Let’s be honest, it’s hard to calculate the exact ROI of social media. If you have an online business and the only money you make is online your ROI is easier to calculate. However, that’s really not the case for most businesses. Because a lot of the work you do in social media comes back to you in sales down the line from direct traffic, word of mouth traffic and the impact social media has on your branding, you just have to accept that you need to be active on social media and move on.
There are clearly a ton of benefits to using social media effectively. It helps brand your business. It makes you look like a legit company online. It allows you to connect and build relationships with your customers and it helps you sell to people who you would have never been able to reach before. It also enhances your customer’s experience with you and your business.
How Social Media Enhances Customer Experience
1. Extends the walls of communication
In the olden days the experience your customer had usually occurred inside the walls of your business. This is the face to face time you experienced together to make the sale. Sometimes if you were lucky or had a good follow up the experience also extended to a thank you letter, call or another form of communication after the sale or in some cases loss of sale. In social media there are no walls. The experience takes place at time of sale of course, but it also happens when your customer shares something online, when you market to them via your social channels on an ongoing basis, and when you follow up via email. The ability to communicate at anytime from anywhere allows you to create a global experience.
2. Creates a shared experience
Beyond the fact that you as a business can continually communicate with your customers no matter where in the world they are, your customers can communicate with their friends and networks around the world. They are sharing the experience they had with your business online with their networks and friends. As a result their friends are now in that experience as well.
What You Should Do To Encourage An Enhanced Experience
1. Put signs up encouraging social interaction in your store and on your online properties.
2. Listen online and respond
3. Be active on your channels.
How do you ensure your customers have a good experience before, during and after doing business with you?
