Social Media for Better Customer Service

Social Media is seen as the next phase of efficient marketing. From Facebook Ads to social targeting, companies are competing to capture share of voice in the viral space. Some companies develop interactive Facebook applications while others utilize sweepstakes and discount offers. Yet social media has proven to work effectively for another purpose - customer service.

Mandarin Oriental has a great success story in which a customer left a Facebook post on the Mandarin Oriental Miami wall saying he was looking forward to his visit. Mandarin Oriental looked him up, realized he had a high Klout score and responded with a personal forecast - knowing he was fleeing the freezing Boston weather. Mandarin Oriental also provided a special note and snack for the customer upon arrival. The result? A blog post from the customer about his wonderful personal customer experience.

A recent article published in Mashable reiterates the fact that social media is a great outlet for customer service. When done correctly, social media is a good way to defend your brand. One example includes KLM launching a 24/7 customer support on Twitter. Xbox justifies its Twitter service professionals through cost saves from call centers. Other companies can benefit from leveraging social media for customer care and incur re-engineering saves. When engaging customers online, the Mashable article gives some good advise. Respond with empathy, defend your brand, but don't feed the trolls. With a 140 character limit, remember to be engaging but continue to defend your brand. At the same time, ignore the trolls that are just looking to pick a fight. Who knows, Maybe social media customer servicing will become a norm of the future.

For more advice on customer servicing best practices in social media go here:

http://mashable.com/2011/10/28/social-customer-service-brands/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29