Social media messaging is a powerful tool in digital transformation. According to Statista, in 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, and that number is projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.
Not only is social media one of the most popular online activities, but it is also a tremendous business advantage.
In this blog post, to keep you ahead of the social curve we’re taking a look at 5 ways businesses can leverage social media messaging in order to build loyalty with customers and drive revenue.
Offer More Than One Social Media Channel
For the modern customer using multiple channels is commonplace. In fact, according to CommerceHub, 86% of shoppers regularly channel-hop across at least two or more platforms of engagement. Instead of opting for one social channel, we suggest leveraging 2 or 3 in conjunction with your traditional channels. This not only increases your likelihood of reaching more potential customers but also builds stronger relationships with current ones. Whether it is on Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, or WhatsApp, there are a number of social channels worth considering. Take a look at what channels your customers are currently on, what’s trending with your target audience, and the uplift necessary to adopt each channel.
Still not sure where to start? With the Loop Experience Platform, adopting social media messaging is simple. With our dedicated account team you can better understand which social sites are advantageous for your business and chose from an array of customer-preferred channels. What’s more your messages are aggregated into a single inbox. With Loop, the uplift necessary to implement each channel is removed and all customer and team interactions are captured within a rich conversation thread to increase collaboration, resolve issues quickly and fulfill requests.
Personalize Social Media Messages
Did you know, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences? Or that more 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them?
When it comes to appeasing customers using social media messaging, getting personal is a fortified tactic that has proven to boost customer satisfaction and revenue. In addition to social media being a more casual or informal stream of communication, it actually provides a range of insight into customer details that are not available using traditional channels like text or email. Information such as birthday, name, and location can be of use when conversing. For instance, start simple by incorporating their name into the conversation or referencing specials taking place at a location near them. Whatever the case, making the effort to add a personalized element can really make a difference in providing an exceptional experience.
Automate Conversations
When leveraging social media messaging, incorporating automated conversations can ensure all customers are responded to in a timely manner, and representatives aren’t bombarded with inquiries. Have a bot greet the customer and let them know about any specials or create pre-populated messages that representatives can leverage for redundant questions. When it comes to social media, automation can simplify an influx of messages and filter what message gets escalated. As an example, with Facebook Messenger, you can leverage automation to say hi to someone after the first message, respond to common questions, and customize messages to provide quick answers. It can be a simple setup and makes all the difference in satisfaction.
That said, for those looking to take automation to the next level and further simplify operations, we highly suggest incorporating a solution such as the Loop Experience Platform. With Loop, you can tag and route conversations to various team members by department, function, role, and more. This provides the right team member with a notification for the inquiry so they can respond or resolve it accordingly – providing a more tailored response for inquiries. In addition, using a sophisticated CX solution, you can capture customer temperature at-a-glance within customer conversations. This means that employees and management can better understand customer sentiment, trending topics, as well as employee performance in relation to the sentiment of service.
Consolidate Social Media Messaging
When adopting a range of social channels it’s important to have a holistic view of customer conversations. Let’s say you want to incorporate Twitter and Facebook, while still offering email and SMS/Text. Responding or conversing on individual platforms can be time-consuming and result in long wait times, disorganized operations, and little to no conversation context if the customer is channel hopping. By consolidating these channels into one unified inbox, however, employees can view the entire conversation history in one thread, and understand customer sentiment, making it easier for employees to respond and provide an exceptional experience.
In order to consolidate conversations, leveraging a solution like the Loop Experience Platform is key. With our unique and robust unified inbox, employees can view customer conversations from a range of channels all in one inbox. This means, rather than taking up valuable time to toggle through multiple channels, the Loop Inbox lets you can engage, respond, and obtain data all from one location. Further, the Loop Inbox can be leveraged both on personal and corporate devices to engage customers. Whether you’re responding from your desktop on-site or your mobile, including iOS and Android, you can receive push notifications to improve response times and ensure no message goes unread.
Ask For Feedback
As we’ve mentioned before, feedback is an integral part of understanding customer expectations and how to meet them. This is especially true when it comes to channels and offering ones that resonate with your customer. Are they happy you adopted Facebook Messenger but wished you also offered WhatsApp? What are some channels they prefer? Are conversations on your social channels meeting customer expectations? If not, how can you improve?
With social media messaging, you can constantly evolve your business and meet customer demands, by asking for feedback at key moments of truth. Simply prompt a feedback survey at the end of the social media messaging conversation. With the Loop Experience Platform, sending surveys in conversation is easy. Create a custom link and direct customers to surveys that leverage industry-standard methodologies like NPS, CSAT, and CES – so you can reduce churn, increase revenue and achieve greater customer loyalty.
