If you have read our page on what is social media, you’ll know (or perhaps you knew already) one of the main reasons for investing time in social media is engagement with your customers.

Dell’s example sets a good benchmark on how a company integrates social media tools into their business. Their next challenge is to help “revolutionise” their business.

Marketing people don’t work in customer services and customer service people don’t work in marketing; there may be good reason for that. But there will always be an argument for integrating marketing and customer service departments, or at the very least having them sat next to one another. This has never been so important as social media spreads.

How can social media help companies with bad customer service?

If you have had a bad customer service experience with a company, then you probably have felt:

• They don’t listen to your complaints
• They don’t care what you have to say
• They are only interested in themselves

These all go against the qualities needed to succeed in social media. You have to listen, engage and respond to your customers. If they are actively participating in conversations around your brand, then they have a desire to interact with your brand. Even if they are complaining, people generally complain because they want something resolved. If your product or service is that good, then chances are they want you to make it all better, so they can forgive you and start buying from you again!

Help, what do I do now?

Integrate - you might be scratching your head thinking, who is going to run our social media? Marketing or customer service? Answer: Both. At the very least, get weekly meetings between the people running your social media campaigns and your customer service department. Ideally the people running your social media campaign would straddle the two.

Monitor – use online tools or a social media agency to monitor online conversations around your brand. People online will not be coming to you to complain. Social media gives the common consumer a voice. It enables them to find other people with the same interests and concerns and discuss these. That might be positive or negative.

Listen – to what you customers are saying. Share the feedback from your social media campaigns with the customer service department. They will be able to advise on how to respond. Share feedback from the customer service department on complaints coming in from email and telephone. Pre-empt your online audience by identifying a problem and providing a solution. You’ll get points for that.

Respond - it’s no good listening and not responding. It’s a bit like talking to a brick wall; the speaker will walk away quickly. Even if you can’t provide a good response there and then, buy yourself some time. There is nothing wrong with saying you’ll get back to someone. As long as you do. Remember to respond to positive comments; these people will become greater brand advocates.

Listen again – ensure that the conversations online continue on a positive route. With social media you are opening up issues to a wider audience. You might find that someone else will jump on the band wagon if they are not happy with your response. Even though they did not start the conversation, you have to start a conversation with them.

Be careful – a brand entering a private conversation between consumers has to be careful. If the company goes about it in the wrong way, then this can do more harm than good. You need to be gentle in your approach and show the consumer that you are only interested in helping them. This is not a place for brand promotion. Leave that out!

Luckily for our clients, our business is built on a team with backgrounds in customer service and marketing, so we are experts at improving customer service through social media.