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We have all seen that disgruntled post on social media by a consumer who had a less than excellent customer experience at a certain business. You know the one I’m talking about… she was on hold for over an hour with a rude employee, he found a hair in his food, or her pumpkin spice latte was ice cold. Social media makes communicating easier than ever. Whether it be ranting about the awful service you received or asking questions about hours, products, or services, social media is important to small businesses and large corporations alike. Simply having a social media presence is no longer enough; your job is to be a social media rock star.

While providing great customer service is a key goal of your business, there are more reasons for this than just the principal. Building better relationships with your customers through social support can add up to huge wins when it comes to increasing customer lifetime value.

There’s often times a big dissonance between what companies think about their customer service, and what their customers think about it. Did you know that 86% of customers quit doing business with a certain company because of a bad experience? Though this statistic is based on general customer service experiences, your social media customer service strategy is a large contributing factor to these overall sentiments. Follow these social media customer service tips to help maximize your social media care efforts.

Listen to your online customer’s conversations about your business.

The importance of monitoring social media channels for comments cannot be overstated. Listening to what your customers are saying about your brand on social media gives you the opportunity to jump in when necessary to remedy situations that require it, or to just engage with your customers. When you respond to your customers directly and personally, you are initiating a one-on-one connection with them.

Respond in a timely manner.

With the real-time nature of social media, customers are expecting response aligned with this timeliness. We all know how annoying it is to wait on hold for customer service phone support, and online experiences aren’t too different. Naturally, the longer the customer has to wait for response, the more frustrated they’ll get. In order to meet your consumers’ expectations, you should be listening and participating in social media activity consistently.

Position your business as easily reachable and keen to build relationships and engage.

Use social media as a means of enhancing customers real-life experiences. Solve their problems and save them time. Open yourself up to customer feedback and product/service ideas.

Creating a standardized, friendly approach through social media platforms will help your organization improve rapport. Customers will start to receive the kind of thoughtful, organized and instantaneous service they have come to expect. Listening to your customers and responding to them in the channels they are present in and care about, will help your business see improved customer retention and satisfaction.