December 17, 2020 
It is no longer a secret that social media plays a significant role in any customer service strategy a business wants to employ.
The size of the users is a clear indication as to how much people prefer social media platforms to any other form of communication. Therefore, with the possibility of reaching existing and potential customers in an environment where they are comfortable, social media represents a great customer service tool for any business.
By being able to integrate marketing tools like chatbots, which can automate your customer service process and boost user experience, social media is a great opportunity to significantly improve customer support.
However, in what ways can social media be used as a customer service tool?
As a Customer Service Engagement Tool
Social media can be used as a customer service engagement tool. Social media is a great place to achieve high engagements. Using social media to interact and engage with your customers is great for your customer service. There are several ways marketers and business owners can achieve this.
One of the best ways to improve customer service on social media by engaging with customers is by ensuring all comments and messages are not left unanswered. Nobody likes to be ignored and certainly not your customers.
When customers drop a comment or message, ensure you reply immediately. Social media, as a customer service tool, makes it possible to reply to messages and comments on your page or in your Direct Messaging (DM).
However, it is understandable that it can get burdensome replying to many comments and messages at the same time. Large volume of engagements can be difficult to keep up with, but they are necessary.
It does not have to get tiring, as many automation tools can be integrated into your social media for a seamless customer service experience.
Tools like the Zebrabuzz Facebook auto commenter or autoresponder, which can help reply to comments and messages publicly or privately automatically.
With several different types of replies, business owners do not have to worry about having just one reply to every message as each reply will be based on the query of the customer.
To provide Real-Time Assistance
Another way social media can be used as a customer service tool is by providing real-time assistance. Customers are always likely to reach out for help or assistance, and the best place they can do that is via social media.
A customer that wants an immediate response and assistance will choose to send a message on social media rather than fill forms on your e-commerce website or sending an email. With social media, they expect quicker and real-time assistance.
In fact, studies show that up to 95% of users that reach out to you online expect a response within 10 minutes. Therefore, the expectations of your customers, especially for social media, are very high.
These expectations remain the same thing even at odd hours when you may not be available or asleep. What happens then?
To effectively provide real-time customer service assistance on social media, chatbots are your best bet. Chatbots are available round-the-clock and do not need any break.
Whether you want to use them only when you are not available or at all times, chatbots can work effectively all the same.
With artificial intelligence in chatbots like Zebrabuzz, your chatbot will be able to identify customer queries and solve them in record time. This can be done whenever your customers reach out whether you are available or not.
Great Place for Feedbacks
Another way social media can be used as a customer service tool is because it is a great avenue to receive Feedbacks. Social media is one of the best and easiest ways you can get feedback and reviews from your customers.
The feedback mechanism of social media is straightforward. Customers can drop their thoughts and opinions about your services right under a post in the comment section or as a direct message to you.
This type of direct contact also makes it easier to provide personalised follow-up on customers reviews, especially negative ones or the ones that require you to make an improvement or upgrade on one of your products and services.
Instead of forms which will most likely aim to categorise the problem under one umbrella and try to solve it with a “one size fits all” format, direct feedback ensures you can follow through on each review in the way the sender of the feedback prefers.
To monitor customer behaviour and analytics
Social media, as a customer service tool, ensure you can monitor the behavioural patterns and analytics of your customers. Social media platforms like Facebook offer you a tab where you can check how well your products are doing, which is an indication as to how much your customers like each service or product.
You can also automate this process to get more specific results with Zebrabuzz marketing and customer service tool, which, when integrated into your social media platforms, will provide more detailed and extensive information about your customers.
For Customised and Tailored Customer Experience
Personalised services are one of the many reasons why businesses use social media as a customer service tool. The nature of social media is that it makes it possible for customers to reach out directly to a business.
Therefore, this direct contact ensures business can offer a customised experience to their customers. Social media ensures customers feel like they are the only one a business is attending to.
Also, suppose this gets difficult as trying to respond to different people and personalising each response and service can be tiring, chatbots are always there to help.
Zebrabuzz, for instance, is equipped with some of the latest artificial intelligence features like machine learning and natural language processing which ensures a smooth conversational flow.
It can also recommend products and services based on customers recent activity or likely interests which is not only great for increasing chances of conversion but also important to improving customer experience.
Most businesses may see social media as a marketing tool. Still, it may be time to be used as a customer service tool as it promises several features that can significantly improve user experience.
