Once upon a time, customers could only get in touch with you by telephone, letter or by visiting your premises. If they were unhappy, they’d probably moan about you to a friend or two and you’d be non the wiser.

How times have changed. Now, if they’re unhappy they’ll tweet about it or post in on their Facebook page. Before you know it, the whole world will know they received bad service.

That’s why, as a business, it’s vital you’re using social media.

How social media can be used to your advantage

If there’s one thing everyone loves, it’s to talk. By listening to social media channels, you can learn a lot about your customers’ likes and dislikes. So you need to use that to your advantage.

1. Sales Department

The optimum time to sell to someone is when they’re ready to buy. Hitting on that golden moment isn’t easy. But monitoring social media channels will give you the advantage.

If you’re an electrical retailer and someone in your Twitter feed is asking advice on buying a new radio, you can respond and offer advice. That puts you in the right place at the right time.

2. Marketing Department

Listening to your target market will tell you whether your marketing materials are addressing the questions your customers are asking.

3. Customer Service

We’ve already looked at how an unhappy customer can use social media to vent their frustration. But imagine if you were monitoring Twitter for anyone mentioning your company name. You would be able to pick up the fact that there’s a problem and deal with it straightaway.

Then you would go from a disappointment to the best company in the world because you listened and put it right.

4. Research and Development

Eaves-dropping will tell you a lot about what people really want. But you can also use social media as a way of conducting customer research. Ask your customers what they want and give it to them.

5. Human Resources

Can social media really help with HR?

Yes, users fill out profiles showing their skills and experience (e.g. on LinkedIn). If you’re looking for someone with a particular skill, just search for them.

It’s amazing just how many ways social media can help businesses today. If you’re not already there, start using it today – your competitors are.

Finding out what they really want

There is one sure fire way of finding out what your customers are looking for – ask them.

They can tell you if your products/services are providing what they’re looking for, whether your customer service is hitting the mark and how they would prefer to interact with you (email, social media, telephone etc.)

So what’s the most effective way of conducting your research? Here are a few ideas you could try.

1. Ask them directly

Talking to your customers – scary thought but quite effective.

Whether it’s face to face, on the phone or using social media ask them if they were happy with your service. Have they enjoyed using your product? Do they think it could be improved in any way?

You’ll come across as a company that cares about its customers. In fact they’ll probably be so flattered you asked them they’ll be happy to tell you what they think along with any suggestions they may have to improve and strengthen your business.

2. In your newsletter

If you already send out a regular newsletter why not run an opinion poll? You could offer a discount to anyone who fills in your survey or even make it into a prize draw.

This would also be a great opportunity to survey your customers about their social media habits to find out where they hang out so you can discover which channels will work best for you.

3. Case studies

People love real life stories which is why case studies are so powerful.

How can it help with your customer research? Well by asking the right questions such as:

• What problem did they have?
• Why did they approach your company?
• What they thought about your service?
• Whether your product/service solved their problem

You’ll find out loads of valuable information. It’s important though to make sure it’s not written as a thinly masked advert so you may want to find yourself a good professional copywriter to write it for you.

So that’s customer research and a great promotional tool all rolled into one.

4. Humble feedback

So obvious it usually gets forgotten about.

Whether you make or miss a sale find why they did/didn’t buy from you and how they found you in the first place.

People won’t mind you asking because, as I mentioned earlier, it shows you as a company who cares and who wants to continue to improve

Over to you

How do you conduct your customer research?

Do you use any unusual or innovative approaches?

Leave a comment below and share your ideas and tips.

This is amazing.

Your search engine optimisation strategy is working. Targeted traffic is flooding to your website and your professional copywriting is converting them because they are going straight to your contact form.

Fantastic. So what happens next?

Getting traffic that converts is one thing but does your customer service match their expectations or is it letting you down?

There are a number of ways your customers will be able to get in touch with you so you must ensure the service they receive via their preferred method is first class.

1. Email

Although your customers won’t expect an immediate response via email, they don’t to be left hanging around for weeks either.

When you get an email send an acknowledgement so they know you are aware of their question. Within that email give them a time frame in which you will respond – and make sure you stick to it.

If at all possible, try to reply within 24 hours or sooner if possible. This could well be the first contact they have with you so make sure it’s a good experience.

2. Hanging on the telephone

When your phone rings, answer it.

If you leave them hanging on the end of a ringing phone, your potential customer will probably hang up and ring someone else who will answer.

A lot of companies use an automated answering system – there’s nothing wrong with that, just make sure they reach a real person quickly.

3. Live chat

This is a great option to have on your website because it means your potential customer can get an instant answer.

A simple click on a button connects them to you and this ease of contact shows you as a company who puts its customers first.

Of course, you just have to ensure the staff member manning it is qualified and has the knowledge to help.

When things go wrong

Not every contact will go smoothly – it’s a fact of life that you have to be prepared for.

When something does go wrong (and it will), how you deal with it is what matters. Be an adult, hold your hands up and apologise. Then put it right and follow up to make sure your customer is happy.

A mistake won’t lose you a customer – how you deal with that mistake will.

It doesn’t matter what business you are in – great customer service is essential. Even if your brand is one of the most sort after of the minute, if you give bad customer service people will walk away (and are unlikely to return).

Always, always, always put your customers’ needs first.