Brands now see social media as a way to improve customer experience, rather than just a communication platform. This shift is due to the way social media has changed over the years, with more and more users expecting brands to be responsive on social media. As a result, brands are now using social media to provide customer service, as well as promoting their business.
Building a relationship with your audience starts with being present where they are. Since you can’t physically be in the same space as them, you’ll need to make the most of the tools that bring you closer to social media users. Social media monitoring is one of those tools.
Why is it important to build customer relationships
Most people today expect businesses to entertain them and answer customer service questions on social media. However, social media teams for large businesses can miss a lot of mentions, conversations, and complaints. Social media monitoring can help you stay informed and updated with everything happening on social media that concerns your business. It allows you to monitor user activity on social channels and use it to build relationships with customers. If you strengthen your connection with customers, it will improve your engagement, brand awareness, and ultimately result in higher conversion rates.
Reduces customer turnover and improves customer loyalty
The more loyal customers a business has, the better off it is. Loyal customers mean stability for the business, and they are also more likely to provide excellent customer service and products to the customers in turn.
Increases the customer lifetime value (CLV)
This is a great social media KPI to capture. The customer’s longer loyalty and patronage reflects greater value in their relationship with you.
You can use social media monitoring to improve customer relationships by keeping track of what people are saying about your company online and responding to their concerns. This type of monitoring can also help you identify potential new customers and build brand loyalty.
1. Create a customer service social media channel
The first thing to do is to create a hashtag that customers can use to reach out to you. A great way to start building relationships on social media is to create a dedicated customer service channel. This can be done in a few ways, such as creating a hashtag that customers can use to reach out to you.
First, you could create a Twitter account specifically for handling customer service requests, like Sprout Social does. This would be a good place to communicate product support issues and resolutions. (Searching “support” or “customer support” on Twitter will give you more examples of customer service Twitter accounts from different industries.)
2. Humanize your brand
54% of users research products on social media before making a purchase, so it is important for brands to be active and engage with customers on social media.
Track Sentiments
You can use social media analytics to figure out the general feelings of the customers in your industry.
For example, if you are a vegan hair color brand that sells conventional Indian shades, you may be able to expand your product colors by monitoring the sentiments of conversations about Western-influenced demand for out-of-the-box, bright hair colors like red, blue, or green.
Decrease Customer Churn
An effective way to prevent customers from leaving is to keep in communication with them. By engaging with them on social media, you give them a reason to keep coming back.
A message like, “Hey, we understand your concern about the product. Would you mind telling me about your problem in detail so that we can work on it?” can help you get your customer back. In the end, human touch to the message has the ability to delight the user. With social media monitoring, you can respond in real-time and ditch the use of automated messages.
3. Use social listening to build customer relationships
Social listening is the act of monitoring certain topics and keywords online to ensure you find important mentions of your brand or related topics.
Sprout Social’s listening tool collects and centralizes information about what people are saying about your brand, industry, and related topics. With this information, you can modify and improve your campaigns and messages. Make more informed decisions to help your customers solve their problems and provide valuable answers to questions.
You can use this information to create a list of blog posts, new features, and learning resources that your audience wants to see.
4. Listen and jump into the conversation
A social media monitoring tool allows you to listen to relevant conversations about your brand or industry and analyze large data sets. The data is segmented into categories to help you determine which conversations need your immediate attention.
Skyscanner is an airline search engine that finds the cheapest flights. In addition to great bargains, it also has excellent customer support.
For example, a user posted about a glitch on their Facebook account. The user was recommended for a long layover on a trip from New Zealand to London. Their social media manager not only acknowledged the post but also left a witty reply in addition to the solution. Her personalized response went viral and attracted user engagement. Not to mention, it set a great example of building customer relationships through social listening.
5. Surprise your customers
You can’t just go by the book when you’re trying to build customer relationships because you’re dealing with people, who have different perspectives and emotions.
You shouldn’t be afraid to break the mold a little bit when it comes to social media marketing. Be engaging, use humor, and be casual. The example given is of Skyscanner, a company who does just that.
Next, try to do something unique. Your competitors are also working hard to form strong customer relationships by responding to users and participating in one-on-one conversations. If you want to stand out, put in extra effort and impress your customers. You can do this by creating memorable experiences for them. Customers don’t usually expect brands to go the extra mile. With social media monitoring, you can exceed their expectations and surprise them.
