/ Communicating proactively with webcare
Alexander Wijninga
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4 min
At a time when almost everyone is on social media, it matters that companies are present there too. Not only to broadcast, but also to listen to customers. Only then does social media really become social and do you as a company make use of the opportunities that are there. In this article we tell you more about webcare in customer service.
Webcare is, simply put, answering customers' questions and complaints on social media. This can be done publicly, through the timeline on Twitter for example, or directly as a reply to a Facebook post. To use webcare optimally, it is important that you as an organisation are approachable in an easy and low-threshold way.
Companies have to be where the consumer is. Customer communication has not stood still in recent years. Once by post, later by telephone and after that email, it now often runs through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter or live chat on a website. Other channels where webcare takes place are LinkedIn, Instagram and WhatsApp, for example. The channels on which you as a company stand ready for your customer are determined by the wishes of your target audience and the channels they are regularly to be found on.
<p>https://twitter.com/Schiphol/status/641953029806272513</p>
In the example above, Schiphol is mentioned but not ‘tagged’. Even so, they manage to find the message and respond to it in a playful way.
Although many companies see webcare as an efficient way of working on their online reputation, in the end it is about helping customers. Social media lends itself excellently to fast contact. Contact via social media also saves both the customer and the company a lot of time, certainly compared with the traditional communication channels.
Of course webcare is not only about handling complaints, but also about answering pressing questions. With a proactive approach, any company can make sure more positivity arises around the business, more positive reviews are given and more purchases are made.
Webcare begins with monitoring all the interaction around your company. Where are you mentioned and who are you actually in conversation with? You can obtain a lot of information by doing research in the right way before you enter into a conversation. Actively searching for problems (by searching on hashtags, for instance) is a good way of helping customers proactively. An example from practice: someone tweets about an annoying experience with KLM without mentioning @KLM in it. Because KLM monitors tweets with the search term ‘KLM’, they do see the problem and can respond extremely quickly and try to solve it.
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A response from T-Mobile leads to a compliment. This happens more often as soon as webcare is used effectively.
Webcare is an extension of your customer service, a valuable addition even. Where customer service was always reachable by email and telephone, the webcare department takes care of the online channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the live chat on the website. By now, though, so much customer contact takes place through online channels that customer service without webcare is an outdated phenomenon. Can you still name a large company that is not present on social media?
Although webcare is a relatively young concept in the world of customer service, the past few years have shown that there are certain aspects that work well, but also a number that are actually counterproductive. The pitfalls in webcare can be deep, given that it is immediately visible to a large audience. And once something is online it does not simply go away again. That is why we have written down a number of do's and don'ts below, so that you can jump over these pitfalls.
Make someone responsible for social media monitoring, so that you do not overlook a single message. This works even better when you use social media monitoring tools. Social media should not be something that ‘somebody does on the side’.
Speak in a personal way. Research shows that speaking in a ‘conversational human voice’ is better received by the audience and leads to a better company reputation.
Respond as fast as possible. Social media moves very fast, after all; on Twitter customers expect an answer within 60 minutes. Make sure you respond to these customer expectations.
Do not panic at negative messages from customers. Try to uncover the need behind the negativity. Perhaps there are certain trends visible in the negative messages that you can do something with.
Do not ignore important questions or criticism. Draw up a list, for example, with well-considered answers to points of criticism or frequently asked, urgent questions, so that you can always give a fitting answer.
Do not refer customers to an email address, a telephone number or a complaints form. When a customer asks a question on Facebook, the customer expects to receive an answer on that medium too. Do make sure that information such as personal data is sent in private messages.
WhatsApp is the channel where the largest share of Dutch people are to be found. The number of Dutch people on WhatsApp in 2021 is 12.4 million. Of those, 9.8 million are on the platform daily. It is a popular, much-used platform. The number of companies that can therefore also be found on WhatsApp Business has grown considerably in recent years. And that is understandable: it is an easy way to have direct contact with your customer, and on the platform where they are often to be found.
Being reachable on WhatsApp is one thing, but setting up successful webcare on WhatsApp is another. To help companies, WhatsApp webcare software is offered from various quarters. What this software usually offers is a platform on which all customer questions come in chronologically and can be handled in the form of live chat. Some customer service software is set up in such a way that you can do this with several colleagues at the same time and answer the customer questions in teams, sorted by subject or theme. This may sound labour-intensive, but it does not have to be. By means of a WhatsApp chatbot, frequently asked questions can be answered or customer profiles created so that a conversation can easily be resumed. Including when the earlier customer question was asked on another channel. A chatbot can also forward a customer question to the right member of staff on the basis of subject, so that the customer speaks to the right person straight away. That saves your customer service staff time as well. WhatsApp webcare software is on the market to bring companies into contact with their customers more easily and efficiently.
Many companies use several service channels and it can be difficult to keep on top of them all. For these companies there is Watermelon's customer service software. With this software you can combine various service channels. In a single overview you see all your messages coming in via email, Facebook, live chat, Twitter or Telegram. With Watermelon's user-friendly system you can easily improve your webcare. Try it yourself and create a free account.
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