Attention Social Media Marketers: Learn How To Use Social Media For Customer Service

I guess you would agree with me that corporate branding tends to be the number one priority of socially active businesses. Customer service, although often overlooked, is an essential branding ingredient in my opinion. Simply put: the quality of the customer experience you offer can make or break your brand image.

Fortunately, social media, with its real-time capabilities, allows you to create exceptional customer service at zero cost. Here are some excellent social media customer service tips from Boingo, HP and Time Warner Cable.

1. Boingo’s Social Media Customer Service Insights

Boingo managed to leverage Social Media to offer timely technical support for their Wi-Fi services and have been very successful for the following reasons:

• Boingo prefers using the term customer care rather than customer service. To them, focusing only on serving a customer is “old school!”. Alternatively, Boingo’s goal is to foster meaningful relationships with their customers. That’s why; being active on Social Media seemed like a no-brainer to them.
• Boingo are proactive in their SM customer service care approach as they don’t wait for customers to address them directly. For instance, If a Boingo customer tweeted: “my Boingo connection is not working”, an alert Boingo customer support representative will jump in instantly and offer help. That’s the beauty of real-time services.
• Boingo customer support representatives use their real names to create a more friendly relationship with customers. Other businesses prefer to use their brand names for customer service which is not the smartest thing to do on Social Media.

2. The HP Recipe For Exceptional Social Media Customer Service

HP entered the social media scene inspired by the fact that their customers hang in there a lot. So, they decided to be readily available to serve their customers promptly and efficiently.

• As a big brand, HP must work hard in order to preserve their brand image by hiring highly qualified customer support representatives to work on social media. They act as the HP brand ambassadors on the social scene. They get extensive training on how to create an exceptional online customer experience by offering timely and satisfactory support to HP customers.
• HP discovered that when searching for answers about HP products, online channels seemed to be the most preferred method. That’s why; they have ambitious plans to fully integrate their support system into social media. For example, when a customer raises a question on their Facebook page, it will automatically appear on HP’s support forums. The customer will be happy he didn’t have to leave Facebook to get instant support.
  
  (Speaking of integrating customer support to Facebook, LiveScribe, to name just one example, offer a support Tab on their Facebook page, making their fans’ lives much easier. )
  
  Simplifying the customer service process is another key reason behind keeping your customers happy.

Time Warner Cable’s Twitter Customer Service Infographic

The following Time Warner Cable infographic is self-explanatory and is a very attractive way to promote their customer support service on Twitter.

I love how their customer support Twitter accounts is a nice blend of their abbreviated brand name and the representative name (such as @TWCablePhil). They act like “virtual badges”, creating a more “humanly” customer experience.

Thanks to Social Media, effective customer service is easier than ever. I invite social media marketers to raise their customers’ awareness on the importance of incorporating customer service into their overall social media strategy. Even better, they can provide comprehensive plans on how to leverage them for creating optimal customer experience.

Have you tried utilizing social media for customer service? How was your experience? What additional tips would you recommend? Your valuable contribution is greatly appreciated.