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Using Your Social Media Channels for Customer Service

Category: Customer Experience

Using Your Social Media Channels for Customer Service
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Using Your Social Media Channels for Customer Service

When social media platforms first came into being, they were perceived as a unique way to connect with friends, families and acquaintances. Over time, e-commerce stores or online businesses began to make their presence felt through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Why? Because they quickly realized that social media is an intelligent way to enhance brand awareness. It is also a rising trend to market products and services through social media channels and gauge customer reactions.

Nearly every website today has a social media page and a social media strategy in place, to listen to customers, receive feedback and resolve queries or complaints. Hence, keeping the social media connection with your target audience is essential to expand client base, improve brand value and retain existing customers. Here are the top things to remember if you wish to use social media for customer service effectively:

  • Fast response is a must – Most online stores don’t offer round the clock phone or email service. But customers expect prompt response on social media channels, whether they have a query or a complaint. Responding late can cause customers to escalate the issue through other channels, tell friends about the bad experience, and buy less from you. They might also choose not to recommend your brand. This can hamper your brand image in more ways than one. So, timely responses are always a wise idea.

For instance, on Twitter, customers expect you to reply within an hour. And if you cannot resolve the issue in 280 characters, you can lead them to direct messages. On Facebook, response time rates are always shown clearly. And you must reply within 5 minutes if you want Facebook to consider your business very responsive or fast.

  • Understand public and private resolutions – No matter what you sell online, you should be prepared for negative comments or complaints. So decide which kind of comments you wish to resolve publicly and which ones you want to keep private. As comments impact your brand image, think carefully. Consider what kind of comments you usually get, who handles them, and how you want to redirect negative comments. Decide if they should be moved to direct messaging, phone or email.

For example, if a customer makes a negative comment on Twitter, or something that requires the exchange of sensitive information, you can reply to them cordially and send an automatically embedded link to direct messages. Your reply should clearly show what to do next or where to click for further conversation.

  • Don’t ignore even a single comment – Always remember to acknowledge every review or post on social media and answer every query without fail. If you don’t “hear” a customer, he or she is most likely to leave you! Ignoring a comment would mean you are ignoring the customer and it’s not desirable.
  • Fight negative comments positively – If a customer posts a complaint or negative feedback, don’t start defending your business. Address them politely by their names or initials, acknowledge the issue, show empathy and offer a phone number or email ID to continue the discussion and take it offline. Remember that the customer is always right and a thousand other customers are reading the complaint too. So, if you show a positive attitude, you will gain everyone’s trust and support. You can collate negative comments from your past experience and make a list of positive replies which you can use later in similar situations.
  • Use tools to monitor social media customer service – Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and Mention can help you monitor customer service activities on social media channels. Through these, you can handle customer comments and queries on different platforms, simultaneously. These tools also let you tackle issues or queries in posts where your name has been mentioned but you have not been tagged or mentioned with @. You will get notifications even when you are away.

To conclude, being positive, responsive, understanding how to deal with negative comments and using the right monitoring tools can take you a long way when it comes to offering customer service through social media. As long as you are prepared, you can offer customers a supportive environment where they will engage with your brand more and trust you enough to stay loyal.

6 years ago
Crack the Marketing Code To Attract New Customers To Your Small Business
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Crack the Marketing Code To Attract New Customers To Your Small Business

To sell your products and services as a small business, you need the right information. I have distilled the vast information available online to make it easy for you to promote your business and attract customers on a shoestring budget.

This information comprises of some old school methods of promotion combined with some modern and innovative methods. All of these activities together will yield wonderful results. I have tried to make sure that the tips suggested here are proven yet low cost methods to promote your business and attract your customers.

All of the methods listed here may not be suitable for your business type, so focus on the ways that would work best for your business.

These methods can broadly be divided into three major categories.

