How to Establish a Successful Social Media Customer Service System

Help Desk Software / November 2024

Social media customer service systems are used to monitor brand mentions, proactively respond to customers’ queries and complaints, provide omnichannel customer support, and regularly publish content to keep their brand fresh and their customers informed.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to developing or managing these systems, but using the right social media monitoring tools and tried and tested communication techniques helps organisations manage customer support and keep a finger on the pulse of brand sentiment on social channels.

This article explores the two essential parts of social media customer service systems;

1. The best tools and setup needed to monitor social media channels.
2. Recommended communication techniques for resolving customer service tickets/issues on social media.

Best Practices for Monitoring Social Media Interactions

• Create a social media management roadmap. Assemble a project team with designated social media champions who provide timely and appropriate responses to requests, enquiries, criticisms, and complaints.
• Practice digital sincerity. Customers can detect digital insincerity. For instance, one customer responded on X (formerly Twitter) to a customer service agent requesting they contact the company for assistance via a DM: “Take it to DMs so no one can see you LIE to me you mean.”
• Keep a finger on the pulse of customer service performance. Implement monitoring software to track and analyse your organisation’s social media reputation and user sentiment about your brand.
• Set up relevant alerts to monitor brand mentions. Respond promptly and professionally to negative and positive mentions.
• Employ a cohesive customer service strategy. Develop a consistent social media response strategy across disparate social media channels.
• Update content regularly. Maintain a content calendar to schedule regular content updates.
• Provide omnichannel customer service. Offer support across different social networks to ensure customers can reach out through their preferred channels.
• Use virtual assistants. Live Chat & Chatbots act as non-human customer service team members, able to answer routine questions and route complex queries to human colleagues.
• Regularly evaluate customer feedback. Collect customer feedback to analyse customer needs, preferences, and pain points better.

Recommended Tools for Managing Social Media Customer Service

The world of customer service is changing – and has been for several years. 80% of millennials prefer using social media for resolving customer service issues instead of web, phone, or online chat.

To keep on top of customer service requests, businesses monitor their social media channels on monitoring platforms and by using social listening software.

Social media monitoring involves tracking what customers are saying about a business. Social media listening involves listening to and understanding why consumers feel the way they do about a business and what they want from a brand.

Several popular social media networks have their own analytics, insights, and performance management dashboards, like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, YouTube Studio, and Instagram Insights. But most social media monitoring and listening tools provide performance analytics and consumer intelligence across the Full Monty of popular social media networks.

Popular monitoring tools often offer similar functionality, but certain distinguishing features stand out for each one. Some examples include:

• Hootsuite: A popular, feature-rich social media monitoring platform. Its unique features include multi-network monitoring, customisable dashboards, keyword and hashtag tracking, and team collaboration tools.
• Brand24: A social media listening tool that features influencer detection, sentiment analysis, and customisable, real-time alerts.
• Awario: A brand monitoring tool with advanced monitoring features, including influencer ranking, competitor analysis, and Boolean search.
• Sprout Social: A social listening tool that features influencer identification and sentiment analysis, and provides content suggestions based on trending topics and keywords. It is popular with SMEs to manage content publishing and monitor social networks through a centralised Smart Inbox.
• YouScan: A social media listening platform. Besides monitoring textual content YouScan can monitor visual content – logos, photographs, and backgrounds – for brand mentions and contextual visual insights.
• Mention: As well as brand mentions on social media networks, Mention monitors brand mentions across numerous review sites, like Booking.com, Yelp!, Tripadvisor, and Amazon. It also offers free tools to create AI-generated social media posts.
• Rival IQ: Some unique features of Rival IQ include competitor analysis, content analysis that provides insights into what consumers want to read about, and customer segmentation based on demographics, interests and behaviours.
• Meltwater: A one-stop social media management platform. It combines social media management, audience insights, social monitoring, sentiment analysis, and influencer management through a single interface.
• Google Alerts: A free, easy-to-use tool for tracking brand mentions and keywords across the web and on social media.

