Where Marketing and Customer Care Intersect
Social media is undoubtedly a key channel for marketing for both B2C and B2B companies. It is where people spend a lot of their online browsing time and even when people are actively online shopping, social platforms are a part of that too, with Instagram being the destination of choice for over 70% of shoppers.
Now that many people are used to purchasing through social channels, or at least finding out about products and seeking reviews on social media, it is more important than ever for brands to be on top of their social media management strategy.
This two-way dialogue, where brands reach out via advertising and activity, and consumers make contact with product questions, order queries, complaints and reviews, means that the old model of one person being responsible for a business's social media activity just doesn't work.
Research by Sprout Social found that 67% of UK shoppers and 80% of US shoppers planned to interact with a brand or company through social media in the run up to Christmas. Interestingly, UK consumers were more likely to use WhatsApp to contact a business than US ones (29% vs 14%) which may be due to differing perceptions, and the idea that a contact made via WhatsApp may go through to someone more able to deal with a query, than the person running the Twitter/X account.
The main reasons for contacting were pre-purchase questions (with 65% of respondents indicating they'd use a social channel for this purpose), sharing positive feedback (39%), order queries (38%) and product complaints (23%).Facebook (69%) and Instagram (65%) were the leaders by a long way in terms of choice of platform with direct messaging being the preferred method of contact. Commenting on posts and tagging brands were methods around 40% of consumers would use but sending a DM was the clear winner with 70% stating they would take this action.
What we can see from this is that while comments and tags that the public can see are definitely ways that consumers are complaining about (or lauding) products, the more private direct message is still preferred. This means that the spectre of negative publicity or comments on social media posts is not as big a problem as businesses may fear.
Given all these statistics, it is clear that businesses need to be putting the social media responsibility across multiple departments. While marketing departments and agencies like are brilliant at creating, executing and feeding back on campaigns, they may not be the right people to deal with technical queries, questions about order statuses or enquiries about product attributes.
Depending on the nature of your business you may need a lead within the technical or product team on hand to deal with questions about using the products, the suitability of them and other specific questions about what it is you offer. It is wise for every business to have someone within the order processing team to be available on social media to deal with questions about order statuses, shipping fees and similar messages.
When you work with us we can cover the marketing nitty gritty with ease, and work with you to provide coverage for other common queries about the product, or FAQs about ordering and shipping. When a customer wants to know about their particular order, that's where they want direct contact with the business. We can make your social channels easier to manage for you, so you only need to get involved when absolutely necessary.
