The Social Customer

I have seen quite a number of badly behaved customer service / front line employees: 1. Telling the customer more than they need to know: I once witnessed a customer walk into a financial organization to the customer service personnel.  This was the exchange. Customer: Good morning. Staff: Morning love Customer : (Sits down)  How are you? Staff: Not doing too good love.  How can I help you? Customer : (Taken aback) okay... I need to open an account.  What do I need to provide?  Staff: Please, hold on a minute let me check (opens a folder on the table,  searching for something). Can't find it... Where did I keep it?  So disorganized and unhappy this morning but not your fault. Smiles woodenly at the customer who uncomfortably smiles back. (mutters under her breathe) Don't understand my boss. Stupid old man.  Ha! Found it!  (triumphantly brings out an account form and hands it to the customer). There you go. Customer: This says 'current...

What drives a customer’s decision to patronize a brand is the confidence in that brand. The brand in turn needs to be adept at meeting the fundamental expectations of your customer before striving to provide extraordinary loyalty - building customer service .  This will give the customer satisfaction, creating a good experience and the beginning of the journey towards a loyal relationship. Every customer’s confidence in companies can be fragile; one mistake and customers, without hesitation, are ready to patronize another business after broadcasting his/ her displeasure on social media to his/ her network of friends/ followers. Often problems occur because companies don’t deliver on what their brand promises state they will do. In other words, they fail to keep their promises. Promises made by companies are different but centre on the same basic expectations which define the customer’s experience and ultimately, the customer’s relationship with your brand: · ...

In every sentence made by organizations today,  customer engagement is mentioned a few times to buttress how customer - centric the organizations thinks itself to be.  In the true sense of the word,  how engaging is your organization with its customers?  Does your organization walk the walk?   Customer engagement is not about listenin g to the customer, handling customer complaints and questions which can be said to be reactive to customers wants and needs at the point of a complaint, but organizations are becoming more proactive with the power shift in business - consumer relationship. As this shift occurs,  people have raised their expectations and grown less patient with companies that disappoint them or are failing to adapt to this evolving landscape of proactive customer relationship building.  Customer engagement requires building real relationships with your customers and understanding them fully as people and connecting with the...

#1  Always respond to customers as 80% of complaints go unanswered. This gets customers angry and vent to their followers. #2 Develop the habit of using the tag feature and dealing with top priority situations first and quickly. #3 Respond to complaints quickly, often within 1 hour as 50% of social customers expect a response within the first hour. #4 Be friendly, use the customer’s name and use positive words only. This will communicate willingness to help and correct a mistake. #5 Encourage the customer to respond when satisfied with the service recovery options or solution. Rectification and customer satisfaction should be shared or retweeted to communicate a positive image and customer centricity of your brand. #6 When the customers seems upset and irrational, go via DM, making your conversation private for brand and customer protection. #7 Monitor social media for both positive and negative brand mentions for immediate resolution or butt...