September 7, 2020 
Social media has positively impacted the way customer service and marketing are done.
Customers on social media are now empowered to reach out to businesses on different social media channels to either commend or make some complaints about them.
Social media can be a medium through which businesses can reconcile with unhappy customers by addressing issues while retaining and increasing the patronage of happy customers.
This is why every business should see social media as an asset, not a source of problems.
According to a research study carried out by JD power in 2013, poor social media practices can ruin a business’ image and worse, lead to poor sales.
The study also showed that more than 60% of social media users have engaged with a company or business online.
So how do businesses optimise the power of social media and improve their customer acquisition and retention and guarantee sustainable patronage, positive brand image and a steady stream of profit?
Through automation.
Social media chatbots are incredibly bold and innovative utilities for businesses to use to bolster their customer service and marketing effort.
Facebook messenger has more than one billion active users. The New York Times published a report that an average user of Facebook messenger app spent at least 50 minutes daily on the app.
This shows that businesses have a tremendous opportunity to connect with their customers. The arrival of chatbots is a big-plus for businesses that are willing to build brand awareness, customer loyalty and affinity.
Facebook makes more than 17 billion dollars yearly from ad revenue. If you are spending excessively on Facebook ad ‘year in, year out’, it may be great to start using Facebook messenger chatbot to engage your customers. To improve your brand visibility and ROI, you should use a tool like Zebrabuzz.
You can use Zebrabuzz to create an effective chatbot for your website and on your social media channels. Chatbots use automated conversation to give instant replies, which is quite the same as chatting with a human.
The focal point of social media customer service interaction is better customer interaction, and this can be done through fast response to comments and messages on social media channels.
This article will enlighten you on how to respond to your customers on social media effectively by using chatbots.
Ways to Respond to Customers on Social Media Effectively
Have (and use) your brand voice
A brand voice is a key to your business having a ‘human feel’ and a ‘distinct personality’ while relating to customers.
It allows customers to be in sync with your company’s vision and central message.
Using your brand voice in responding to your customers on social media will improve your brand image and grow your customer’s affinity with your business. It will portray your business as unique and distinctive.
You don’t want your business to present itself as amiable and playful, while its response to customers on social media is angry and cold. It is simply wrong.
No disparity should exist between your business’s marketing voice and customer service voice.
With Zebrabuzz, you can build your messenger chatbot to respond to customers on social media using your business’s brand voice, and this will create a rapport between your customers and your business.
Since you understand that every communication with your customer on social media is a good means of strengthening your relationship with that customer, you can attune your chatbot to present itself as friendly and fun.
You can give your chatbot a name, colour and spice the conversation with Gifs, smileys and emojis.
Read: How can Chatbots improve customer service
Don’t delete negative comments or review
No matter how pressurised you may feel to delete a negative review or comment, do not delete it. It can be highly beneficial if it is correctly rectified.
If you attend to your customer’s query on time and in a helpful manner, it will be clear to everyone that you are serious about making your customers happy.
It is enough to win you new customers and increase the loyalty of old customers. It is highly unlikely for a business social media page to have only positive social media comments, it may breed suspicion.
If you resolve your customer’s complaint on time, it will show the world that your brand is always willing to help your customer.
Since leaving a negative comment or review for long can spell disaster for your business image, chatbots can be used to respond to your customers 24/7.
Chatbots are tireless and do not need rest, like humans. That way, you will always be available for your customer’s query. You can always refer more complex problems to human customer service agents.
Use emojis
Emojis are fun and highly expressive. They can effectively convey emotions. Emojis are a great way to respond to your customers on social media.
They can be used to garnish each response to your customers to sustain the emotions in your response. Though it should be used sparingly in very factual responses.
Emojis are very effective for chatbots. You can use emojis to show the mood and feelings of your chatbot. This can boost user experience and customer interaction.
It is the reason Facebook included an emoji keyboard to messenger, so users can use emojis to express themselves better.
Fun fact: Emojis can add character and emotional intelligence to your chatbot, and with Zebrabuzz messenger bot builder, your chatbot will have a natural and personal
Conclusion
Businesses today may have several ways of managing customers’ responses on social media. To improve effectiveness, we recommend a balance of human agents and chatbots.
It is no more about the huge expenses involved in hiring so many customer service agents.
Chatbots are affordable and are the future of customer service. They make life simpler and can provide great customer service to every one of your customers.