  1. Offline Promotion
  2. SEO and digital marketing
  3. Other innovative methods

A. Offline Promotion

As far as offline methods of promotion are concerned, we can again divide it into the following points:

1.  Volunteer work
Start volunteering for community services in your neighborhood. Arrange free health checkup camps or simply sponsor an event.  Just try it, your community, church or mosque is waiting for your services. Its worldly incentives include free publicity.

2. Host community meetings

In spite of the fact that it’s prevalent mostly in the Western countries you can try it in the East as well. Invite groups such as book clubs, football fans, local groups, and political and religious groups for a meet up or get-together. Offer freebies, discounts, donuts and coffee. They will likely come back to buy from you.

3. Distribute leaflets and flyers

One of the most powerful weapons of the old school marketing arsenal, leaflets and flyers are still relevant and effective.

4. Do some charity and conduct charity shows

Arrange charity shows and invite children and other artists to organize the show. Distribute the proceeds to the poor and the weak and get free publicity.

5. Hold in person events

Get outside your premises and offer your services outside, or simply organize an event and invite people to your place. Collect their contact information, offer freebies and discount coupons, or send coupons to their mailing address.

6. Partner with other related businesses

If you are a wedding planner, partner with music bands, flower shops, decorators, caterers and other event organizers. Partner with these businesses and distribute discount coupons and membership cards to their customers. Offer a free appetizer on their first visit.

7. Offer great customer service

Customer service is the key to success in any business – big or small. Offer exceptional customer service, so that you get a lot of referrals and word of mouth promotion.

8. Nurture existing customers and expand your customer base
Use your existing customers to expand your customer base. Give personalized gifts to your customers on their marriage anniversaries and birthdays. Offer incentives to your customers to bring more customers for you. It may be a jumbo discount or a free offer.

B. Digital marketing

Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to attract customers to your startup or small business. Try the following action tips and experience a flood of customers pouring in:

  1. Create a website
    It’s the first step of digital marketing and a platform for all your future campaigns. Later on, you can create a blog and a video log on YouTube.
  2. Go for directory listing
    List your business on all local and popular online directories to improve your visibility. Hire an SEO professional, if it’s too much for you.
  3. Create your presence on “Google My Business”
    It’s Google’s own way of local listing and SEO for your business. It will not only create your online presence, but also increase your visibility in organic searches.
  4. Create your presence on social channels
    Choose a social media channel that is popular among your customers and audiences and use it fully to promote your brand. It can be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or WhatsApp.
  5. Do some online advertising
    Try Facebook and Google advertising. It instantly brings results, leads and traffic. This is the fastest way to convert your prospects well before you appear on organic searches.

C. Other innovative methods
Apart from these, there are some other innovative methods as well that you can try to attract customers.

      1. Leverage influencer marketing through word of mouth
        Use your existing customers to act as your brand ambassadors. Offer “real” and “valuable” incentives for every sale you close through those customers. You can also use them to distribute your flyers etc. Reward the people, who mention your brand in their public meetings and social gatherings. Run campaigns like, bring 5 customers and take your free gift, etc.
      2. Offer free gifts, discounts and deals
        This is a great way to promote your business. “Free” is a magic word in the world of business, use it to your advantage. Look for opportunities to offer freebies.
      3. Arrange contests

    Contests are a great way to attract customers. Arrange both offline and online contest. Use your creativity.

    4. Share your knowledge

    Sharing knowledge is a great way to promote yourself and your business. You can use a blog, a Vlog(video blog)            or an event to share your knowledge. Make sure it offers value to your customers.

    Final thoughts
    There is a long list of tips you can try to promote your business and attract customers. We have tried to present  all the valuable information at one place. Most of these tips can be tried by startups and cash strapped small businesses. You can learn digital marketing through Google itself. Pour some passion into it and see the magic.

6 years ago
The importance of knowing your customer
Mohab Customer Experience 0

The importance of knowing your customer

Whenever we are given a chance to describe our customer, the first thing we think of is demographic traits. 22 – 55, single, female living in a particular location. But is a statistical summation good enough to make business decisions? While this was true for the early days of eCommerce, things are different today.

