Brands that Create Deeper Relationships Will Revolutionize (Facebook) Customer Service
For the final installment of the Jacob Tyler blog mini-series: Facebook Timeline 2012, we’ve left one of the strongest new features of all:
Private Messages.
Thanks to Timeline, brands can now communicate with users directly, and away from the public scrutiny of their new Timeline, through messages. Although this new feature of direct communication may seem invasive and distressing, Facebook has prevented brands from being able to initiate these private messages. As a result, these private messages are intended to be a new customer service tool to live within the Facebook marketing toolbox.
Messages Help Bridge the Gap of Social Media ROI
Now more than ever, social media marketing is under-fire for its perceived fuzzy correlation to every brand’s bottom line: return on investment. Facebook’s new private messages can help brands clarify and really demonstrate results. It all begins by analyzing the ways your company handles customer complaints and problems.
How does your brand handle daily customer service issues? Do you operate a call center? We find it’s easiest to evaluate and calculate a monetary value (ROI) from social media customer service. By transitioning traditional inbound customer service issues to digital channels, such as Facebook or Twitter, companies will see an increase of customer issue/resolution efficiency. Digital channels allow customer service representatives a greater velocity and frequency when handling complaints and problems. So, less time working on each customer complaint means more issues processed overall.
If Facebook Gives You Lemons, Flaunt Your Lemons
I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Facebook designed their new Timelines with the “message” button located directly below the cover photo. Brand cover photos should be designed with a unique call to action that urges (even points directly) to the message button encouraging users to take their communication to a more private channel. Retain your publicly viewable Timeline for brand praises or FAQs.
Your Facebook Page Manager is a “Decision Maker”
It’s old news to brands that Facebook is considered the social face and voice of their company. Therefore, the manager of these channels needs the power and expertise to act quickly during critical situations.
Too often the digital communication responsibilities of social page management are delegated and passed down to young interns that posses little company knowledge or authority. This not only leaves those companies at risk of irresponsible actions or comments, but also reduces the opportunities your brand has to leverage your unique social marketing potential.
Expert social media management comes from business cross training and experience. Brands must be able to trust a specialized social media marketing professional who recognizes the unique opportunities that only social marketing can allow.
Branding your Digital Customer Service with Personality
Social media offers brands the unique privilege of personification. When engaging with your brand’s community, the page should speak with the voice of a relatable and compassionate customer service representative. After responding to user questions and messages, finish the message-reply with a valediction to the user and sign it with the first name of the individual who responded.
This not only makes the page manager accountable for their message, but will also help develop a stronger relationship with the user who originally reached out. Additionally, carrying this type of personal customer service over to the public Timeline will show others viewing the conversation that your brand is made up of people too.
Ultimately, your brand’s digital customer service has come to a pivotal point in social evolution. Using the tools that Facebook provides should help some brand pages shed their baby weight. Conversely, we might watch other pages stall out and begin to sink faster, flailing in the quicksand. At Jacob Tyler, our job is to stay ahead of the social media curve.
For more advice or help about how to become socially evolved, visit our website at jacobtyler.com.
Look Out Below!
At Jacob Tyler, we try our best to see the future. Here’s a small section about what may be up the Facebook Team’s sleeve for next time.
Live Chat Options ~ With the newest availability of third-party integration into open-graph technology and Facebook’s recent push for real-time, actionable news feeds, there’s no reason why the next time Facebook rolls out another page format there wont be a more interactive approach to customer service. To us, this means live chatting. Wouldn’t it be nice to chat with the brands you love?
What new feature’s would you like to see? What would benefit brand Timeline’s the most? Let us know in the comments.