Turn Down The Noise With Social Media Customer Service Software

In the 2003 movie, Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey plays Bruce Nolan, a jaded TV news personality who, through no fault of his own, is endowed with the powers of God. One of his celestial responsibilities is answering prayers, a job that quickly becomes overwhelming. There are so many prayers streaming into his email account and invading his mind that he can't keep track of them, so he ends up ignoring every prayer and shirking his godly duties.

Bruce could've used Social Media Customer Service (SMCS) Software – which uses technology that facilities tracking, prioritizing, managing and responding to customer queries and requests on social media.


We are not making this up. SMCS is for real and here's what it is all about!
 

What is Social Media Customer Service Software?

People have high expectations when they reach out to businesses using social channels, with over 80% of users expecting a response to a social media question or complaint within one day. Twenty-four hours is generous when you consider that almost half of people expect a response within an hour. Perhaps the same expectations can be applied to answering prayers, which is why Bruce Nolan looks like he's about to lose his mind.

If only Bruce had Social Media Customer Service (SMCS) Software! SMCS allows for swift, proactive customer communication on social media. It does this within one unified platform that contains some or all of the following tools:
 

• Pre-programmed/automated chat (often called "chatbots").

• Live chat support that integrates with existing social chat functionality (e.g., Facebook Messenger).

• Email support via the use of a shared inbox where all requests are stored in one place, regardless of their source.

• Community forums where users can ask questions and learn from others who have similar issues.

• Access to a knowledge base where users can search for issues on their own or trigger information based on questions submitted to a chatbot.

Example: Let's say that a customer purchases a new laptop from your website but needs to exchange it because of a manufacturer defect. Your customer sends an email but can't get the issue resolved, so they tweet out a plea for help. Your social media manager gets a notification from your SMCS Software and quickly follows up, assigning the issue to a customer service representative who helps the customer. Without the software monitoring issues, the customer's problem may not have been addressed quickly (or at all), leading to bad reviews for your store, unhappiness and gloom. Considering how fast the word travels on social media, it would be easy to say that you would soon have a PR crisis at hand, if not for SMCS. #SMCSToTheRescue

Now that the PR crisis has reverted, you might want to dig a little into how this remarkable technology came into being.

History Of Social Media Customer Service Software

Using social media as a customer service channel started around 2012, most noticeably on Twitter, as consumers began reaching out with product and service questions. Even back then, there was an expectation of immediacy when customers tweeted about an issue. The public nature of Twitter made it particularly important for businesses to respond quickly.

Today, it's not difficult to find customer service inquiries posted to Twitter. Here's an example of a tweet directed at Verizon:
 
Customers and potential customers can follow these public threads which can get...a little sticky for businesses who don't respond quickly (or kindly). To address the growing need for Social Media customer service management, a Danish company launched Zendesk in 2006. Zendesk facilitated multi-channel customer communication for its users, fielding requests made on social channels, email, web forms, chat, mobile apps and more.

Other platforms and tools quickly followed ZenDdesk's lead, with SproutSocial and Freshdesk launching in 2010. Existing CRM platforms like Salesforce have begun adding social media support features as well. Salesforce announced new integrations with Facebook Messenger, Instagram and YouTube last year. There are also standalone tools that businesses can use, like automated chatbots that instantly respond to customers' social media requests.

A chatbot is a piece of software that can conduct an online conversation using text or text-to-speech technology. They serve as stand-ins for humans or can direct inquiries to a (human) customer service agent. You probably knew that already. We have all dealt with some or the other chatbot by now. While you may be aware of what a chatbot does, the functionalities of Social Media Customer Service Software are slightly peculiar. Let's take a look at some common aspects of the tool.
 

Features Of Social Media Customer Service

SMCS Software works by providing support through social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The software typically includes four key features to help businesses with social listening, tracking, workflow automation and customer response/service as follows:
 

• Analytics And Measurement

  This may include some level of analytics to provide insights on social interactions, campaign performance and other data.

• Chat Support

  Chat and support bots help streamline (and hasten) response time to customers across social media channels.

• Multi-platform Support/Management

  This is basically the unification of customer data across social channels into one dashboard/ platform.

• Social Listening Tools

  In addition to customer service features, many social tools give users the ability to monitor keywords, hashtags and other signals connected to their brand. They can then respond to customer issues and complaints they may otherwise have missed or address broader issues of brand perception as they arise.

If you are contemplating whether you really need all this jazz, hear us out. Here's the why behind Social Media Customer Service Software.

Why Do We Need Social Media Customer Service Software?

Social media is rapidly replacing more traditional channels like telephone and email as the preferred method of contact for customers.

If Bruce Nolan found himself responsible for answering prayers these days, he'd have to deal with an influx of Tweets, Facebook messages and chatbot requests on the website he would undoubtedly be maintaining.

Consider that a third of social media users prefer Social Media Customer Service over telephone and email. A positive customer experience on social media can directly impact business growth. Over 70% of consumers are likely to recommend your business or brand to others if they've had a positive experience. We need tools like Zendesk and chatbots to help manage the growing number of customer interactions that occur on social media channels.

Still not convinced? We have got more reasons!

Importance Of Social Media Customer Service Software

SMCS Software is important because it's impossible to follow up with every social media request and interaction in a timely manner. These tools help businesses monitor conversations, mentions and complaints consumers are having about their brand (e.g., "social listening").

The primary benefits of SMCS Software are:
 

• Increases customer satisfaction/loyalty by enabling fast, personalized responses.

• Improves communication and customer experience by empowering employees and team members with the right knowledge base to answer customer inquiries correctly (regardless of where a customer might reach out).

• Enables businesses to scale/be more agile by adding automation and Artificial Intelligence to the social customer service process. As your business grows, the number of customer inquiries and social media monitoring required for any interactions will grow too and SMCS software can help you keep up.

 
We told you - Social Media Customer Service Software is the new cool in the present times. More importantly, it would stay relevant in the future as well. In fact, it is already getting ready for the next generation of a social platform revolution.

The Future Of Social Media Customer Service Software

As we continue to conduct more business online, social media channels will remain a primary channel through which customers and businesses interact. Nearly 70% of consumers are already trying to resolve issues using social media platform networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Going ahead, the experience would get better and more efficient. Much like everywhere else, the SMCS industry too would be revolutionized by Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation. This would not only allow you to prioritize conversations but also personalize them with little or no human effort.

Not to mention that more and more messaging apps would leverage SMCS to deliver a better, faster and more intimate customer relationship management support experience.

To Sum Up

A positive Social Media customer service experience motivates consumers to recommend your brand, helps you maintain a strong online (and offline) reputation and can contribute directly to business growth.

Over 70% of customers expect businesses to provide support via social platforms and that's not about to change anytime soon, particularly now, when so many of us are conducting business remotely.

We are sure Bruce Nolan would agree with us if he weren't so busy answering his texts, social media post or messages and chatbot requests.