“When you assume negative intent, you’re angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed.”
Indra Nooyi
Today, social media is one of the most significant avenues for customer service.
However, some e-commerce businesses are wary of devoting too much time to social media customer support.
If spending time on social media comments is a bad idea, I would encourage you to think about it again.
Why do customers use social media channels to communicate?
The most successful e-commerce companies, come as close to their customers as possible.
They pay attention to their customer’s comments and input and establish lines of communication on their terms.
Customers give significant comments on your social media posts and advertisements for the following reasons:
- It aligns with their user flow. Customers don’t want to leave their favorite social networking platform to contact you elsewhere.
- So many e-commerce firms thrive on social media customer care. Consumers expect brands to respond to their comments.
- Customers want to feel as if they have direct contact with your company. This extends beyond simply receiving a response.
- Customers want to know that their voices are being heard. That they are being seen by your company. They want to know that you provide actual customer service rather than simply basic assistance.
A staggering 83 percent of global customers demand a response time of fewer than 24 hours.
It’s all about engaging and interacting with your audience on social media.
This means that you respond to your customer’s social media comments even if they aren’t always the kindest.
Knowing how to communicate with customers as a company can be difficult.
Therefore, we’ve put up this guide on the types of social media comments you’ll encounter and how to reply to them.
Let’s get started!
Types of social media comments
We’ll go over four different types of social media comments, each of which requires a different strategy.
1. Positive feedback or comments
When someone positively responds to one of your posts or mentions your company, you should always thank them for their time and recognize the comment.
2. Unfavorable remarks
Not every comment is a glowing endorsement or a disgruntled consumer.
Some are neutral, such as when a user asks a question, comments on a product, post, or photo, or even tag a buddy in the comments.
3. Negative feedback
Resolving issues such as order or product issues can help turn a negative comment into a repeat customer.
Comments with an angry tone, general criticism or questions of your company’s behaviour, or communications directed at specific persons are examples of this.
4. Remarks concerning a crisis
A crisis for social media teams could be a significant worldwide issue that affects customers, or it could be a period when your company is suffering public relations or legal repercussions.
Creating the ideal customer care response on social media
Customer service representatives and social media managers can’t anticipate every scenario. Social media comments can catch you off guard at times.
Follow these steps every time you want to provide outstanding social media customer care.
1. Take the time to completely comprehend the situation.
While it’s necessary to answer promptly, you don’t want to respond too quickly. If you respond too quickly, you may overlook a vital detail.
2. Prepare an answer
You can start crafting your response once you’re certain you have all of the contextual information you need. Make certain you cover the following crucial points:
- Questions about the product:
- Clarify your response to the inquiry.
- Back up your response with real, detailed product facts and specifics.
- Positive feedback:
- Thank the consumer in a way that is consistent with your brand’s tone.
- If it’s a good fit for your product, ask them to keep you updated on the progress.
- If they have any queries, let them know you’re here to help.
- Negative feedback:
- Demonstrate empathy for the customer.
- Accept their criticism with maturity (as opposed to disagreeing with them or attempting to silence them)
- Discuss a possible solution.
- Customers should be sent to your helpdesk, knowledge base, or customer care staff (as appropriate)
- Before reacting to a sensitive subject, seek approval from management.
When companies reply too quickly to provocative comments, they might find themselves in hot water.
If the topic is about sustainability, equity, diversity, and inclusion, or the founders’ political beliefs or actions, you may need to run your response past your PR or communications team.
- Respond to the comment and, if necessary, create a ticket via Mezchip
Leave a remark once you’ve received the appropriate response. Remember to tag the person to whom you’re responding.
3. Ensure that customer service follows up on the issue until it is resolved.
You won’t have to remember to check if the person responded if you have a ticket open in your helpdesk.
Instead, you’ll be able to see the open ticket and then proceed to the article or ad with the comment thread by clicking through.
You can use omnichannel tools like mezchip to get all your queries from your social media pages and follow up on tickets.
If the issue is critical (the client wants a return or hasn’t received their stuff in the mail), post a second comment and tag them to ensure they read your response.
You’ll acquire new customers if you follow these social media customer service principles.
If you follow these social media customer service principles, you’ll win new admirers while strengthening your existing relationships.
