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It goes without saying that your customers should be at the forefront of everything you do - and that includes your brand’s social media strategy. A customer-centric approach focuses on providing a positive customer experience before and after every sale, and puts your customers’ wants and needs above all else.
In a piece of research called ‘Effective Leadership in the Digital Age’, digital marketing and eCommerce community experts Econsultancy asked participants what the most important characteristic is when it comes to establishing a truly ‘digital native’ culture. 58% of respondents said that it was customer-centricity - so if your brand is focusing too much on self-promotion, it might be time to make some improvements that will put your customers in the driver’s seat instead of leaving them on the sidelines. Learn how to create a customer-centric social media strategy below.
High-Quality Customer Service
The power of excellent customer service can never be overstated. Providing high-quality support should be a priority for your business and is undoubtedly the best way to make your social media strategy customer-centric. Monitor your social media inboxes around the clock to make sure you don’t miss any incoming requests, or use a CRM platform like Sprout Social to bring all of your comments and messages together in one place. Respond promptly and ensure that all of your customer service reps are adequately trained to handle all the different types of enquiries you might receive.
Concerned about your brand’s current standard of customer care? Consider outsourcing this process to an external agency like 3sixfive. Discover the benefits of outsourcing here, or learn how we can assist you with year-round social media customer service here.
Use Sentiment Analysis to Gain Insights
While sentiment analysis is primarily used to gain insights about your products and services, don’t forget it can also be used to gather opinions about your social media strategy - whether that’s your content and ads, or your customer service and community management. Look out for comments that specifically address these areas and identify whether they are positive or negative, paying attention to any aspects that need to be improved.
• Do customers think you respond too slowly to their requests?
• Are people seeing excessive or poorly targeted ads from your brand?
• Do people find your content spammy or inappropriate? (45% of consumers say they will unfollow a brand because of irrelevant content!)
• Are you missing out on key opportunities for engagement?
Engage in General Conversations
Many brands’ social media plans prioritise sales and product promotion, which are of course both important parts of any marketing strategy, but they often forget to set aside some time to engage in non-commerce dialogue too - aka fun conversations and lighthearted interactions with their communities. While these types of communications may not result in immediate purchases, they’re essential for building customer relationships, fostering positivity within your social media audience and humanising your business.
To spark these conversations, you can:
• Respond to posts and comments you have been directly tagged in, even if they aren’t customer service or sales-related - such as memes and general chit-chat
• Use social listening to find posts where your brand has been mentioned, but not tagged
• Carry out proactive engagement, which means responding to users who haven’t actually tagged or mentioned your brand, but have presented an opportunity for engagement - such as mentioning your industry or location, or asking users for recommendations based on similar brands they currently buy from.
Request and Share UGC
Another great way to put your customers at the forefront of your social media strategy is to ask them for UGC (user generated content) and then share this onto your brand’s social media page(s). UGC includes photos and videos of customers using your product or visiting your location, as well as testimonials and reviews about their experiences. Not only does UGC give prospective customers a realistic and relatable view of what your product or service is really like, it also makes existing customers feel valued and involved, as they’ll appreciate the opportunity to have their content appear on your brand’s page.
79% of people say that UGC highly impacts their buying choices and consumers are 2.4 times more likely to find UGC authentic compared to brand-created content, so not only does it benefit those who upload it, but it’s also highly influential on other customers’ purchasing decisions.
Surveys and Questionnaires
To ensure that you’re always giving your customers what they want, you should conduct regular surveys and questionnaires where they can share their thoughts on your brand’s current strategy. This could be in the form of a poll on social media, the Questions sticker on Instagram stories, or a CSAT (customer satisfaction) survey at the end of a live chat conversation that asks people how satisfied they were with the service they received. Then, to calculate your CSAT score, use the following formula:
(sum of all positive responses ÷ total number of responses collected) x 100
Your score will be represented as a percentage and is one of the most straightforward ways to measure how happy people are with your business.
Personalise Every Interaction
Offering personalisation is another excellent way to put your customers at the heart of your social media strategy. 84% of consumers agree that they’re more likely to buy from brands that treat them like a person, not a number - so it’s vital to tailor your interactions to their specific needs if you want to increase loyalty.
In order to provide a personalised experience, use customers’ names when replying to their comments and messages, and always type out a new response instead of copying and pasting a templated answer. Make sure to check your previous messaging history with a customer before responding, especially when dealing with an ongoing conversation that another member of your team has handled prior to you. This will prevent the customer from having to repeat information they’ve already shared, which 75% of consumers say they find frustrating and gives the impression that your brand doesn’t care about its customers on an individual level.
Summary
At its core, a true customer-centric social media strategy will answer the questions your audience is asking, and will focus on finding effective solutions to their problems rather than product promotion alone. Prioritising your customers in every aspect of your social media presence - from content to community management - will give them a voice and confirm to them that they genuinely matter to your brand. At all times, your efforts should be channelled into minimising customer effort and maximising customer value, whether that means providing bespoke recommendations during the purchasing stage, or efficiently resolving complaints after a sale has taken place. We hope the tips we’ve shared today will help you make your social media strategy more customer-centric in 2024. Which steps are you planning to take to put your customers first?
