Here and Now: Social Customer Service
11/1/18
A couple weeks ago, we wrote about customer service and the right language to use when communicating with customers. But WHERE you communicate is often more important than what you say.
These days, the demand for prompt, reliable customer service on social media is huge. Using your social channels to talk to customers and answer questions has gone from a “nice to have” to a “must have” in a few short years.
Here at Shubert, we get all kinds of questions and comments from our ticket buyers and theatregoers. On Telecharge, customers ask about onsales or how to use the site. For Broadway Inbound, we get a ton of responses from group leaders about their experience. For our theatres, customers ask about the venue, accessibility, lost and found, and more.
And we have to be at the ready to respond. While we get many direct messages, a lot of the comments and questions are public, so delays could be embarrassing. Experts say that answering within minutes is preferred (not hours or days), so we’ve invested in software to manage social customer service and try to address customers’ concerns quickly.
In addition, we try to avoid canned responses in most cases. We have actual human beings working on social customer service, so our words should be authentic. The fact is, sometimes people just want to feel like they’re being listened to.
According to a Microsoft study, 74% of people ages 18 - 34 and 58% of people ages 35 - 54 have a more favorable view of brands that respond to customer service questions or complaints on social media. That means that by using social to handle these concerns, you’re not just solving problems, you help to build brand ambassadors down the line.
For more information on The Shubert Organization, visit www.shubert.nyc.
These days, the demand for prompt, reliable customer service on social media is huge. Using your social channels to talk to customers and answer questions has gone from a “nice to have” to a “must have” in a few short years.
Here at Shubert, we get all kinds of questions and comments from our ticket buyers and theatregoers. On Telecharge, customers ask about onsales or how to use the site. For Broadway Inbound, we get a ton of responses from group leaders about their experience. For our theatres, customers ask about the venue, accessibility, lost and found, and more.
And we have to be at the ready to respond. While we get many direct messages, a lot of the comments and questions are public, so delays could be embarrassing. Experts say that answering within minutes is preferred (not hours or days), so we’ve invested in software to manage social customer service and try to address customers’ concerns quickly.
In addition, we try to avoid canned responses in most cases. We have actual human beings working on social customer service, so our words should be authentic. The fact is, sometimes people just want to feel like they’re being listened to.
According to a Microsoft study, 74% of people ages 18 - 34 and 58% of people ages 35 - 54 have a more favorable view of brands that respond to customer service questions or complaints on social media. That means that by using social to handle these concerns, you’re not just solving problems, you help to build brand ambassadors down the line.
For more information on The Shubert Organization, visit www.shubert.nyc.
Originally published in Broadway Briefing.