Besides providing free and inexpensive marketing for brands, social media also has been instrumental in changing the way consumers and companies experience customer service. I have briefly covered customer service in several of my presentations and in the Tweetdeck article, but it’s so important that I wanted to write about it a little more in depth and talk about some strategies companies can use.

While I know that not all companies have the staff to man a Twitter feed or keep up to date and respond to tweets and Facebook comments throughout the day, it is a great source of feedback, positive testimonials, and a second chance to redeem one’s brand with unhappy customers. Once you begin tweeting, using Facebook, formspring, foursquare, yelp, or whatever platforms you choose- you’ll be opening the door for comments, both good and bad. The best way to handle these is to interact with them, respond to them (good and bad) to show your customers that there is a human back there and that you are listening and willing to fix problems.
Firstly, choose the platforms that you can handle, then monitor them accordingly. Setting up Google Alerts is also a good way to monitor your brand mentions across the web and track down what people are talking, complaining, or praising about.

Then you should respond them, as timely as possible with a solution to the problem, with a reason for them to come back to your brand (a thank you, a coupon, etc.), or a friendly comment. Go out of your way to surprise loyal customers- the word of mouth will spread (and spread much faster nowadays). Keep in mind that free products, coupons, and great customer experiences will be tweeted, twit pic-ed, youtube, yelped… and so will the bad ones. So make sure your product or your service is remarkable and that customers are treated well and problems are fixed quickly. Brands now have the power to speak directly to customers, so why wouldn’t you?

Great customer service and experiences are their own free marketing.