If you’re looking for an amazing customer service experience, look no further than Gaylord Opryland. A guest who stayed at a hotel for three years in a row, fell in love with the clock radio in her room, and took to Twitter to try and find the same model. The company got back to her within minutes and shipped the clock radio to her within days.
6. Listen to customer feedback
Its beneficial for companies to have an outlet for customers to voice their opinions and feedback. However, its even more impactful for companies to take that feedback and use it to improve their business.
Make your customers feel valued by taking their suggestions and ideas into consideration.
If you want customers to trust and be loyal to your company, it is important to listen to their feedback and act on it. This shows that you care about their concerns and needs and are willing to improve their experience.
7. Personalize customer experiences
You can build strong customer relationships by adding a live chat widget to your website. Your audience will appreciate being able to speak to a real person who calls them by their name and provides a real experience.
You can make experiences more personal for people by including their first name in social media interactions and email newsletters.
8. Deal with complaints instantly
A customer’s positive or negative feedback about your product or service is more likely to be shared publicly if it is negative. As such, it is important to take quick action to address any complaints before they turn into larger issues that could damage your reputation.
You can use social media monitoring tools to get real-time alerts about negative mentions of your brand. You can set the alerts for different channels – email, app, Slack, or other platforms. As a result, every time you see the mentions growing up rapidly, you can get alerted.
You and your reputation management team can work together to come up with a plan to control the damage. In most cases, if you respond quickly, customers will appreciate that you care and will calm down. This can save your brand from becoming a target for unhappy customers and trolls. Additionally, when you respond to a complaint, customer advocacy will increase by up to 25%. However, if you do not respond, advocacy will decrease by up to 50%.
9. Embrace the bright side of social media
While social media can be a negative space full of trolls and mean comments, there is also a bright side that your brand can embrace.
When customers mention your brand in a positive light on social media, make sure to respond to them. Showing that you value their opinion and appreciate their kind words is essential. You can use social media monitoring to keep track of positive mentions about your brand.
Furthermore, when you respond to the comments of content customers, it increases your credibility. Customers are more likely to trust each other than they are to trust the company.
Squarespace excels at highlighting their satisfied customers and connecting how their company is assisting them in achieving their goals. By exhibiting their happy customers, they set a precedent of their quality service. As a result, they are able to develop strong relationships with their customer base.
10. Create a relatable brand voice
The best way to build strong connections with your audience is to be relatable. Social media should be fun. You don’t have to be overly casual, but there are still ways to let your audience enjoy your presence through your brand voice.
Share memes that are related to your brand and are up-to-date with current trends. This will make your brand more relatable to your online audience. Look to other brands for inspiration to help you determine what kind of voice you want your brand to have.
11. Offer rewards and incentives
People enjoy receiving free things, so giving away prizes is a good way to motivate your audience.
12. Share user-generated content
Customers enjoy tagging brand products in their photos that they post onto social media. This is User Generated Content (UGC) which is extremely beneficial for community building and filling social calendars with content that is relevant.
Cupshe uses UGC in their social strategy to show their customers wearing their different styles and sizes. They tag the original account who shared the photo. It’s important to note that you should ask permission before reposting a users’ photograph onto your brand account.
A branded hashtag is a great way to build community and encourage your customers to share photos of your product.
13. Provide value on social media
There are a lot of different things you can post on social media. Some of them will be more focused on promoting your business, because you need to make money and help customers at the same time. But you can also post things that are just for fun or to give people information, without trying to sell anything.
You must make sure that your promotional content is not too excessive compared to the educational and free value you provide to your audience. This could include freebies, discount codes, or knowledge.
Sharing your business’ value visually is a great way to promote it on social media. Try using a Facebook or Instagram carousel, or creating a Twitter thread like Grammarly did.
14. Build an online community
The last tip for building customer relationships is to focus on creating a community. This can be done in a number of ways, such as through a Facebook Group or other online community, or by using branded hashtags. By doing this, you invite your audience to participate and get involved.
The Daily Carnage, a marketing-focused Facebook Group run by agency Carney, is an excellent example of a highly active Facebook community. The agency publishes posts in the Group, but the conversations are usually initiated and conducted by members and always center around marketing topics.