The growth of a business is as good as its customer relations. A happy and satisfied customer is an ominous sign for any business. Social Media is a fantastic tool to develop healthy customer relations. Many online marketers believe that social media can be beneficial only from an advertising or marketing perspective. However, the truth is that the growth of social media has added an altogether new dimension to the art of managing customer relationships.

Social Media for Customer Service

Gone are the days when customers relied on conventional channels for customer service. The use of social media networks as a channel for customer service is now a necessity rather than a may-be-we’ll-do-it go/ no-go decision. Social networks are increasingly being used by customers to provide feedbacks to businesses be it complaints, appreciation, queries or any other type of feedback. The unparallel reach of social networks ensures that the word about a company’s customer service spreads thick and fast. Good customer service is one of the proponents for building good customer relationships. Customer service through social networks like Facebook and Twitter add a ‘Wow’ factor to any business and people who are frequent visitors on such social networks simply love it when they get everything right there. No need to go to a company’s website – just do everything through the company’s Twitter feed or through its Facebook Business Page.

Easier to Track Competitors

Though there are concerns over the privacy of individual users, the public appeal of social networks is a blessing in disguise for any business. You can keep track of how well or how poorly your competitors are doing – what are customers saying about them, how they are using social media in order to build customer relationships etc. If customers are complaining about their poor service in specific areas, it opens up a new business opportunity for you.

Unhappy customers can be fatal for any business, more so on social networks. An unhappy customer can spread the word about his unhappiness with your service and in turn lead to another 100 unhappy customers. Therefore, social networks offer a great way to reach out to unhappy customers and turn them into happy customers. Like their unhappy counterparts, happy customers also lead to another 100 happy customers.

Zero Cost of Contact

Traditional Customer Relation Management techniques have significant cost of contact associated with them. While I do not advocate that social media should completely replace the traditional means of managing customer relationships, I’d like to emphasize that social media offers a zero cost of contact from both – customer and business perspective. Obviously, there’s a cost of internet access but then you’d anyway be paying for internet to access social networks anyway.

It’s a Dialogue, not a Monologue

Customer Relationship is all about creating a dialogue – listening to what the customers have to say and then responding to the customer. Social media is a great facilitator for establishing dialogues and promoting higher interactivity. Customers love to get engaged in two-way conversations and they are happier when they know they’ve been heard and that their concerns will be duly addressed.

Customer is King and Social Media is the next big Kingmaker!