Reality hurts, yet enlightening at the same time. Successful business owners know this. Instead of looking at their shortcomings or problems as weaknesses, they use it as their strength to enhance the quality of their service. Having this mindset is applicable in all areas of their business, most especially to their social media customer care.

A company’s social media customer care influences the way the market perceives the brand. It builds up a corporate reputation — an element that gives firms the ability to charge premium prices, enhance access to capital markets, attract better applicants, and draw investors.

With an estimated 3.397 billion active social media users worldwide, a figure provided by Brandwatch, there is no wonder that the way businesses act on social media can determine their growth, reputation, and stability.

Despite being a relatively new platform as compared to its traditional counterparts such as phone and email, social media has redefined the way customer service works. At the same time, it has brought new challenges to many businesses. The most common one: mishandling customer complaints.

 

A better platform means higher expectations

The growth of the internet, particularly social media, has caused a huge paradigm shift to how customer service is delivered.

Of course, the basic principles that govern customer service — empathy, feedback, honesty, product knowledge, efficiency — are still there. These things are fundamental elements that shape customer satisfaction and positive customer experiences.

But customers are looking for more: better, faster, and more convenient assistance. Its widespread use and more advanced features led customers expectations to soar higher.

Let’s look at the numbers.

In a HubSpot article, 80 percent of customers expect companies to respond to their social media posts within 24 hours. Meanwhile, negative social media comments can influence 62 percent of customers into ceasing business with a brand.

An Ernst and Young’s study, on the other hand, discovered that 75 percent of online customers relied on community reviews than company-controlled media channels. It doesn’t end there; a recent study from Zendesk revealed that found out that 95 percent of respondents would tell at least one other person about a bad customer experience while 54 percent would share it to at least five other people.

These figures show that companies strive hard to meet customer service needs. Once they do that, there’s a possibility that 71 percent of their customers who experience positive social media customer care would recommend their brands to others, as revealed by an NM Incite study.

 

Reasons and effects of mishandling customer complaints on social media

In what way do companies mishandle their customers’ complaints on social media?

Cheryl Conner, in her Forbes article The 5 Ways Companies Mishandle Online Complaints, enumerated the following reasons:

• Businesses tend to selectively answer the questions that they customers hurled on social media especially if it’s a tricky one.
• Some companies don’t respond to their customers’ inquiries or concerns. They limit the use of their social media accounts for press releases and company news. This practice takes away the very essence of social media (i.e, to initiate conversation and build meaningful connections).
• Irregular response times.
• Hiding beneath apologetic replies without even trying to know the real issue or listen to a customer’s actual concern.
• Buying their way to immediate problem resolutions. Sometimes, companies believe that by throwing coupons, freebies, and discounts, they can reconcile with the customer. However, this practice can be seen as an act of bribing. Before considering this option, a company should try to listen first to the customer and develop a consistent policy about this instead.

Doing social media customer care the wrong way can harm the reputation and the bottom line of your business in the long-run. According to Zendesk, 39 percent of consumers avoid vendors for two or more years after a bad experience. If they bring it on social media and made it to viral posts, the effect could be worst.

Customers are willing, and have the ability, to punish a business for bad customer service, the Harvard Business Review reported. Businesses should remember that their customers are the one that can foretell their future. Without these customers, there will be no businesses.

As Warren Buffett puts it, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

 

The beauty of customer complaints

Customer complaints, by definition, has a negative connotation. This is the reason why many businesses choose to run away from it or use quick-fix approaches to resolve it. It looks ugly and scary. But as mentioned earlier, reality can be painful but enlightening at the same time.

To achieve ultimate success, businesses should see their own weaknesses. However, trying to discover it using their own effort is challenging.

Customer complaints, meanwhile, can show these businesses where they lack and suck at. Sounds hard? Yes, it is! But this is how they can improve.

Customers are the direct beneficiary of a product or service — the end-receivers. Because they get to experience the product, they can point out what’s wrong or what’s missing. There are times when they will stick to traditional means of asking for assistance. But if they did not get the service they need, they tend to bring it on social media.

The key to resolving these issues is by taking the time to really listen and understand their concerns. These are some of the social media customer service best practices that businesses should always keep in mind. If they do this, it will show them the underlying problems — the real cause — of why such a problem exists in the first place. This valuable information, which only costs businesses a extra time and effort to listen, can help them in maintaining a strong presence and image in the market, customer loyalty and better relationships included.

 

Social media customer care solutions

Apologizing and taking action to the problems brought by customers on social media is a sign of ownership. This communicates how responsible business is when conflicts arise. Rather than make them look weak, it tells otherwise. Accepting mistakes, especially in public, is a sign of resiliency. It breeds trust and promotes customer loyalty.

By implementing or getting effective social media customer care solutions, you are sure to win the hearts of your customers.

Seeking some help with your social media customer service? We’ve got your back! Contact us today for more details.