Should Your Business Invest in Human Responses on Social Media?
Imagine this: Your customer visits one of your locations and has a standout experience - good, bad, or ugly - you can bet they’re taking it to social media. Maybe they reach out to your Twitter handle, comment on one of your Instagram posts, send a private message to your Facebook page, or leave a Google review. Do you see their comment in real time? Do you reply, and if so, how quickly?
According to Social Stamina 64% of customers want a reply within an hour of posting. You’re likely busy running your business, responding in real time may not be possible. What if they follow up with a tough question or post your response publicly? Do you trust an automated response to handle high-risk or socially sensitive situations?
If these questions sound daunting, especially considering you may get dozens to hundreds of reviews or comments on your pages, then you’re in the right place - we can help. Our engagement team has handled over a million customer interactions in our signature and personalized way that keeps customers coming back to our clients time and time again, even after a negative experience!
After 11 years, we can tell you there is nothing that can replace a tailored response, typed up by a real person, and no matter how hard the robots try, customers CAN spot the difference.
3 Secrets to Set Your Brand Apart from Those Who Use Automated Replies
Differentiate Your Response Style from Platform to Platform
Different Platforms Require a Different Approach. If you’re active on social media, you know the way you speak on Twitter is different from the way you speak on Instagram or Facebook. This is because the demographics of each platform are a little different and humans naturally tone-match the audience around them. Modern successful brands know this and that is why their content varies from platform to platform. Why shouldn’t your engagement voice do the same thing? Each platform has a culture and by not blending in with the cultural voice used in each space, you’ll stick out (and not in a good way). Big Commerce suggests, “If a customer uses a casual, humorous tone, reflect the same in your response. If the customers’ tone is formal, your best bet is to use a similar tone in your response.” Customers want to feel heard and understood; by replying in a way that feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar to them, you risk alienating them or sowing seeds of distrust (spoiler alert: this is most often because they suspect they are talking to a robot!). It’s a lot like getting an automated phone response; from the start you don’t have very high hopes of seeing resolution to your issue. It might seem insignificant, but the language choice, the abbreviations, the punctuation, and even the use of emojis shape how your interactions are perceived. The last thing you want is to use a Facebook-worthy response for a customer who reached out on Twitter just for them to reply saying, “ok boomer,” or worse, tweet your off-base reply for all to see! This is why our agents handle every channel with a different persona. They know when to use emojis, which ones to avoid, and speak the latest slang fluently, so they know what’s appropriate to use and what's not. Robo-responses are great at replying to everything everywhere, but their responses are all the same, leaving brands looking out of touch.
2. Correctly Interpret the Tone of Your Customer’s Message & Handle Accordingly
Automated Replies Leave Your Brand Vulnerable. We recently looked at the functionality of several state-of-the-art Automated response systems to see if we could identify the allure. One of the “selling points” of these systems was their sentiment tracking. They would receive a message and use individual words from the message to identify whether the sentiment was positive, negative, or neutral. Time and time again, we let these robots analyze some examples of real customer engagement from our clients and time and time again they failed to assess the tone accurately. If someone reached out saying, “this product was sick!!!” the software would label it negative - and that’s just one example. If we think about the ways in which people describe their experiences, we can think of countless shape-shifting words that have different meanings in different contexts. It comes as no surprise that robots really suck at identifying the meaning accurately in these situations. It’s almost like trying to learn a second language. Sure, with enough practice you can eventually become fluent and understand the meanings of the words you’re using and hearing, but there are cultural cliches that just won’t ever make any sense if interpreted literally; looking at you “cat got your tongue.” Automated response systems just aren’t fluent in double-meanings, sarcasm, or modern slang, but our agents are.
Identifying the tone of a message is just step one, then comes the reply. If robots can’t even assess the tone correctly, how could we possibly feel confident that they’ll provide the right reply? Put simply, if the automated response misidentifies the tone or subject, then you are at risk of providing an inaccurate or unrelated reply. At best, the reply doesn’t make any sense and the customer realizes they are being handled by a robot. At worst, the response is completely tone-deaf and a screenshot of the conversation goes viral. Having an agent reading and replying to the comment would have prevented all of this.
3. Keep the Conversation Going - Human Responses Encourage Customer Loyalty
Increase engagement, reach, brand visibility - these are the benefits of real responses.
One of our favorite types of engagement is the “happy fan back and forth.” This is one of the many places where our agents shine. A customer reaches out, sharing some information about a very specific experience or plans to buy your product sometime soon. Our agents single out details from this message and are then able to start a conversation, making this customer feel valued. They feel special because they know it’s not every day a company spares the time to wish them a happy birthday or share in the excitement of some upcoming plans to enjoy your product.
In fact, “75% of people will likely post something positive about your brand if you make meaningful social media connections,” according to Big Commerce. We call this the, “gift that keeps on giving,” because not only is this individual customer beyond satisfied, but the high response rate drives engagement, reach, and brand visibility to additional potential customers. According to Business News Daily, "It's vital to pay attention and let [customers] know you're listening. A lack of attentiveness contributes to a poor response, which reflects negatively on your brand. After all, when your brand replies to an individual user, it's not just your followers who can see it.” Could an automated response make a personal connection? These are valuable opportunities to form relationships with your customers, get your numbers up, and position your brand as empathetic and friendly.
Companies pushing automated response software will downplay these points and say that cutting these corners will be fine - it won’t. The truth is, the AI responses just aren’t good enough yet. Only real live agents, monitoring and engaging on your social channels, are capable of getting this job done properly. Without the custom responses, the awareness & fluency in “internet lingo” as well as tone identification, and the ability to sustain a highly personalized conversation, your engagement could be suffering more than you know. It can be intimidating to try and master all of these details, but our agents are pros. They’ve been doing this for a very long time, just ask some of our clients who have worked with us for over 10 years.
Interested in learning more about how you too can get Team TwinBear on your side, regularly turning customers into fans? Contact us here to level up your engagement strategy!