3 tips to keep customers happy via social media

SOCIAL MEDIA Protecting your brand reputation requires detailed planning. The team must be prepared to respond to complaints in a timely manner. Online real-time customer engagement service Live Person shares three tips to help keep unhappy customers happy via social media channels. With the explosion of digital channels, online reputation management, including top-notch customer service, is more critical than ever. Customer complaints spread like wildfire from one social network to the next. Whether you like it or not as a company, social media is like a big megaphone for customers to communicate their dissatisfaction with the company. No matter how good the customer service is, there will be complaints, especially in the e-commerce space. It's how companies handle negative situations that leads to winning or losing potential customers.Three suggestions are given by Andreas Hertwig, Director Sales of Live person.1. prevent complaints: analyze customer behaviorIdentifying dissatisfied customers before they complain can solve problems before they arise. In this context, it is a good idea to provide customers with customized service offers to win them over directly on the website. The likelihood of complaints is measured by interaction records. Accordingly, such behavioral analyses reveal who exactly is having problems navigating the site and which customer is looking for more support. Intelligent interactions target these customers and help them before they vent their frustrations elsewhere - via social media, for example.2. identify situations that need attention: ListenCustomers talk about the company in forums, social networks, blogs and review sites. But as a company, do you know exactly what customers are saying about you there? Listening well is the key to taking action and taking the necessary steps to change the conversation. Listening on social channels is a good indicator of whether corporate communications are working well. For example, if customers have to call one of the expensive support numbers where the wait times are very long or the result is not satisfactory, the company can be sure that angry customers will talk about it on the Internet. And ignoring these social conversations can be dangerous, as you could miss opportunities to build better customer relationships.3. binding: The fastest way to the solutionMost users who contact companies via social networks expect a response within the shortest possible time. Not receiving a response or, even worse, realizing that the complaint post has been deleted will make the customer even more upset and they will most likely not return to the company. As unpleasant as it may be to deal with dissatisfied customers in a public forum, ignoring the situation only makes everything worse.Getting the customer to talk to you directly is usually the quickest way to resolve a situation. More and more customer service staff invite users to chat with them on their respective platforms. This is effective from three aspects:1. it gives the dissatisfied customer an immediate opportunity to get in touch with someone who can resolve the issue.2. it shows the community that the company is listening and responding, which equates to good customer service.3. the conversation is then continued in a private space by the customer and the service representative. This also allows sensitive data, such as bank account information or payment method, to be handled and dealt with appropriately.Even if frustration spreads online - how the company handles complaints can quickly turn a negative reputation into a positive one. Giving customers the immediate ability to contact support wherever they are, whether it's in-store, on the website, on social media or mobile, is a great start to keeping the company's reputation intact.