4 Tips for Providing Customer Service on Facebook

Online shoppers use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to contact retailers, ask about orders, or even complain about a bad experience.

The fact that some consumers are using social media to contact businesses really should not be too surprising.

Many shoppers — if not most — are simply comfortable with social media sites. They use Facebook to stay in touch with friends, get the skinny on their favorite brands, or follow celebrity gossip, so it is little wonder that they also want to communicate with merchants on the platform.

What's more, faced with the proposition of calling a merchant and, potentially, waiting on hold or emailing a merchant and waiting for a response, some customers will go straight to Twitter or the like because the expectation is that social media is an always on forum wherein stores will respond immediately.

In some sense, having customer concerns appear on a Facebook page or Twitter stream for all of the world to see can be pretty scary for online sellers, but there is also a huge upside, responding and resolving the issue can create loyal fans who trust that the business will take care of any problems that arise.

For those times when customers reach out in the social sphere, there are at least four tips or concepts that could help online retailers manage their social media customer service.

1. Speed is of the Essence 

Shoppers communicate via Facebook because they want fast service. They have made their problem, question, or concern public, in part, because communication on Facebook is easy, but also because they want to apply some public pressure to get the merchant to reply.

Consider the case of the Golden Rivet, an online store selling military style pin-up art and t-shirts. Recently, the company received a question about an order on its Facebook page.

Check out the timing here - it's amazing! 

The customer sent the initial question at 10:50am on November 2, 2012.

"Hey mate, ordered a T shirt a few weeks back when the 7 guys were being held. Do you have any estimation on when it might get here? I know you changed the design when it went to 5 and were pretty busy with things."

A Golden Rivet representative responded in eight minutes, logging a post at 10:58am. An email and a couple more posts followed, and the customer's concern was completely resolved by 11:10am. This is social media customer service at it's best. 

Respond quickly to customers on social media sites.

2. Pay Attention & Address Their Concern

Perhaps the most basic concept in good customer service is listening. Many customers simply want to know that they are being heard. So when a shopper posts something on your Facebook wall, or sends you a tweet, take the time to understand what has been written.

Farm and ranch retailer, D&B Supply had a customer on its Facebook page concerned about a recall. 

The D&B Supply representative looked into and provided an answer that directly responded to Mary's inquiry (in about 20 minutes). D&B didn't put a spin on their response - they found a thorough answer and quickly responded in a direct fashion.

Show customers that you care by paying attention, and addressing their concern directly.

3. Accept Responsibility

Facebook customer service like all good customer service is about taking care of needs. If there has been a problem, it is important for the merchant to take responsibility. Simply saying, "sorry," is often all that is needed.

Recently, a customer complained on the Pottery Barn's Facebook page about the store's automated email system. 

Apparently, this shopper had first sent an email to Pottery Barn, the became further upset when the response wasn't personal. On Facebook, Pottery Barn quickly accepted responsibility, said sorry, and began working to resolve the issue.

4. Be Generous

One goal of Facebook customer service is to demonstrate that your store is easy to work with and will do what it can to help answer questions, address concerns, or resolve problems. To achieve this goal the Facebook customer service representative needs to resolve the problem generously.

This can mean upgrading shipping when a package is behind schedule, offering a coupon or gift card to compensate a shoppers, or even offer alternatives to out of stock or back ordered items. The key is that the store is doing something to improve the shoppers experience.

Check out this example from Zappos.

Zappos, which is known for its customer service, often offers $50 off coupons as a way to generously fix their mistakes. 

Conclusion

If one of your customers makes a complaint on your Facebook page, act quick, make sure you fully understand their complaint, accept responsibility when it's your fault, and be generous when you solve their problem. 

Also check out some tips on using Twitter as a "modern day complaint department."