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| Credit: Nagy-Bagoly Arpad/Shutterstock |
The way you interact with your customers can truly make or break your business. Especially now, in the age of social media — word spreads quicker than you can imagine, and all it takes is a few bad experiences to ruin your business's reputation.
To keep up with the times, it's important that your business has great customer service, and even more so, an engaging social media strategy that's equipped to handle customer service issues as well. Don't just let your Facebook page or Twitter account be a place to share your content — make it a platform where your customers and readers can feel comfortable reaching out to you (good or bad), knowing that they'll get a response.
Not sure where to start? These 10 companies do a great job of managing customer service on their social media accounts. Follow their lead, and you'll be rocking social media in no time.
AirAsia
Airlines are no stranger to customer complaints, so it may come as a surprise that AirAsia (and JetBlue, too) has made this list. However, AirAsia's Facebook presence is outstanding, and the company goes the extra mile to make sure they reply to as many comments as it can — and with close to 3 million likes, that's a lot to keep up with. AirAsia responds to customer inquiries with helpful Web pages and advice, and is always friendly and personable in its replies, whether it's the middle of the work day or the middle of the night. The company also runs a lot of fun promotions, like its "Free Seats Challenge," which gives 12 winning customers a year's worth of free seats on flights.
JetBlue
JetBlue understands how important it is not only to engage with happy customers, but to quickly problem-solve and respond to customers who are dissatisfied with their service. Sure, it's easy to share good feedback on your page, but a few wrong moves can do serious damage. JetBlue makes it a point to respond not just to customers who @mention them, but to customers who talk about the brand in general but didn't tag it in the post. This means that the company's social media team is likely tracking and monitoring keywords and relevant hashtags as well, so they can find and respond to more customers — a key strategy that every company should be using.
Nike
With more than 4 million followers on Twitter, to say Nike has a huge social following is an understatement. The company recognizes just how important customer service is, especially on social media, which is why Nike created a separate Twitter account just for responding to customer inquiries and issues: @NikeSupport. Nike Support is dedicated to all things customer service, making it easier for customers to reach out when they have a problem or a question they want answered. And Nike Support is very active, and like other companies with great social media customer service, very quick to respond. If you look at the account's Twitter feed, you'll see replies every few minutes. This shows customers that they can trust Nike to provide them with the help they need, when they need it.
Seamless
If you're not already following Seamless on Twitter, you should change that right away. The popular online food service company has one of the best social media strategies out there. Seamless' Twitter account is fun, amusing and foodie-friendly, and shares everything from mouth-watering food photography to hilarious food puns and memes. The company also frequently shares discount codes on its feed. Beyond that, however, Seamless has a stellar customer service strategy, and is very quick to respond to complaints or website errors. Your lunch order is an hour late? Not to worry — tweeting at Seamless will almost always garner a response and they'll help you figure out where your food is as soon as they can. Website down? The company's social media team lets all of Twitter know when it will be back up, or at least that they're working on it as fast as they can. And if you have positive feedback to share, Seamless will also respond with a great sense of humor — they'll probably even follow you back, too.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock does a great job of sharing engaging and relevant posts on Twitter — especially photography — but the stock image company's social media presence is more than just a feed of clickable content. Shutterstock's social media team makes it a point to interact with others who share relevant content, and handles both negative and positive feedback quickly and with grace (and even a sense of humor when appropriate). Shutterstock also lets users know what department the company is sending their feedback to so they know they're contributing to change. For example, in instances when users find mistakes in photos, Shutterstock's social media team responds and also passes the information on to the artists, so the images can be fixed and resubmitted. The company has also been known to respond to users with amusing stock images, the way other Twitter users might share GIFs or memes.
Starbucks
Starbucks knows how to rock both Facebook and Twitter in terms of customer service. The coffee giant is active and quick to respond to customer questions and complaints on its Facebook page, and is engaging and fun with its customers on Twitter, too. Starbucks knows when to bring the personality to its replies, and when to hold back and be professional, showing customers that the brand is both personable and dynamic. And, like Nike, Starbucks also started a separate Twitter account called @MyStarbucksIdea as an additional way to engage with customers. This account, while less active than Starbucks' main Twitter account, is a place where customers can submit and discuss ideas to make Starbucks better.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is known for being engaging with customers across its social media platforms, and for having a pleasant and personable social presence. Additionally, a 2012 study by social media insights companysocialbakersshowed that T-Mobile responded to 86 percent of the questions it received on social media (over 2,500) over a three-month period. This means that T-Mobile makes it a point to respond to the vast majority of the customer inquiries it receives. The mobile phone carrier is also known for taking advantage of its social media fan base when it comes to searching for new employees, too, taking T-Mobile's social presence far beyond simple customer service. And, members of T-Mobile's social media team sign their Twitter replies with their names, so customers know they're talking to a real person.
Walmart
Walmart has more than 34 million Facebook fans, so you can imagine that keeping up with the comments the company's Facebook page receives is no easy feat. However, scroll through any comment thread on Walmart's posts, and you'll see numerous responses from the company, both to positive feedback and customer complaints. And while the retail giant sees complaints often, the company always responds in a friendly and professional manner as often as possible, and works with customers to solve their issues or direct them to someone who can be of more assistance.
Whole Foods
Whole Foods' Twitter presence is truly one to admire. The company shares everything from healthy recipes to relevant news stories, and hosts Twitter chats, too. And even with nearly 4 million followers, the company manages to respond to Twitter users in a fast, fun and friendly manner. Whole Foods also knows how to get its followers talking about the brand on social media, too — it frequently sends out calls to action, asking Twitter users interesting questions or encouraging them to share recipes or pictures.
Xbox
Xbox may be all about gaming, but the company doesn't play around when it comes to its social media strategy. In fact, Xbox (which also has a separate Twitter account for customer service purposes, @XboxSupport) holds the Guinness World Record for most responsive brand on social media — yes, that's a thing now. Xbox's Twitter team really knows what they're doing. In the account's "about" section, Xbox clearly lists the hours during which the team is available to respond so that users know when they're more likely to get an answer. And with nearly 2 million tweets sent out to date, there's no question that this brand takes pride in its quick and efficient response times. But just because Xbox Support is efficient, doesn't mean it's not fun, too. The Twitter team knows how to be friendly and helpful in tandem.
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