Responding to your guests on social media is now an essential component of customer service and your online reputation hinges on getting it right.
Are you delivering the best customer service possible for your guests on Facebook and other social platforms? Here are 3 ways to create an exemplary customer care experience that inspires guest loyalty and plenty of word-of-mouth publicity.
1: Don’t Miss An Opportunity To Shine
Dealing with guest concerns on a public stage can be daunting, but it’s a valuable opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to customer service to the world – particularly if you go above and beyond the generic “Please ring us so we can resolve the issue” response.
Social media offers a great chance to interact with your guests in real time. By using social listening tools or the platform’s search engine to monitor mentions of your property’s name, key competitors’ names and other related travel terms, you can listen-in to what your guests are saying and be ready to step in and join the conversation wherever appropriate. You notice a need, you fill it. You hear a problem, you offer a solution. Providing fast, creative and personal responses to your guests’ issues will resonate in positive social proof across the web.
2: Pay Personal Attention
It has happened to all of us: that conversation where it’s clear the other person is only half paying attention. Maddening, off-putting and rude, isn’t it?
The same can be said of social media. Whatever the platform, by building an audience you’re inviting your guests into a conversation – and conversations are, or should be, a two-way street.
To build relationships with your guests that last and last, be attentive and supportive in every interaction. Take your queue from customer service leaders like Netflix and thoroughly train your support staff on how to deliver prompt, positive customer service where problem-solving is the norm and the customer is never in any doubt that their problem is receiving due attention. The company’s approach to customer care has helped them build a glowing reputation and legions of satisfied customers happy to sing their praises across social media.
3: Consistency
One of the most important components of lasting guest relationships is reliability. But establishing yourself as reliable extends beyond being prompt and attentive in your online conversations with guests. You have to back up your good work in customer care with consistent, regularly updated social profiles.
Ask yourself, what do your guests come across when they search for your resort on Facebook? A lively community dedicated to engaging in conversations and cultivating relationships? Or a stagnant page that hasn’t been updated for weeks?
When your guests are presented with the latter, they click off the page with the very damaging perception that you don’t really value your community.
Social media offers a chance to communicate in a way that shows your guests and thousands of others that you really appreciate them. That personal attention will help you build your online reputation and earn repeat bookings for life.
Over to You
How does your resort use social media for customer service? Are their any areas in which you could improve? Let us know in the comments below!
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