How to differentiate your customer experience through social media

Social media is a wild jungle for brands seeking to stand out.  

But amidst the vines and chatter, one pain point reigns supreme: consistency.  

Balancing rapid responses with the need for a consistent and distinct brand voice is like walking a tightrope without a safety harness.  

Navigating this digital wilderness can be a daunting task for businesses. 

Negative comments? Turn them into trampolines!  

And the 24/7 show? Well, it just keeps on going.  

However, with the right tools, training and a touch of data magic, your brand's social care can shine like a dazzling acrobat in the grand theater of customer satisfaction. 

Vishal Krishnamurthy, solutions consultant at Sprinklr, and Luke Cartwright, social media manager at Miral Destinations, recently provided some practical, no-nonsense advice on overcoming those social care challenges at Socialverse.   

Let’s peel their suggestions layer by layer.  

Enable personalized customer experiences 

Luke, a seasoned professional in the tourism industry and guest experience management, shares his valuable insights and best practices to create memorable experiences for travelers.  

The power of social care: These days social media is the preferred channel for customers to voice their opinion, seek assistance and share experiences. Therefore, social care is a potent tool for building stronger brand-customer relationships as it allows brands to engage in personalized, real-time conversations with their customers.  

Prioritizing customer satisfaction: Miral Destinations is committed to customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Timely responses to inquiries, concerns and feedback not only address individual needs but also demonstrate dedication to customer service. The company responds to all customer engagements in under ten minutes. 

Gaining valuable insights: Personal interactions with customers yield insights into their preferences, pain points and expectations. These insights enable tailored offerings to enhance the overall customer experience. 

Integration for efficiency: Miral Destinations integrated with Microsoft Dynamics (CRM) to streamline complaint and feedback handling. The integration allows social media care agents to seamlessly raise cases within the Sprinklr Care Console, where guest issues are addressed. This integration reduces agent effort and enhances the overall process efficiency because it’s all happening in the Sprinklr platform. 

Personal touch matters: Personalization fosters a deeper connection between a brand and its customers, and Miral Destinations focuses on personalized interactions, connecting customers to dedicated team members. Here are a few tips to make sure your personalization is on point:  

• Use the customer's name: "Hi [Customer's Name], thanks for reaching out! How can I assist you today?" 
• Tailor responses to their specific needs: "I see you're interested in our product. Are you looking for something specific, like color or size preferences?" 
• Show empathy and understanding: "I understand how frustrating it can be when a delivery is delayed. I'm here to help resolve this issue for you." 
• Be conversational and friendly: "Hey there! 😊 We're excited to assist you with any questions or concerns. Feel free to ask anything!" 
• Use emojis and GIFs judiciously for added personality: For instance, if the customer message reads "Just received my order and it's perfect! 🙌" Your response should be "That's fantastic to hear! We're thrilled you're loving it. 😄🎉" 

Streamline social care operations  

Luke's approach highlights the importance of adaptability, technology integration and data-driven decision-making in social care, and the need to cater to the diverse needs of Gen X and Gen Z customers. 

Here are the key takeaways: 

Embrace channel agnosticism: Encourage social care teams to be channel agnostic, allowing them to work across different brands and channels. Prioritize speed and responsiveness to meet customer expectations for quick and timely responses. 

24/7 availability: Customers expect quick responses all the time. Luke's team operates around the clock, 365 days a year. WhatsApp is a dominant channel, making 24/7 support crucial. It’s recommended that you figure out which channel is the most popular among your customers and prioritize making support accessible on that.  

In Luke’s words,  

Efficient chatbot implementation: Miral Destinations uses a WhatsApp chatbot to address customer queries. The chatbot handles frequently asked questions, relieving the team from handling routine queries. When needed, interactions get transferred to live chat agents, along with context. 

Consistency in brand voice: For Miral Destinations, maintaining a unified brand image is essential across its 20+ brands. Integration with Sprinklr ensures consistency and fosters trust since easy access to brand and social network information is critical. 

Adaptability for Gen X and Gen Z on TikTok: Luke shares that launching the brand on TikTok required a unique approach. Collaboration with the content team and quick pivoting were necessary. The change in strategy resulted in impressive metrics, including 2.3 million likes and 219 million plays on a viral video. 

Effective case triage and AI utilization: A triaging system in Sprinklr ensures that each incoming case goes to the right agent. Sprinklr AI aids in categorizing engageable and non-engageable cases. Non-engageable cases are auto closed during busier periods, streamlining operations. 

