How to Delight Current Customers with Social Media

Attract, convert, close, delight. If you know anything about inbound marketing, you know those four steps are the key to creating long lasting customers. At its core, an inbound marketing experience is a customer-focused way of doing business that is centered on helping people and solving their problems in the ways they want them to be solved.

But who is in charge of each stage of the inbound process? You as the marketer are responsible for the “attract” and “convert” steps, salespeople “close”, and customer service representatives are in charge of “delight” ... right? Not so fast.

One of the fun parts about being a marketer is the vast amount of tools at your disposal that can be used for any stage of the inbound process. One of the most versatile of those tools is social media marketing. With social media, you not only can attract and convert potential customers, you can also delight your current ones. Below you will find just a few ways you can use social marketing to truly delight your customers.

Give Them A Shout-Out

This is an easy one if you are a B2C business. For example, say you work for a jewelry store. Did you just see online that one of your recent customers just popped the big question and they tagged your store? Share their photo and wish them congratulations! Not only will this delight the happy couple and make them feel important, but you’ll also show potential customers how you value their big moments. Awareness, consideration, decision, and delight stages can all be triggered by this one social post depending on who sees it.

Thank Them For Their Reviews

I don’t know about you, but I hardly ever take the time to go online and write a review. Most people will only do so if they’ve had a really good experience or a really bad one. Either way, good or bad, by responding to the reviews that come in you can delight a customer.

If your customer had a great experience, respond to their review by thanking them for taking the time to write one and wish them the best with your product. If your customer had a terrible experience, instead of ignoring the review, take the time to respond back to them, apologize, and try to set things right. Often times when you take the effort to hear your unhappy customer out and do your best to make things right, that lost customer may change their negative opinion about your business to a more neutral one and consider giving you another chance.

Interact With Them and Ask Them Questions

One of the biggest downfalls I see companies make is they use social marketing the same way they use billboards. They use their social channels as just another way to broadcast their products or services to the world. But that is no way to delight your customers.

If your customers follow you on social media, you should feel honored that they’re designating a little piece of their news feeds to hear from you. Make them feel special and ask them questions. Have a laugh with them. Thank them for sharing things with you. Anything! By simply taking a few minutes out of your day to have a 1-on-1 conversation with your customers, you’re developing a personal relationship with them that helps solidify their choice in working with your company.

Give Social-Follower-Only Deals

If you’re a B2C company, it should come as no surprise to you that many people follow business pages mainly to hear about specials and available coupons. I know you can't deny that you follow the restaurant down the street to see what their daily special is to make your lunch decision easier. But by taking this one step further and providing social follower only deals, you can delight your followers by giving them something that nobody else has access to. Plus, a couple bucks off never rubbed anyone the wrong way.

Delighting customers is something that all functions in your business can do, but social media experts know that social media is one of the easiest platforms to do so with. So the next time you see a review or comment on your page, take the few extra minutes to write out a thoughtful reply. Have a laugh. Encourage them. Invite them over. Let them in on a secret. Your goal is to remind them why they chose to work with you in the first place and to keep them wanting to come back.