Thanks to social networking sites, we are also privy to behavioral trails like their interests, hobbies and shopping patterns. That’s as far as the data available goes. But what about interpreting that data? How can we understand what is driving this person behind the computer to buy or not buy our products?

Several companies create an inside-out customer-first culture for their business. It’s a difficult trait but here are some points to help you get started:

  1. Map your customer’s journey

Your customer may visit your store and buy the product online or shop from your app. To do this, they may have either watched your TV commercial, heard about you on the radio, read about you in the papers or seen a social recommendation from a friend. In the era of omni-channel marketing, you’ll have to cross align channels with the phase your customer is in to see if each channel is working optimally.

The steps in the sales funnel for eCommerce include Discover, Explore, Gain Interest, Purchase intent, actual purchase and after sales support. When a customer reads about you on social media, they could be any one of the above phases. You’ll have to step back to see if your social messages are catering to customers in each segment equally.

  1. Listen to uncover insights

Survey tools have evolved over the years to go beyond the simple Google form. Instead, they now pop up at the right stage in a customer’s journey to gather valuable feedback. The only caveat is that you need to be able to ask the right questions.

If you ask your customer what they think of a new product line you’ve launched, you’ll probably get many answers that you want to hear depending on how you’ve framed the question. Instead, if you actually look for purchase patterns and interpret analytical data, you’ll get to know what your customers are actually doing. Listening to these patterns will allow you to tweak your product offering.

  1. Leave assumptions in the hallway

Even if your eCommerce business is successful, there is always room for improvement. There is always the issue of cart abandonment. You’ll still have to figure why only a fraction of your traffic goes on to become your customer and what happens to the rest.

The only real way to get your answers is to speak to the customer. You’ll have to zero in on a group, go in without fixed questions and let them do the talking while you walk away with insights that can be converted into action points.

  1. Go beyond heat maps

The analytics heat maps from your eCommerce website tends to show you a rough picture of where your customers are looking. But what does it tell you about their real time navigational choices? How are they examining products and charting their decision making journey. Which part of the cart is throwing people off? Are the taxes or shipping charges coming as a surprise? Are people unable to use their coupon code? Is your payment gateway (link) working as it promised?

To know answers to such questions observe how customers work in a focus group rather than just historic data.

Conclusion: After connecting data points with individual behaviour, the ongoing thing that you need to do is keep talking to your customers and check for feedback. The proactive approach to understanding your customer will be the difference between you and your nearest competitor.

6 years ago
Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience

Is there a thing like loyalty when it comes to online shopping? In a world driven by discounts, sales, comparison shopping and endless scrolling, it is difficult to grab customer attention. The same sellers present their wares across multiple sites. So people move to check each site to see where the particular product is available at the best discount. In such a scenario, does customer experience really matter?

It matters more than you think. Imagine this – discount can’t be a competing factor because everyone is offering a lot of it. What matters then is customer experience. In fact, customer experience is considered to be a product in its own right.

In order to decipher what type of experience your customers are looking for, it is important to understand their journey and understand what they need at each touch point. Most companies try to concentrate on the customer life cycle which is a complex task, especially with omni-channel marketing. Instead, experts now suggest keeping focus on one customer journey at a time.

Here are the four pillars of a customer experience journey

  1. Make it simple to use

Buying from an eCommerce website should not feel like rocket science. You need to make it intuitive for customers to browse through your product range and get to a sale point. Most eCommerce shops follow a set pattern from discovery to the sales funnel to after sales service.

But a new app on the horizon – Elanic, is doing things differently. It has included an intuitive chat feature that allows buyers and sellers to interact before closing the sale. The chat is pre-programmed with common questions from the buyer like quality, size, condition of the product and more. This strategy is also followed by sites like OLX which sells seconds. In addition to the public comment feature, the site also allows customers to make an offer. The whole process is intuitive and automated which makes it easy to handle. Many sellers vouch that this feature has helped them close sales effectively.

