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Before the rise of social media channels and businesses’ adoption of these channels, customers were seen as the only value-creating party in their relationship with businesses and brands. But social media has turned this relationship into a 2-way street.

Now, businesses find themselves in a position of having to offer value to their customers and adopt a true customer-first approach. In other words, we are talking about Social Media Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

The problem is that most companies in the MENA pay very little attention to what customers want or say about them. According to a recent survey by Satmetrix, 39% of companies do not track their social media responses at all; and 55% of companies ignore all customer feedback on Twitter and Facebook.

The New Face of Customer Service Is Social

We have talked to different digital media experts in marketing and CRM to find out how to create successful customer service on social media:

Patrick Attalah, founder of social4ce, a social media agency and digital transformation consultancy, serving clients in Europe and the Middle East. Patrick has successfully developed and run technology-based businesses and delivered globally digital professional services as well as online community solutions for the telecom, media and audiovisual industries.

Mohammed Almodhayan, Head of Retail Marketing at Gulf International Bank (GIB) and Chairman at The Marketing Department (TMD). He is currently focusing on transforming Saudi financial services into customer, experience-driven businesses, and discovering a Middle Eastern formula that optimizes the economic value generated by digital marketing.

And Lujain Alabbas, Senior Copywriter at TMD. Alabbas was part of the Public Relations and Digital Media team at Ethos Magazine, an award-winning University of Oregon publication. She also introduced social media to Women's Empowerment Partnership. Her focus now is exploring the innovative ways that communication professionals can effectively use social media in their daily jobs.

Based on their feedback, here are 10 key rules every business should follow to succeed in Social Media CRM:

Rules to Follow Online

1. Acknowledge customer messages as soon as possible.

-Alabbas: When you receive a query or request from a customer, immediately respond in a personalized manner in order to reassure them that you are working on providing a solution. Do not auto-generate your responses because that can reduce the customers’ confidence, making them feel like they are now apart of a waiting list.

-Attalah: Even if customers need to be redirected to another department, it’s important to let them know that you are on the case!

2. Be human, show empathy.

-Almodhayan:Do not be arrogant. Arrogance can be implied by language, tone of voice, diction, and the use of unspecified acronyms. You must use simple language when addressing your customers, and always remind them how valuable their opinions are.

-Attalah:Show empathy. Have a positive attitude and not a defensive one. It will make the customer want to open up and seek solutions, leading to quicker resolution, while also improving brand perception.

3. Take responsibility, acknowledge your mistakes.

-Attalah: Don’t try to make excuses. If the service rendered was bad, accept full responsibility for it and apologize.

-Almodhayan:Do not delete or hide your brand’s mistakes. Apologize directly, sincerely, and publicly to those who were involved. Then, thank those who brought the mistake to light because they gave you a chance to demonstrate your commitment to your clients.

-Alabbas: Remember that it is never the customer’s fault, so you should never make them feel like it is. Never argue with a customer because you will lose— if not the argument, then you will lose the customer (and perhaps customers that are following the conversation as well).

4. Do not overpromise. Be realistic.

-Alabbas: Overpromising will lead to high expectations and, eventually, disappointed and unsatisfied customers. Recognize your need for improvement, and then reassure your customers that you will try your best to deliver quality results. Transparency will help you gain their trust and respect.

-Attalah: In some cases, certain issues can take several days to get resolved, so be careful not to promise what you cannot deliver in time.

5. Do not share false statements.

-Almodhayan:If you use facts and figures to back up an argument, provide a reference for people to check the validity of your claim. Always be truthful, and prove it. This will help enhance your brand’s credibility.

Rules to Follow In-House

6. Build the right internal processes.

-Attalah: Now that you have acknowledged the concern, you must have to quickly communicate an action plan and get back to the customer. This is where most brands fail. For most brands, 80% of the queries and/or complaints can be narrowed down to about 10 topics. A list of FAQs and their responses can be developed, approved by the different departments, and used by the community managers to drastically reduce response time and costs. 

For the remaining 20%, you’ll need to build the right internal process taking into account the severity level of the complaint. You also need to design a contingency plan in case a complaint is not resolved in time and the issue escalates.

-Alabbas: Before responding to customer service queries, you should have a policy that defines how to handle them on each social media platform. This policy should determine exactly who is responsible for finding and responding to concerns; it should also identify the different ways to handle issues depending on their type. Following an established policy will provide consistency among all the brand’s social media accounts, and it will also help the customer service agents to be on the same page regarding expectations and responsibilities.

7. Train your team adequately.

-Attalah: Your social media customer service team is the voice of the brand. You should provide them with the adequate monitoring and engagement tools, as well as with the proper training so they can test the different scenarios and learn more about how to best tackle social customer behaviors.

-Almodhayan:Consider your staff to be your brand ambassadors. And just like real ambassadors, they should be selected and trained carefully. Your customer service agents are your frontline and they need to be the best that you can afford. It may be expensive, but it is a necessary investment in your business.

8. Evolve, start using tools.

-Almodhayan:Use customer service tools to handle queries and complaints, and to keep records of positive and negative feedback. This increases efficiency and helps you identify problem areas within your business.

-Alabbas: Another advantage that social media tools have to offer to businesses is the “listening” feature, which allows you to detect conversations about your brand, even when it is not directly addressed or tagged. In other words, social media tools allow you to “eavesdrop” on gossip circulating about your brand.

For further information, look into Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Desk.com.

9. Separate your customer service account from your brand’s profile account:

-Alabbas: Some brands have two profiles: One for trained customer service agents to respond to queries and handle service requests, and the other account (the brand’s main social media profile) for marketing purposes. This makes analytical data more meaningful. It also clears out the brand’s main social media profile from posts that followers might consider as clutter or spam. Additionally, having a customer service social media account suggests that you, reassuringly, have a team that is devoted to customers’ concerns.

10. If you are not ready to use social media, wait:

-Almodhayan:You need to prepare your business and train your staff before you leap into the social media pool. By all means, register accounts and put policies in place, but do not do anything else until you are ready to deal with the social media world in a professional manner.

Read more about how to use social media for CRM in the upcoming Winter issue of ArabNet The Quarterly