Social media has long been much more than a fun way to connect with friends and distant relatives. For a long time now, it’s been functioning as an essential sales and marketing tool, allowing brands to meet and engage with existing and potential customers where they’re already present.
So, how can modern brands benefit from social media, particularly social messaging, and use it to provide personalized customer experiences? And what challenges should they consider? In a recent talk with Local Measure’s Sheila Walthoe, we explored this constantly evolving CX tool.
Social Messaging in Customer Interactions: The Whys
While brands are increasingly familiarizing themselves with social messaging in their customer interactions, others might still be hesitant. To fully understand its benefits, it’s essential that we dissect it into its components: What can be gained using social channels that other channels cannot provide?
- Central and Seamless – To deliver a genuinely great customer experience, brands must remove friction points in the customer journey, which social channels help do. Additionally, it allows brands to meet consumers where they’re already researching potential purchases.
“Offering end-to-end support through channels where customers already spend time allows brands to locate themselves front and center in the customer’s world,” Walthoe explains. If a brand already promotes and sells its products on Instagram, for example, the logical next step would be offering customer service via that channel too.
“Social messaging can be used by marketing departments to guide these leads through the sales funnel, and then by customer support to answer questions and deliver customer service.” - Fast and Intuitive – Social channels are also incredibly intuitive and easy to use, resulting in faster, more convenient customer communication.
“Social messaging matches the lifestyle of modern consumers,” Walthoe notes. “This effectively means that businesses who don’t use it risk losing customers who value speedy, simple interactions.” - The Asynchronous Factor – Asynchronous communication allows customers to reach out at their convenience, and businesses to respond beyond regular hours. It also gives time for agents to provide accurate solutions, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
- “We all lead busy lives and customers are no different,” Walthoe notes. “Few customers have the time to sit on hold for three hours while waiting for an agent to respond to their query, and asynchronous communication is the perfect solution for that.”
Where to Begin? Tips for Social Messaging Newcomers
Here are some recommended practices if you’re looking to incorporate social messaging as a customer service channel:
- Choose the Right Platforms – Not all social media platforms may be relevant for your business. Before you start, it’s key to define who is in charge of the business’s social media strategy and take stock of the current channels used for marketing and sales. Additionally, the availability of social channels varies depending on regions and countries, with different platforms being common (or less common) in different locations.
“Brands need to remember that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ with social channels,” Walthoe notes. “This means that using them will often require some regional research and slightly different strategic thinking.” “It’s important to select platforms where your customers are most active,” she recommends. “For most businesses, starting with major platforms like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp is a good idea.”
- Start Small – It’s best to start with one channel and a small subset of agents.
“Once you see this work well, you can start rolling out to more channels and agents over time,” Walthoe says. - Systematic and Measurable – Configure designated workflows and set parameters to measure your brand’s social messaging operations.
“Create best practices to support social messaging,” Walthoe offers. “To make success measurable, consider the key KPIs that will be impacted in your business, like voice call deflection and customer satisfaction.” - Ever Changing – Social channels are expected to continue to undergo different lifecycles of maturity and availability, with new channels appearing, which will require added agility from brands.
“Social media platforms were not originally designed for business use and are constantly changing, making them difficult to monitor,” Walthoe explains. “These changes can impact customer preferences, so businesses must pay attention to trends and adapt quickly.”
How Can Local Measure Help?
Local Measure’s Engage is a pre-built contact center platform with voice, webchat, SMS, and email, as well as social channels including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, LINE, and Apple Business chat. With these all available natively out of the box, businesses can easily turn on the channels they need to serve their customers’ requirements.
“Engage is designed to help brands reduce customer effort when it comes to delivering exceptional service,” Walthoe says.
“It is now easier than ever for businesses to onboard new channels and scale social messaging into their contact center operations over time.”
To learn more about Local Measure’s Engage solution, visit their website.
