A recent article published by InformationWeek explains how social media is transforming the business landscape by blurring the lines of customer experience. In the article, Mark Grindeland, chief marketing officer at TeleTech, describes three strategies that businesses should adopt when promoting better customer experience:
- Be present. Social media is not a 9-5 job. Since customers are connected 24/7, companies need to be able to react at any given moment. For example, recently a British Airways customer was upset with the service he received. So, he took to Twitter to tell the world about the experience. However, the company didn’t respond in a timely manner, as a result of the messages being sent outside of business hours. By not responding in a timely matter, the situation was left to spin out of control.
- Be proactive. Flat out ignoring a customer complaint on social media can be damaging. When British Airways didn’t respond right away, it created even worse PR. Waiting until business hours to respond gave other dissatisfied customers ample time to come together and discuss their own poor customer service experiences with the company. If instead British Airways had responded to the complaint before a discussion ensued, they may have been able to mitigate the situation from the very beginning.
- Be empathetic. Don’t hesitate to apologize to customer complaints. Empathetically responding will demonstrate to the customer that your company cares about the situation. By apologizing, the company has the power to transform the poor customer experience into a positive situation.
These three strategies can help businesses adjust to using social media as a customer experience tool. Learn more here by reading the full article.
