Social media and the challenge of ‘real-time’ communication
‘Slowly but surely’ isn’t a phrase that sits well with many business sectors in 2018. Customers and clients need answers quickly so if you’re not in a position to give them they will go elsewhere.
Here are some challenging figures from Sprout Social, the social media software people, who say …
- 24% of customers expect brands to respond on social media within 30 minutes
- 42% expect a response within 60 minutes
- 57% expect responses during regular business hours, after hours and on weekends
Don’t let social media be the reason you fall behind
If you don’t yet have a social media presence, you already run the risk of falling behind to your competitors.
If you have set up business pages on Facebook, opened a Twitter account and have toyed with Instagram and Pinterest then well done — but merely setting them up isn’t going to be enough. You need to maintain your presence and respond to those who take the trouble to comment or ask questions.
If you’re thinking that all this is merely for big businesses with large budgets the daunting fact is that customers will not differentiate — they expect the same level of service from everyone, whether you have marketing and customer services teams working for you or not.
Putting things right
The good news is that there are two steps you can take now to put things right.
- Commission an agency to monitor your social media platforms for you
- Learn about programs that will help you give the appearance of being a 24/7 operation — if that’s the impression you want to give
The third thing you should do is never underestimate the impact you make on a customer when they drop a question on your Facebook page and they receive some form of response next time they log on. Showing you care counts for so much and building up a loyal following online can be the difference between business success and failure.
Still don’t really know where to start, or stuck for inspiration to get your social media working for you? Here at ActionCOACH Team Excellence we host regular social media workshops, for complete beginners to those who are already making use of social media. Check out our events to see what we’ve got coming up.