  1. Make it personal

This strategy goes beyond knowing your customer’s name and saying ‘Hey xyz’ in your email. According to Campaign Monitor, 96% visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy. But they’ve shown some basic interest in what you have to offer and may probably come back if you communicate properly. Use retargeting to encourage users to pick up from where they left off. And don’t forget to inform them when the products they want are on sale.

  1. Stop them from abandoning cart

In 2016, as much as 69% of carts were abandoned! Can you imagine the billions lost because eCommerce portals did not work hard enough to push the sale? Constantly use A/B experiments to test what makes users stick or leave your website. In case they still abandon cart, make sure you send them a customized email reminder to pull them back

  1. Use the right payment gateway

Other than being secure, the right payment gateway will allow customers to pay in their own currency, using the wallet they prefer without making them work too hard. And of course, it should aid express checkout.

Conclusion: Don’t forget to constantly ask your customers for feedback and also incentivize them for providing it. There is no better way to enhance your customer experience than listening to them carefully – after all they are the heroes and champions for your brand.

6 years ago
Selling to international customers? How to cross borders with PayTabs
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Selling to international customers? How to cross borders with PayTabs

With the advent of internet and eCommerce, selling in your backyard is equated with selling in another country. The medium of sale is the same – your website. But then comes the actual legwork of ensuring your product reaches its customer and the money reaches your bank account. There are a lot of minor but significant factors at play here. Marketing, packaging, currency conversion, shipping, taxes, local duties and more make a small business wonder if they are really capable of taking on the complex world of export trade.

Depending on what you are selling, you’ll need partners in each of these spheres who can support you when you start (when the business may not be much but you’ll need the same degree of professional support) and continue supporting you when your business expands and you need high-tech support points.

If you are thinking of taking your products to international shores, here are a few things to keep in mind before you cross borders

  1. Identify markets for your products

Though you may already have a rough idea of where to start, it is always good to back business decisions with data. Where possible, find out about competitors selling in the market and what their on-ground sales have been like. This allows you to make a fair projection of what your sales can be. Now you’ll be able to prioritise markets where you need to enter first based on the expected sales volume.

A successful initial entry matters a lot. It gives you the confidence to push forward and also helps convincing future clients that you sell quality products that are accepted in multiple countries.

For example, the food import laws in several countries are quite stringent. You’ll not only need FDA clearances but also ensure your packaging has all the relevant information that is mandatory for the particular country. During your application, you may even have to specifically mention countries where the particular item has been refused entry.

  1. Identify a local distribution partner / retailer

Many start-ups may not have the means to set up a local office unless the conditions are proven viable. For initial market entry, it is best to go with a local distribution partner. These channel partners should be experienced personnel who can give you a taste of what your future sales can look like. They can also be your resource who can provide intelligence on how to tweak things and make it work.

  1. Understand generic laws and tax laws in each country related to products shipped from your country

Even if your product is sold in a particular international market, there may be specific laws applied to products that are shipped from your country. This may include but not limit to taxes, duties and other general laws on quality and quantity.

  1. Identify a shipping partner

Shipping is a biggie. First, you need to get the packaging right which is acceptable to the country you are shipping to. Second, you need someone who has a reputation for timely delivery. Third, you need to work with someone who can initially deliver small quantities and then grow with you to deliver bigger shipments when your market expands. Lastly, shipping costs can eat into your profits, so you’ll need to calculate the shipping partner who provides all of the above at good rates.

  1. Identify a payment partner

After all the groundwork, you’ll need to guide your hard earned money to reach your bank account. For this you’ll first have to ensure that the payment service provider works with multiple countries and currencies, intuitively adds in the most popular wallets in the country, provides easy APIs and makes transfer easy and allows invoicing even if you are on the go. A tall wish list but entirely possible. Sign up for a free demo account here.

There are many things about international sales and export trade that one can learn only from experience. Success isn’t final and failure isn’t fatal if you have an experienced partner to support your journey.

6 years ago