Four Reasons to Get Involved With Your Clients

While waiting in the returns line at Best Buy Christmas, my iPhone beeped with a text message from a friend. He was wondering where I was. I replied, and then, because I already had the phone out, (and the lineup was moving very slowly,) I checked my social media accounts. On a whim, I posted a message on Twitter to @BestBuy about the length of the line, and how I hoped that it wouldn’t take me too long to get to the front. Ten minutes later, I saw they’d already replied to me, apologizing for the delay and telling me they appreciated my business.

A few weeks later, I was having issues with a database on one of my websites, so remembering my experience with Best Buy, I tweeted about it to @godaddy (my web host at the time.) Twenty minutes later, I had a reply from @godaddy, as well as a direct message from them asking for more details on the issue. We corresponded back and forth for another 30 minutes, and after determining that they couldn’t solve my issue on Twitter, they assigned me a technical support ticket and thanked me for my business.

Good examples of social customer service

Those are just two of the many examples of good social customer service I’ve had in the last couple of years, and I’m sure I could cite more if I thought about it. Consumer tech companies are using it to perform technical support triage, engage with their customers and fans, and show that there are humans behind the brands. As a Geek I especially liked how they let me know if they couldn’t assist me specifically (as was the case with my database issue), and then passed me over to the next support level.

Social customer service is good for your tech business

These are just a few of the reasons why you should be using social media in your business:

  • for customer service,
  • to talk about new products or offers,
  • to hear what your customers are talking about, and,
  • because customers expect it.

Let’s look at these a little more closely.

Offer customer service

Get in touch directly with your customers and perform an initial triage assessment of any issues they might be having. @goDaddy uses it to communicate with their customers to make sure that they’re aware of all the customer service options available to them.

Talk about new products or offers

Announce new product launches or promotional discounts. Airlines are good examples of companies that do this on a regular basis. @WestJet regularly tweets about their sales and other promotions, using a good mix of images and hashtags.

Take the pulse of your marketplace

See what your customers are talking about. Figure out if there’s any way to use the information either in your product development or communication and marketing efforts.

Do it because your community expects it

As a technology company, customers expect you to be an early adopter, so if you’re not there on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, they may wonder why. They’ll use it as a measuring stick of your “techiness”, so if you’re not there, they will wonder why.

Is your tech business using social customer service?

Share with me on your fave network and show me how you’re doing it. I’d love to see how it’s working for you.

Julia on Twitter: @spacebarpress

Julia on Instagram: @juliaborgini

Julia on LinkedIn: Jb on LinkedIn