4 Tips to Improve Online Customer Service
In today’s digital age, every person and brand has an online presence. Which is why you should take advantage of this new medium and use it to improve your customer service. Most people would much rather voice interact with a company online, as opposed to back in the day when you had to call a customer service representative.
If you’re new to the online world, or just looking for ways to improve your online customer service, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to discuss the four online tools that you can use to improve your online customer service.
1. Engage on Social Media
Some of the top brands like Taco Bell, Delta, and Chevrolet, are using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to boost brand awareness. If your business hasn’t hopped on the social media bandwagon, it’s probably a good time to do so.
Social media allows customers to stay connected with your company 24/7. Because of this, you’ll need to keep an eye out for messages from your followers, and do your best to respond to them. All of them. Responding to negative posts and showing appreciation for the positive posts shows that your company is actively searching for ways to help customers.
Customers may not feel comfortable writing something negative directly on your page, and instead may simply write something on their own page. There are plenty of tools available to monitor when your company’s name is mentioned (See No. 4).
2. Enable Live Chat On Your Website
One of my favorite website features is live chatting. When I go to a website and have questions about a particular product or service, I want to find the answer quickly. Live chatting is one of the easiest ways for a customer to contact you. Rather than waiting for an email response or sitting on hold, the customer can get their questions answered right away. You can never have too many open channels of communication.
3. Blog Frequently and Answer Questions
Blogging is a fun way to answer your customers’ questions and share information that’s relevant to your industry. You should think of yourself as a teacher and your customer as the student. If your customers are constantly asking you the same questions, you can provide answers on your blog. And if the same questions arise continually, work with your customer experience team to add those questions and answers to your on-boarding content, including welcome letters, help screens, FAQs, and get-started videos.
When it comes to the content of your blog posts, think outside of the box. Add fun infographics, images, and videos to keep your customers entertained. And don’t forget to share your blog posts on social media.
The frequency of your blog posts really depends on your personal preference. Different marketing gurus and social media specialists will argue about the number of posts you should have each week, but the general consensus of 2-3 times a week is fine. If you decide to post every day, make sure to vary your content.
4. Boost Your Online Customer Support with Google Alerts
Leave it up to Google to come up with yet another ingenious way to monitor your online presence. You can set up Google Alerts to receive emails whenever Google finds new results that match your search terms. These alerts monitor anything on the internet, such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs. It’s a helpful tool to find out what is being said about your company or product.
Setting up your own Google Alerts is simple. Visit Google Alerts and search for the name of your company or product. You can also specify the frequency of alerts you receive, although we suggest getting daily alerts in order to speed up your response time.
You can set up alerts to learn about
- What customers are saying about your online service,
- What questions customers ask each other about how to use your service or product, and
- What good things your competitors do to improve online service – what are we missing?