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Recently, Alterian’s special guest, Sonia Holland, Social Media Manager for Rent-a-Center, presented the May Social Media ROI Series webinar on Social Customer Service. In her presentation, Sonia shared some really smart and actionable communication tactics for companies who are responding to customer service issues online. I wanted to share a few of them here:
** You must tap into empathy when dealing with frustrated people online. Empathy is a skill that you can learn, improve upon and hone. Here’s how:
Teach yourself how to be on your customer’s side. For every online complaint you read, use the following mental exercise BEFORE YOU POST to ensure you are in a place to truly support your customer.
1. Listen first. The customer will not listen to you until you listen to them.
2. Strategically put your point of view and your company’s POV in the back seat. For a moment, forget about your knowledge of the company or even the customer. Don’t read their comment with an eye for your response. Don’t begin by mentally poking holes in their story. Read it from their point of view.
3. Keep your emotions in check. If you find yourself getting annoyed or frustrated, take a moment to calm yourself.
4. You know that you are almost ready to respond to the customer when you get to the point where you think, “That stinks!”
** You must use strong, positive words to help reframe and reposition conversations as you write about your brand. To help deliver on that approach, strive to implement the communication tactics developed by Spaeth Communications, whose methodology structures communication to influence what your audience hears, believes and remembers.
These are just a couple of the nuggets of wisdom that Sonia shared during her presentation. Check out the full recording here .
Thanks so much, Sonia Holland for presenting this insightful webinar and for teaching our guests how to use the power of words to improve online customer service.
