Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? For both large and small organisations, social media has emerged as a crucial part of their branding, marketing, and customer service efforts. Over half of customers trust brand recommendations from other consumers over brand ads, according to a 2016 survey by the Nielsen Company. Many companies are incorporating social media into their marketing strategies in reaction to these developments. Many are even actively incorporating technology into their customer care strategies, frequently through third-party applications like Facebook Messenger or Twitter. However, not all companies are utilising social media in an efficient manner. Many fail to recognise the value of hearing what their consumers have to say and do not include these platforms in their customer service or marketing plans. Here are some reasons why you should not ignore your customers’ voice in today’s digital atmosphere!
You can learn about your customer's unmet needs and wants.
It can be challenging for companies to stay on top of customer needs and wishes. This is particularly true for B2B businesses since they might not have a centralised buying department that can monitor which business units are using their products and what changes they would want to see. Any customer service agent who has spent time on social media has probably come across a customer’s comment regarding a problem with a product or service. Not all firms, however, are able to respond to these remarks. In a centralised customer service model, depending on the subject matter of the comment, customers’ feedback is forwarded to various departments. For instance, the finance division would be contacted regarding a query on the company’s pricing strategy.Customer service might get a complaint regarding subpar service. Frequently, these divisions lack the power to alter the company’s goods or services. For instance, the price structure of the business might not be subject to alteration by the finance department. Since they are typically not in charge of product or service modifications, there are times when customer service may be completely unaware of the change a client is asking for. In other words, because the right department lacks the power to make modifications to the product or service, customer feedback may be sent to the incorrect department or a firm may be unable to respond to a customer’s request.
Customer service can be revolutionised with social media.
- They lack the internal resources to maintain a round-the-clock customer service workforce.
- They are unsure of how to include social media into their current customer service approach because they are unfamiliar with it.
- They believe that the use of social media is inappropriate for resolving customer service concerns and that their products and services need to be immune to such problems.
- They don’t think social media is useful for resolving customer issues.
Your competitors are also listening to their customer's voice.
It’s possible that you are not listening to your customers because you do not value their opinion. However, a lot of your rivals undoubtedly already do it. In fact, it’s probable that the companies you view as your largest rivals are already using social media to hear from their customers. If not, you might be passing up a crucial chance to understand your clients. You might also be passing up a chance to engage with your clients and improve how you handle problems and complaints. A “social media as a form of customer service” option is available in many social media platforms. Instead of using a centralised customer care team, you can use this option to direct questions and comments to social media.
Social media is free marketing!
Because they don’t believe it would increase their sales, many businesses are not using social media as a marketing tool. They fail to understand that social media is a marketing tool and not just a mere sales tool. Social media can help you establish a following of potential clients who could be interested in your goods and services and increase brand awareness. You can address client concerns, grievances, and inquiries via social media. This is a terrific approach to demonstrate to clients how responsive and concerned your company is, as well as how successful your goods and services are. Hosting an interactive campaign is among the greatest methods when using social media for marketing. You can interact with your clients through interactive campaigns, answer their queries and concerns, and advertise your goods and services.
A word of caution
Social media is a good platform for engaging with clients, promoting your goods and services and developing your brand. It can, however, also be employed against your business. There are numerous instances of competitors using social media to harm a company’s reputation and/or target a particular product or service. There are several instances of how social media sites are exploited to disseminate inaccurate information about a business or product. One such notable example is when TV star Noel Edmonds faced a backlash on Twitter after he published a post suggesting that an electronic box manufactured by Swiss firm EMPpad could cure cancer.
Final Words
As demonstrated, social media marketing activities do enhance customer equity as they allow for a multitude of changes to take place in an industry making the customer’s voice more heard. Whether this be through revolutionising customer service or simply making it easier to communicate with customers on a more informal basis, anything that improves the customer experience and makes them feel valued is something which should be adopted into your business.A truly ambitious and successful business in the 21st century would jump at the opportunity to adopt social media into their day-to-day processes, who would turn down arguably the most popular free marketing and outreach tool?
