What Are Consumer Expectations for Social Media Customer Service?

Did you know that about one billion messages are exchanged between social media users and businesses every month? This is the level of interaction and engagement on social networking platforms when it comes to commerce.

Social media is everyone’s go-to hub for reaching out to friends and family, and for staying connected to their life updates around the clock. Not only that, but people also utilize social media for getting in touch with their favorite brands and discovering some new businesses along the way.

Given the global pandemic and the monumental jump in the count of internet users last year, many businesses are moving online to target new customers and to facilitate their existing customer base virtually. Social media is one of the most user-frequented places, so this is where businesses are making their stand. Many companies are creating a social presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even TikTok. Besides posting about their offerings, they are also using social media to deliver customer service. Find out here about one such “socially available” customer service of a popular cable company.

Thus, social media has presented an excellent opportunity for businesses to provide stellar customer support. What kind of customer service are social media users expecting from their beloved brands? Let us learn more about the top consumer expectations for social media customer service in 2024 below.

Having a Proper Social Media Support Handle

It is one thing having a general social media profile that highlights your business products and services uniquely, and a whole other thing creating a specialized customer support page of your brand for all the social media interactions with new or current customers. A dedicated customer support page can help your subscribers reach out to you in case they are facing difficulty with your helpline or other means of support. People who have an urgent query about a certain product or a request for a service upgrade can simply head to your social customer service page for resolution.

Furthermore, a proper social media support page enables you to filter “customer likes” on your main page from the “customer issues” that require support. Doing so prevents the possible conflict between social media marketing teams and social media customer service. You can also monitor conversations about your brand with a social media tool to aid the users who’re looking for support. Therefore, customers expect a business to create a separate handle for customer service, which they can tag easily.

Tending to Customer Concerns in a Personalized Way

Whether it is on social media, live chat, phone call, or web support, today’s consumers expect to be treated in a personalized way by companies. You cannot forward a scripted response to social media users and expect to come out of it alive. They will leave no stone unturned in ranting about your robotic customer service on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, which will spread like wildfire on the social feeds and form a negative opinion about your brand in everyone’s minds. One bad comment has the power to bring a company down on social media.

So, tend to your customers’ concerns with a human-first approach. Chat with them in a warm and welcoming tone while maintaining the brand’s voice. Avoid throwing complicated jargon on customers and use simple, crystal-clear language when conversing. Resolve all problems proactively and follow up on the matters to seal the deal. Address customer complaints in social media comments appropriately and responsibly to show that you care and to retain your value in the public eye. Customize your responses based on the kinds of customers you face in order to make your interactions fruitful on social media.

Maintaining a Super-Fast Response Rate in Real-Time

Time and speed are of the essence on social media. A business that understands the consumer demand for “instant gratification” manages to tip the scales in its favor. Whereas, a business that fails to respond to social media users fast, loses the leads and popularity. Nowadays, people expect the social media customer service of a business to be highly responsive. A customer comment or query that is left unattended for hours or days plays a major part in damaging a brand’s reputation. Here are the user expectations for social media response time across the platforms…

• Facebook: The expected response time for brands on Facebook is 30 minutes.
• Twitter: The expected response time for brands on Twitter is 30 minutes.
• Instagram: The expected response time for brands on Instagram is 60 minutes.
• Live Chat: The expected response time for brands on social media live chat is 48 seconds.

If you have a quick response time on your social media customer service pages, users will openly favor your brand for offering “reactive” support when no one else does.

Updating Self-Help Guidelines for Social Media Users

Millennials and Gen Zers rarely reach out to social media support agents to get things done. Instead, they prefer to rely on themselves and seek self-help resources on customer service pages. Self-help guides list all the possible FAQs that customers may have about the company’s products and services. Moreover, these resources consist of video tutorials and how-to posts detailing the most common customer concerns, which any user can follow to troubleshoot issues on their own and save their time and effort in the process.

As a socially-conscious brand, you should upload these self-help guidelines on your social media platforms to aid today’s consumers in every possible way. For instance, brands with an intensive Instagram strategy can pin the self-help stories on their pages, so Instagram users can open and view them at their discretion and based on their comfort level.

Wrapping Up

Social media is all the hype these days, and businesses should take full advantage of it by offering not only their products or services to social media users but also customer support, which is vital for a thriving brand. This post lists the top customer expectations from social media customer service, so inculcate these tips into your customer care strategy to win the favor of your customers.