Recently, I had a problem with some new security software I had paid a subscription for. I pressed the chat button on the company’s homepage to seek support. After waiting for 15 minutes, I abandoned any hope of chatting with someone who could help me. Then I emailed the representative that had sent me a confirmation email confirming I was signed up and ready to use the service. No response…ever! This experience made my blood boil and after cursing them into oblivion and trying to figure out the problem on my own, I vowed a solemn promise to never use them again.
Don’t leave your customers hanging when there is an issue. According to Zendesk, 82% of people stop doing business with a company because of poor customer service. Ignored or underserviced clients will post negative reviews about your brand and tell their friends, family and anyone else who will listen, how much they loathe your business. You’re looking at reputation suicide if your clients feel like they aren’t getting the help that they need.
More and more people are using social media to interact with the brands that they patronize. A 2015 Buyer’s Survey Report discovered that more than 50% of buyers use social media to connect with vendors. These buyers use social media because it involves platforms that they are accustomed to using and many feel like they will get faster responses than if they use the company’s in house means of communication.
Edison Research did a study where they uncovered that:
- 32 percent of social media customers expect a response from your team within 30 minutes
- 42 percent want to hear back within the hour.
- 57 percent expect that same response time on weekends and after business hours as well.
The take away so far is that you need to respond to your customers. You need to address their needs quickly and you need to incorporate social media into your customer support strategy. Luckily, Facebook is here to help! Last month, Facebook opened up their Messenger platform to allow users to incorporate automated bots, software and humans that can chat and interact with customers. This is great because this will allow companies to address customer service issues using a platform that most people are accustomed to using. In addition, Facebook has designed their new service so that companies can easily incorporate this technology into the options they offer their customers.
Another great thing about Facebook is that if you respond to 90% of your customers’ messages within 15 minutes, you get a badge that will show up under your business page’s cover image that will say “Very Responsive to messages.” Underneath that badge, it will show the percentage of messages that you respond to and how quickly you respond to them. Many of you may panic that you don’t have time to babysit your Facebook page all day and night waiting and responding to your customer’s messages. Facebook has thought of this too. First, you have notifications that you can set which will alert you that you have a new message. Second, you can set your messenger status as away. Facebook won’t dock your response time if you change your status, so go enjoy your night at the movies, just make sure you change your business page’s messenger status before you go. Lastly, you can set up “Saved Replies” which are canned, auto-responses to messages you may receive while you’re away. These auto responses aren’t calculated towards your response time but they will let your customers know that their messages have been received and that you will get to them when you return.
We get it, keeping your customers happy can sometimes be a monumental task that overwhelms even the biggest and most efficient companies. By using Facebook as a customer service platform, you can quickly implement a process and platform that people know how to use and reassure them that you will respond by achieving your “Very Responsive to messages” badge.
While we can always do better, WebPunch is here for our customers! If you have a reputation problem, we are the experts who can help you take things to the next level and knock out your competition.