Continuous improvement: Regular review of social care performance metrics is crucial. Custom reporting dashboards in Sprinklr provide insights into customer satisfaction, response times and resolution rates. Data-driven insights lead to process improvements and enhanced social care experiences. 

Unlock business insights to drive strategy  

In this brief yet insightful conversation, Luke highlights the pivotal role of social media and community managers. They gather invaluable insights that drive business strategies, streamline information handling, optimize content and safeguard brand reputation during crises.  

Here’s what we can learn:  

Consumer insights: Social media managers at Miral Destinations connect with customers one-on-one, gaining firsthand knowledge of preferences. Focus on addressing customer difficulties and escalating them to relevant teams, thereby creating better user experiences. Identifying recurring themes, sentiment patterns and emerging trends will help you guide content strategies. 

Efficient information handling: Tag and categorize information during engagement, streamlining data for easy reference. Create workflows to escalate issues to specific teams within the platform, avoiding lengthy wait times for feedback. This real-time approach will enhance response times and customer satisfaction. 

Content optimization: Identify what resonates with customers and drives engagement. And then, produce more of the content that audiences want to see while analyzing underperforming content for improvement. Insights via social listening tools help you identify underlying themes and make data-driven decisions. 

Interesting Read: 4 ways to get more from your social listening strategy with competitive benchmarking 

Incident management: Community managers act as brand guardians, being the first point of contact during sensitive situations. Real-time feedback helps assess the impact of incidents on brand perception. This information guides crisis communication strategies, mitigating reputational damage. 

Navigating unique business challenges with Sprinklr-Miral Destinations partnership

Luke's experience with the Sprinklr-Miral partnership demonstrates how adapting to unique business challenges is made more manageable through the effective use of metrics, fostering brand loyalty and receiving personalized support from success managers. This partnership has truly transformed the way they interact with customers, enhancing their overall success. 

Using metrics for sound strategies: Luke emphasizes the importance of ingraining platform metrics to build effective strategies. Sprinklr helps in addressing unique business challenges, especially while managing multiple brands and channels. Having access to comprehensive customer interaction data is invaluable for decision-making. 
 
Here are some ways you can make metrics the foundation of your strategic planning:  

• Define clear business objectives: aim to increase online sales by 20% in the next quarter 
• Identify key metrics: track website traffic, conversion rates and customer acquisition cost 
• Make metrics central to decision-making: prioritize marketing strategies based on the most effective channel identified through metrics 
• Monitor, adapt and improve strategies continually: adjust ad spends based on daily performance to optimize ROI 
• Share insights across the organization: share a monthly report with all team members, highlighting key metrics and trends 
• Regularly review and adjust strategies: conduct weekly meetings to discuss metrics and tweak the content strategy accordingly 

Fostering strong brand loyalty: Sprinklr proves essential for theme parks like the one Luke works at, where brand loyalty is paramount. The ability to engage with customers, understand their interactions with the brand and inform decisions lead to customer retention. Sprinklr serves as a unified front to manage all customer interactions efficiently. 

Here are some actionable steps to foster strong brand loyalty:  

• Send personalized thank-you emails to customers after a purchase, be sure to.address them by name 
• Recommend products or services based on past purchases or preferences  
• Ensure that your branding and messaging are consistent across your website, social media, email and physical stores 
• Use Sprinklr to schedule and manage content to maintain a consistent brand presence 
• Set up automated alerts to monitor social media for customer complaints or concerns 
• Respond to both positive and negative mentions to show you're attentive to customer feedback  
• Engage customers with a hashtag contest and feature their user-generated content on your website and social media, building brand authenticity and interaction.  
• Create a loyalty program that offers points or discounts to repeat customers 
• Conduct post-purchase surveys to gather feedback on the buying experience 
• Start an online community or forum for customers to discuss experiences, engage in discussions, answer questions, and offer valuable insights.  
• Share informative and entertaining content, such as how-to guides or industry insights 
• Engage your audience by hosting a creative contest related to your brand or products, offering enticing prizes to winners and proudly showcasing their entries on your platforms.   

Luke also highlighted the importance of a resourceful success manager,  

Connecting the dots 

Building a consistent brand experience through distributed teams on social media requires a combination of personalized interactions, streamlined operations, channel agnosticism, chatbot integration, brand voice consistency, smart tools and ongoing improvement efforts. By following these steps, you can conquer the challenges of managing social care, and in turn, foster strong brand loyalty and deliver an exceptional customer experience.