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Are you leveraging your online presence as an effective customer service tool?

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Have you ever contacted a company with a question or problem? Any company? Our own Rachel Gottlieb recently shared stories of some poor service she received at local eateries.  And in both instances, Rachel addressed the problem by contacting the companies individually.

Just like Rachel, consumers across the country are receiving mixed service results, and not all companies are listening. In fact, they are making it pretty difficult for you to even contact them. As shared recently by AdAge, 47 out of the Fortune 50 have no phone number on their homepage. Some of these 47 don’t even have a “contact us” link or form.

Even worse, only half of the Fortune 50 have links to their social media profiles on their homepage!

In the modern land of customer service transparency being embraced by companies like Wegmans and JetBlue, it is simply unacceptable for any company to try and remain isolated from customers.  As we continue to become conditioned to expect immediate and effective responses, companies will have to adapt – or get out of the way. Now, AT&T and Verizon may just squeak by since they are such large behemoths, but who’s to say that their poor customer service (or lack thereof!) won’t catch up with them?

Don’t Get Lost in the Customer Service Shuffle!

Your clients and candidates are expecting the same type of customer service transparency from their staffing vendors as they do from other companies. Here are 3 ways to ensure your strategy keeps you on the right track:

  1. Feature contact information prominently on your homepage. Sure, this one should be a no-brainer, but chances are a lot of people (particularly those using smart phones or tablet devices) are going to your website so that they can get your address or phone number. Don’t make it hard them to find it! Difficulty getting essential information makes it much more likely that visitors will just go to the next option in their search results.
  2. Don’t leave social media sites to languish. If you have set up profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, congratulations! You’ve taken an important step in your customer service, public relations and marketing strategies. Now that you have some nifty profiles, it’s time to use them! If you don’t have enough staff who can take the time to monitor your profiles each day, you can outsource your monitoring to a trusted partner. But, be careful not to let someone without experience in public relations or communications post on your wall or respond to issues. Sending the wrong response can be worse than not responding at all (and that’s saying a lot, because leaving comments or questions unanswered is as good as PR suicide!). Your clients and candidates are engaging other brands on their social media sites, and are receiving thoughtful, quick responses. You should be providing the same.
  3. Ensure human beings are there to respond. This is more along the lines of Customer Service 101, but it’s even more true today. Whatever you do, don’t send people to your phones, contact us form or social media profiles, only to receive an automated response. Automated replies for forms are acceptable, but you must follow up within a short time (and with a human!).  Although smart phones, tablets, iPods and other fun toys keep us constantly connected, most of us eventually want to hear back from another human being. One who understands our problem or question, and will do his or her best to answer or make it right. Don’t complete steps one and two, only to drop the ball by missing step number three. The personal connection is essential.

Need help getting your website or social media profiles up to speed?
Haley Marketing can help! Our team of savvy social media and marketing experts will help devise a plan to help you manage your online presence and continue to deliver top service to your clients and candidates.

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