8 Steps to Get the Ball Rolling on a Customer Service Strategy for Social Media

Originally posted on January 17,2012 by Tricia Morris

F I R S T S T E P

# 1 A s s e m b l e your social media team

As social media continues its move from a marketing tool to

a method of customer communication and support, organizations should consider

bringing their social media account management in-house,

if they haven’t already.

F I R S T S T E P

A company’s social media team should

include collaborative representation from all major departments including team members who can answer/advise on billing questions, tech support issues, etc.

be delegated to directly managing day-to-day monitoring, content distribution and overall social media engagement efforts

S E C O N D S T E P

178

An Altimeter Group report shows that the

average large company has

social media accounts

#2 Account for all your accounts

Determine: • what accounts your organization

currently owns, and also account for any others with your brand name attached to them

• which accounts you are actively going to maintain/monitor, and delete the rest, or make them inactive/unavailable for viewing by the general public.

T H I R D S T E P

#3 Set up a social media workflow

Ask yourself…

Who will be the main responders for your social media accounts?

Who will be your organization’s go-to subject matter experts (SMEs) for product or service questions, tech support, billing? Who will serve as backups in the event the primary team member is absent, on vacation?

Who will manage/monitor the accounts on weekends, after hours, holidays?

F O U R T H S T E P

#4 Create a style guide and a response plan

Create a style guide or incorporate existing guidelines for consistent brand messaging, voice and tone, and commonly-used terms across all social media platforms.

Develop a social media response plan so that your organization is prepared to

provide consistent responses to various types of customer questions, negative feedback

and any potential crisis. Create scenarios and

develop an escalation and resolution plan.

F I F T H S T E P

# 5 Train staff

20 %The Altimeter Group’s recent State of Social Business report found that less

than 20% of 1,000 corporate respondents agreed that their staff knew how to represent the company on social media, and a majority had no formalized way

of recording social media interactions. Create social media guidelines and share them with your entire staff.

S I X T H S T E P

#6 Listen to your customers

Effective monitoring of social media platforms

can aid in detecting and resolving potential customer service issues

before they escalate. Get to know

influencers that are part of your social media following

S E V E N T H S T E P

#7 Respond positively and resolve issues as quickly as possible

Expectations for customer engagement

on social media are high. Part of your customer

service for social media strategy should include a

set timeframe for responding to customer

service questions or issues. Many companies publish their timeframe

for customer service on their social media

platforms. In an effort to provide more expansive 24/7 customer service

options, many organizations have

integrated support portal software as part of their brand’s Facebook pages

E I G H T H S T E P

#8 Evaluate and adjust

52%

According to Econsultancy’s State of Social Report, more than half of corporate respondents (52%) say their organizations use Facebook for reacting to customer issues and inquiries

This shows that providing customer service across multiple social media platforms is something that all companies are adjusting to.Take time to develop a plan that will help your organization link social media to your customer service objectives. Implement, evaluate and adjust – and you’ll remain ahead of the game when it comes to the ever-evolving strategy for successfully using social media in business

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