Community Question: Customer Care Challenges

I think the biggest obstacle for providing good customer care is truly understanding your audience and not over simplifying them. Within broad demographics there are countless sub-groups, and as Gen-Z and Alpha continue to grow up, they want content/services that cater more specifically to them. Tools such as those found on Sprout can be helpful in reaching these niche audiences. 

Time and an SOP that will allow the Social Team monitoring the different platforms to bring resolution in a timely fashion. People have the expectation of a quick resolve to their problem, otherwise they leave you, or worse, start trashing your company/service/product. 
We have created a database as part of our SOP, that includes those questions that at some point were hard to resolve and what steps can be taken in order to provide a resolution to the customer. This avoids having to go to other teams each time for an answer. Also, as part of the SOP we are starting to add “actions” that the team can take, in order to provide a positive experience (ex: discount codes, free swag, etc) and not lose the customer.
 

I believe the most significant challenge is a lack of resources provided to social media managers to properly manage customer care in the moment on social media. Customers want ease and social media provides them with an easy place to seek customer service, however social media teams often need to point them somewhere else for that care which adds more friction to the process for the customer.

I see the unfiltered nature of social media to be the biggest challenge that businesses face with customer care on social media. The information can come from any source, at any time, and with any message. Even with system structures and AI filtering, understanding the intent, needs, and authenticity of a social message or post can take more time and energy than people realize (especially for a one person team).

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This is so good and something we all need to think about going in to Q4 very soon: 

In the realm of a male clothing company like ours or any business for that matter, the most significant challenge in providing effective customer care on social media is maintaining a high level of responsiveness and personalized interaction. Don't forget, this is not YOUR social outlet - ITS A BRAND - take your personal feelings out of the equation and make it a business. 

These are some of the things we have had to face and adjust along the way as a DTC start up.

1. High Volume of Inquiries: Social media platforms can attract a large volume of customer inquiries, comments, and messages. Responding to each of them in a timely manner can be overwhelming for businesses, especially if they lack a dedicated customer support team or knowledge of how important this area is. 

   1. Build a Dedicated Community CS Team: Assign a team specifically responsible for monitoring and responding to customer inquiries on social media. Set KPIs and SLAs to make sure they are on brand for your company and how you'd like that to look as a whole.

      1. This team should be well-trained, efficient, and empathetic in their interactions with customers. They should have brand personas and tone down just like a first language. You don't want to sound like a robot, so making sure everything is cohesive and algin as a brand + team. 

2. 24/7 Availability: Social media operates around the clock, and customers expect prompt responses regardless of the time of day. However, companies may not always have the resources to provide 24/7 customer support. Do not leave your followers and customers in the dark. 

   1. Utilize peak time frames, Chatbots and Automation: Find your peak times based on your region of sales and customer base. You want to be ready when your customers are as well. If you are making them wait 2/4/6/8 hrs for a response, they have already moved on. Outside of those hours,  employing chatbots for initial responses can help handle simple inquiries and direct customers to relevant resources. Automation can also help with response times, even during non-business hours.

   2. Hybrid positions: Your social team should be trained in ALL aspects of Customer support. If you already have a Customer Support team working email/chat/phone/sms, teach a couple of them how to run your social queues. They can move between both CRMs while staying in those SLAs. Make sure to use saved replies, train on your brand voice and use examples to know how to respond to each case. 

      1. Have a escalated process for when a manager clocks in. In SS, you can use Team Conversation, Tasks, or Save messages if someone needs to have a elevated interaction when a team clocks in at a later time. Communicate with the customer so they have the proper expectations as well. 

3. Negative Feedback and Complaints: Social media can be a breeding ground for negative feedback and complaints.  This can rise during stressful times like holidays OR even  who you choose to collab/partner with as far as a Influencer or Celeb. Handling these issues professionally and resolving them satisfactorily requires tact and empathy, which can be challenging, especially in a public forum.

   1. Create Plan: Prepare a plan to handle potential social media firestorms and negative feedback.

      1. Responding promptly and professionally, taking the conversation offline when needed to a DM. 

      2. Respond to negative feedback openly and honestly. Acknowledge mistakes if they occur, and offer sincere apologies and solutions. Transparent communication can help build trust with customers. This will allow other customers to notice how you help and give them trust within your companies abilities.  

      3. Delete. You control the tone of your company and social outlets. If you feel like something is not going to look good for your company, you have the power to control that narrative. 

4. Personalization and Context: Customers appreciate personalized responses that address their specific concerns. However, doing this effectively on social media, where conversations can be disjointed and context may be lost, can be difficult.

   1. Creative a Brand tone and voice:  Your team should have relatively the same voice as in words, emojis, responses, across all replies. Each outlet, should have a different brand tone. You would not talk to someone in LinkedIn the same way you would talk to someone in TikTok. Differentiating the difference, will attract those who prefer those specifical platforms. 

      1. Addressing the customer by their name, will always connect you on a personal level. 

         1. If they are asking about something specific to themselves, get to know them first, because shooting out a response. 

      2. Your brand should have a “persona”, what that person talks like, their interest, where they live etc...  This will help you find their fav emojis to use, how they they talk, slag to say when connecting with customers along with any other areas of communication etc.

Internal processes for connecting the dots on complaints.

The biggest challenge in providing effective customer care on social media is balancing quick response times with personalized interactions. Automated replies can handle volume but often lack the human touch, frustrating customers. To overcome this, businesses should use AI tools for common queries and ensure more complex issues are handled by trained agents. This hybrid approach helps maintain fast response times while providing the personal attention customers expect. Consistently monitoring feedback and refining processes will further improve customer satisfaction and engagement on social platforms.