to maintain and develop your brand reputation. This is because if people see that you always respond to comments promptly, they will most likely prefer you to your competitors.
3. Use a CRM Tool to Track Customer History
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool is extremely useful for tracking customer history and data. This is because customers are likely to reach out to you through different channels of communication.
Also, every customer you encounter is at a different stage of their buyer journey. It’s helpful to know which stage they are at and a good CRM can tell you this. Consolidating this data along with new potential leads gives you the ideal 360-degree understanding of your customer base.
A powerful CRM can help you store and track all customer details in one place. When a customer reaches out with a query or a complaint, you can address their issues with ease since you have all their history available at the click of a button.
By using a CRM, you can improve your Twitter customer service and this will help you to increase customer retention.
4. Personalize Your Interactions
Personalization is the key to winning any customer’s loyalty. Unfortunately, most businesses make the critical mistake of sending the same copy-and-paste responses. This may seem like a timesaver, but in the long run, your retention will suffer by using this outdated approach. So, always personalize your responses on Twitter.
You can do this by addressing the customer by their first name, and responding with a tweet that is specific to their needs. Not only will this increase your customer retention rate, but it will also show your prospective customers on Twitter that you are considerate about your customers’ requirements.
5. Take the Conversation Offline When Necessary
With the restriction of the character count on Twitter and the visibility of tweets, you should consider taking the conversation offline whenever necessary.
Sometimes, responses are not simple and straightforward. You might need to converse with the customer to gather more information. In this case, it makes sense to avoid an over-long Twitter chain and take the conversation offline.
Connect with the customer through a phone call, live chat session, or email, and continue the conversation there. Also, update the response of the initial tweet with the status of the request. Failing to do that might appear like you didn’t respond to the query!
6. Humanize Your Responses
Sometimes, customer support responses on the internet may sound too robotic. The same goes for Twitter. So, you should consider learning the tactics that world-leading brands use to increase customer engagement and satisfaction.
Many brands include the particular name of the person who has written the tweet in the response. This helps to humanize the message and create 1-1 brand ownership. You should also try to use a cheerful, conversational tone in your customer service tweets. These small factors add up and affect your brand’s reputation a lot.
The Takeaway
To summarize, we can say that Twitter is an excellent customer service channel and one of the most popular. Not only can it save you a lot of money and lead to quick customer engagement solutions, but it also contributes towards building a strong, positive brand reputation.
So, use these tips to update your Twitter marketing strategy so it also becomes one of your primary customer support channels.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on socialbakers.com. Any statistics or statements included in this article were current at the time of original publication.