Easily Shortlist & Compare Help Desk Software That Matches Your Social Media Management Needs and Customer Service Goals

How Social Media Management Differs Between Big and Small Businesses

How to Implement a Social Media Customer Service Management Tool

1. Designate one or more social media champions from your customer service team.
2. Define your social media management objectives – this will help you to identify the most important functionality you want.
3. List the features you need most, e.g., content scheduling, content generation, advanced consumer intelligence, brand mentions, etc.
4. Identify the social media channels you want to manage.
5. Research a handful of social media customer service tools, compare features and pricing, and make a shortlist.
6. Watch demos, where available, and/or sign up for a free trial. Also, review the user guides for the tools on your shortlist – this will give you an indication of what to expect from the software and how steep the learning curve may be.
7. Present the shortlist to management and customer service team members for their input.
8. Create an account with the tool you have chosen.
9. Connect your social media channels to the tool.
10. Configure custom dashboards and reports to measure key metrics.
11. Configure access privileges for your users.
12. Configure any additional integrations, e.g. custom APIs.
13. Set up a content calendar to plan and schedule posts in advance.
14. Launch your social media channel management tool and hand over responsibility for it to your social media champion(s).
15. Monitor performance, identify areas for improvement, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Communication Techniques for Resolving Social Media Customer Service Issues

The number one recommendation for communicating with consumers on social media is to maintain a consistent brand voice. While a one-size-fits-all approach is not always possible, consistency a) promotes a friction-free user experience and b) makes customer service easier for support desks to manage.

Followed by:

• Addressing concerns promptly and unfailingly politely
• Avoiding obviously stock replies
• Acknowledging a customer’s concern publicly, apologising sincerely, and thanking them for their feedback
• Ensuring the customer support agent responsible for dealing with a concern has the knowledge, experience, and resources to resolve the issue
• Contacting the customer privately after the initial public interaction to protect a customer’s data and personalise the interaction (but don’t try to hide inefficiencies or mistakes behind DMs)
• Recording every concern so the service team can ensure it is resolved and also note possible improvements to services and products, and workflows
• Keeping customers updated about the status of their complaints and providing them with background to the resolution process

Just as important as addressing complaints, customer service teams should always respond to positive feedback, praise, and suggestions.

5 Examples Of How Brands Succeed With Social Media

1. Starbucks: We “Get” You, the Individual

The Starbucks social media team interacts with customers through 30 accounts over 12 social media platforms. According to Ryan Turner, Starbucks director of Global Social Media, customers demonstrate through social media the fun, personal relationships they have with Starbucks beverages, particularly the iconic Frappuccino.

In 2008, enthusiastic customers started a Frappuccino Facebook fan page that within a year boasted 1 million followers. Proving that responding to positive feedback reaps rewards, the Starbucks social media team dedicates full-time staff to interacting with its customers.

What do Starbucks customers want? Starbucks utilises Google Analytics for Firebase to analyse customer behaviour, data it collects through its mobile app. It uses Sprout Social to monitor customer sentiment and address customer concerns in real-time. The company uses SurveyMonkey to get insights into consumer preferences and brand perception.

2. Apple: Reinforcing an Exclusive Brand Image Customers Identify With

Like most big brands, Apple has a dedicated X account for customer service support. It allows the Apple social media team to share news, tips, and how-to’s to its customers. However, in 2023 the company eliminated human responses from X and YouTube.

Media reports suggest Apple, like a few other big companies, has eliminated human support on social media channels because of costs. However, the move is in line with Apple’s focus on maintaining an aloof, sophisticated brand image that appeals to its target market, and distancing itself from social media hype.

3. SEVENFRIDAY: Using Real-World Customer Content to Keep its Website Fresh

Swiss watch brand SEVENFRIDAY uses Mention to monitor social media for brand mentions. When fans post photos of their new watches, SEVENFRIDAY is alerted to link these images on its website.

They also monitor social media for counterfeit watches, alerting social media networks to close down dodgy accounts and criminal counterfeiting activity.

4. British Gas: Engaging Customers in Meaningful Conversations

Surprisingly, British Gas found that most of its customers valued accuracy more than speed when it came to how and when the company responded to queries. By partnering with Khoros Care, the company expanded its social media customer service team from one to 16 full-time employees to service customers more effectively on X, Facebook, and Whatsapp. Customer service agents threw away their scripts and focused instead on personal touch.

5. Spectrum: Addressing the Unmentionable; Downtime

Spectrum, a brand of Charter Communications, is a leading broadband communication company in the U.S., servicing over 31 million consumers. To do this, it has developed an extensive social media footprint serviced by the Charter Communications family: Spectrum.net focuses on servicing existing customers, while Spectrum.com focuses on new customers and sales.

Addressing one of the touchiest topics on the internet – downtime – Spectrum on social media and its community forum consistently keeps its customers informed about service problems, interruptions, delays, and downtime.