The use of social media by companies to relate to their customers is more essential now than ever. As a customer, using social media can be a great way to get in touch with a company. But as a business, social media provides even more of a customer-relations goldmine.

Social media is immediate and personal

When a customer is having trouble with a product or service, they don’t want to wait for days while a company processes their email request. If they contact the company at all, they’re either looking for important information or reporting a problem. Both situations call for speedy responses.

Social media makes this possible by allowing a customer to convey their problem in a few seconds. The company receives it instantly. The customer is able to move on, confident the complaint’s presence in the public eye of Twitter or Facebook will motivate the company to respond.

On top of this, social media is a uniquely personal platform for both parties. The customer speaks as an individual and the company representatives have the opportunity to humanize their brand in their response. A copy-and-pasted “Dear Customer” email template is useless, as is an automated reply. Simply put, customers on social media expect an actual response. Each response has to be personal. This factor is sorely lacking in other areas of customer service and can massively alter the outcome of a customer service call.

A customer who calls the customer service line wants empathy and help. While automated phone menu trees completely fail to achieve this, canny customer service reps manage it online constantly. This ties in with an equally important aspect of corporate social media use – how the business presents itself on social media.

Social media is, in many ways, the perfect customer relations medium. It’s fast and personal, but also informal. It also allows the CS reps on the other side of the screen to draft a response. Usually short and sweet, these responses can be drafted and redrafted in no time at all. The business can be both informal, friendly, and human in its interactions, while still maintaining a unified brand voice.

The conversation is in the public domain

This is both a blessing and a curse. If companies fail to deal with upset customers, their failure is out in the open. In the digital age, transparency is more valued than ever. People admire when companies deal with dissatisfied customers out in the open.

If a customer is left happy, the company benefits twice: first for being confident enough in its customer service to carry out the conversation in the public eye, and second for their public success. Dealing with customer service online also benefits a company. It encourages brand mentions. The company can raise its online profile by showing off its ability to deal with customers. Even if the interaction ends in disaster, the increased public attention and online activity can do wonders for a business’ search engine rankings- small consolation as that is.

Customers are more likely to recommend the company afterward

On social media, customers’ online interactions with a company are likely to pop up in the newsfeeds of their friends or followers. This is sort of an organic promotional opportunity. If the customer is left happy, they’re more likely to share their success story with others since they’re already on social media. After all, sharing positive stories is common on social media. If a complainer is already online and happy from the interaction, sharing about it is simple.

It eliminates the funnel

Customer service on conventional channels can sometimes feel like jumping through hoops. This process of jumping through a number of these irregularly-spaced, sometimes-on-fire hoops is often frustrating. With email or phone interactions, it is often a tragically necessary step.

Known as “the funnel,” this is used to narrow down customer issues so that the correct department can be assigned to them. But it’s a huge cause of woe for customer service since customers sometimes feel like they aren’t being treated as individuals.

Except, of course, where social media is involved. Social media eliminates the funnel, scraps the hoops, and allows customers to have their problems aired and dealt with immediately. The reply will be specific to the customer and the problem, and the customer will walk away feeling valued as an individual by the company. This, incidentally, improves the brand’s online presence and created a piece of potential viral marketing for itself.

Author Bio: Dan Goss is a writer, editor, and researcher at Customer Service Guru. When he’s not writing about or hunting for great customer service, he plays the cello, drinks too much coffee, and is an armchair philosopher.