When opening a business, no matter what industry it might be in, a business owner is always after customer satisfaction and you can always ensure customer happiness with the help of social media. A business ceases to exist without customer satisfaction. You, as the owner, should always strive hard to satisfy your customers to guarantee a long-lasting relationship with them.
Do you know that in most multinational companies and BPO centers, CSAT (or customer service satisfaction) is always a metric or key performance indicator for gauging employee performance?
Surveys are randomly sent to customers so that the company can assess the capability of their employees in addressing customer’s concern. Even small and home businesses are resorting to these surveys and questionnaires to assess if their business is answering their customer’s needs and wants.
Social media has grown in leaps and bounds the past few years and with so many new networking sites being established all the time, they are here to stay. In fact, they have taken over traditional media and have become mainstream. Your business is not considered in if you do not have your own website, Facebook page, and other social media accounts even if it’s just Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram or Facebook. You must take advantage of the different social media networking sites to reach out to your customers and ensure their satisfaction with your brand.
So how can you use social media to increase your customer happiness? Here’s how:
#1 You can use social media to acknowledge customers
Are you selling gaming software or clothes online? You can always give a shout out to your customers by tweeting about their purchase or posting it as a status on Facebook. If you have pictures of your customer with your product, you can post it on Instagram or Pinterest.
Aside from acknowledging their purchase, do not forget to thank them for supporting your business. In doing so, you are relaying to your customers that you are thankful that they chose your product over a competitor’s. Acknowledging your customers will give them the feeling that they are important to your business.
In CIO’s article, 7 Ways Social Media Can Improve Customer Satisfaction, it states that highlighting your customer humanizes what you are trying to sell to the world.
#2 You can use social media to ask your customers for opinions
It could be as mundane as holding a contest or giving a price for the 5000th follower but asking your customer for opinions regarding any aspect of your business means that you value their inputs and are taking their suggestions seriously.
It also sets you apart from most companies who would not think twice about asking feedback from customers to run their business. Customer feedback is important to your business, especially when you are just starting.
#3 You can use social media to hold contests
Nothing makes a customer happier than partaking in various contests and raffle draws. You can use social media to inform customers of your various marketing strategies which include contests, raffle draws and the likes.
You can use your different social media accounts as the venues for you to announce contest rules and mechanics. You could also announce winners through your Twitter or Facebook account.
Having a new product to be launched in just a few weeks? Or is it time for your annual sale? Social media is the best, fastest and most effective way to inform so many people in so many different places at the shortest possible time. Plus promoting through social media costs little or nothing at all compared to the traditional method of advertising.
#5 You can use social media to handle customer complaints
Irate customers are the worst kind of customers to have. Your instincts will tell you to ignore this type of customers but the best solution there is is to address their concerns.
Why?
Disgruntled and disappointed customers will not think twice about using social media to air out their grievances against your business. You have to keep a lid on it before it becomes viral. You don’t want your customer’s misunderstanding of your product’s instruction to get shared, right?
#6 You can use social media for business modification through surveys
In Matt Janaway’s article, Can Social Media Increase Customer Happiness?, Social polling is a win-win situation for you, the business owner, and your customers. This is one way for you to gauge what your customer really wants from your business and you may change some product or service features to adjust to your customer’s opinions.
In doing product modification or addition, you must have the pulse on what your customers need and want to ensure that you are able to supply them with it. By asking specific questions, you eliminate unnecessary features and benefits that your customers might not find useful for them.
#7 You can use social media to monitor brands and mentions
Monitoring brands and mention is one way of tracking the success (or unfortunately, the lack of it) of your business. The more mentions your business receive, the more people have become aware of the existence of the products and services that you are trying to sell.
#8 You can use social media for customer retention
Fact of life– you lose money when you lose customers. You spend up to 7 times more to get new customers than retaining your old ones. For a small business, spending much more than what you’re supposed to do is business and economic suicide.
So how can social media help you retain your customers? Social media is your fastest way to communicate with your customers. It is even faster than exchanging emails. Being able to answer your customers immediately shows how valuable they are to your business.
Developing a business relationship with your customer will also ensure retention. Aside from getting satisfaction from your goods and services, customers remain loyal to a brand if they feel that they are being valued as customers. An example that you can give value to your customers is by giving them shout outs or tweets on their birthdays or mentioning them in passing. You don’t have to do anything elaborate. You just need to acknowledge how valuable they are to your business.
Wrapping It Up
Customer happiness or satisfaction is one major indicator if your business will survive or not. One way to really ensure that your customers are happy with you is to deliver what you have promised them. Don’t go the route of false advertising, it will come back to haunt you at great consequences. Treat your customers well. They are the lifeline of your business. Do not take them for granted or ignore their feedback. Address their concerns and make your customers happy.
Social Media has many uses for your business and personal life. Not only does it act as an avenue for you to promote your business, the various social media platforms help you have a more personalized interaction with your customers. Social media will help you provide customer happiness.
Matthew says
My brother is a manager of a wing at a small scale (growing) consultancy firm and yes, I agree with you guys on the fact that CSAT is a key performance indicator as well as a measure of employee satisfaction
Natasha says
The act of thanking customers through personalized email or text messages helps in having happier customers. I once reached out to my buyers once. It really increases understanding between the retailer and customer
Logan says
Good to know you experienced it first-hand
Alise says
Carrying on from a point made earlier by someone regarding reaching out to customers with a thank you message, I’d like to emphasize on the other point which this article states, and that is of interacting with customers to ask for their opinions. This, in my experience, actually builds trust between customers and sellers which is so important in business
Jae says
About point #3 I’d like your opinion on whether an incentive like a free give away is a better option or a live contest to appeal to a broader range of customers?
Logan says
It depends on your audience and how big it is. If it’s big I suggest going live.
Lyla says
I was once in search of finding out what is best suited for modification in my business. It took me a while to understand that a survey within the organization itself really helps. because people within the set up are accustomed to the way it is being run. They know what changes would be for the better. Surveys are an important part of a business
Logan says
True indeed!
Khadija says
I started monitoring the amount of times I was being mentioned over the internet. Keeping a count actually makes a difference to your knowledge about where you stand in terms of popularity and growth with respect to the general public
Daren says
good that you mentioned #8. i learned this lesson the hard way. It is indeed much easier and convenient to retain customers than trying to win over new ones.
Emmanuel Hewitt says
You should be responsive and appreciate every kind of comments your customers have if you want to make them happy. Make sure to reply as soon as possible and always thank them for their feedback.
Donell says
Contest and giveaways are awesome, everyone loves them and your customers will be happy about it. Results should always be transparent so that customers don’t feel like it was a scam. In my company, we pay attention to our customers happiness and we often discuss how we can improve it. Thanks for sharing!
Rinaldo H. says
We can see now that almost all, if not all, online businesses are using social media for the purpose of making customers happy. They use all social media platforms, so, we can’t tell that there are no ways to write our opinion,or to say what we actually think about the business, products, services or anything else.
Merrima says
The best way, according to my experience, how to use social media for promoting websites, is through polls and quizzes. That’s a great way too to get the feedback from our clients, existing ones and the potential ones.
Hayword Houston says
One of the bast ways of using social media is by making surveys about our website and our competition