Social media customer service guide 2025

Did you know that 74% of online adults say they feel more connected with a business when they can message the business directly on social media? In addition, over the last few years increasing numbers of customers have been using public platforms, such as social media, to make complaints. As a result, the way you engage with your customers on social media is critical for turning negatives into positives and generating new business. 

Clearly then, there is a clear need for brands and businesses to be active and engaged with their customer base on social media. But what is social media customer service? How can social media help to improve customer service? And how can businesses use social media to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty? Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about social media and customer service.  

What is social media customer service? 

In short, social media customer service is the ability to engage directly with consumers via social media. This means social media as a customer service channel can take different forms. Such as:  

• being tagged in social media posts 

• being sent private messages 

• responding to comments left on your social media posts 

• responding to reviews provided through social media 

Of course, if you have a large audience, responding to all these messages and reviews can be an overwhelming task for any social media management team. As a result, many businesses choose to rely on trained customer service providers who are dedicated to managing specific channels. This means that each comment, message and review can be responded to in a timely manner, by a well-trained professional who can respond in the most appropriate way. Resulting in a high quality customer care strategy that’s cohesive with your brand’s online image and identity. 

While this may seem like additional effort to manage a customer service channel that has only arisen in recent years, there are some benefits to investing in this approach. For example, the operational costs of social media customer service are lower than traditional customer service avenues. Plus, it means that you can meet each customer where they’re at, via the channel that they prefer to use. Thereby promoting a personalised approach to the customer’s journey and allowing you to proactively meet their expectations and needs.  

Benefits of using social media for customer service 

These days, social media is virtually inescapable. Even people who try to resist the allure or leave channels they were once active on find themselves getting sucked back in. Why? Because social media has become the modern way to connect. To disengage from it is akin to unplugging yourself from the modern world. As a result, 62.6% of the world’s population now uses social media.  

That’s 5.07 billion people – 5.07 billion people who have constant access to other peoples’ thoughts, opinions, activities and lifestyles. This gives rise to comparative behaviour, meaning that social media has the power to influence people on mass and can be used to promote businesses, organisations, and causes.  

As a result, in these virtually-connected times, word-of-mouth has been exchanged for tweets, influencer recommendations, and reviews. This means that individuals can share exactly what they think of the service your business is providing in a matter of seconds, and that review, recommendation or complaint has the potential to reach a global audience. In fact, 80% of millennials have been found to prefer using social media for resolving issues than web, phone, or online chat. 

Businesses then have the opportunity to respond to consumers, either to thank them for leaving a positive review or to engage with them about a negative experience. Meaning the best social media customer service has the power to boost customer loyalty and contribute to enhancing a brand’s organic presence.   

However, as you can see, all the reasons that make social media an effective promotion tool can also cause problems. And this bears true when it comes to crisis management, which is essential for protecting a brand’s reputation. As when not handled correctly, social media can exacerbate a crisis. But when used effectively, it can be used to reach shareholders, stakeholders and consumers in the blink of an eye.  

Social media customer service examples 

Though social media can be used to provide customer service through posts, comments and direct messages, there is a more streamlined way of doing things that many brands are making the most of – live chat.  

That’s right, live chat isn’t just limited to company webpages. You can integrate a live chat feature into your social channels, meaning that you can keep all customer queries in one place. In fact, recent research has found that 46% of customers prefer live chat. Accordingly, the satisfaction rate for live chat is 85%.  

However, this doesn’t mean using an automated live chat feature, though that’s an option and can be used to filter enquiries to the right person. Rather, integrating live chat into your social channels means customers can interact with your brand in real-time. Meaning customers can speak, human to human, to someone who’s trained to identify and resolve their needs quickly and efficiently.  

Here are some examples of how companies use social media for customer service:  

Domino’s Pizza 

As such a busy and popular brand, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Domino’s Pizza’s social media channels tend to be permanently bombarded with questions and complaints. However, despite the overwhelming number of messages the brand receives on a daily basis, Domino’s responds to every query in a way that attempts to resolve the problem.  

This means each message is written by a human, who lays out what needs to happen next to resolve the customer’s issue. Whether that’s asking the customer to provide more information via direct message or referring them to the company’s online complaint handling system. The customer is then given the name of the representative dealing with their query and a reference number, so that every case can be tracked from start to finish.  

British Gas 

British Gas polled their customers and discovered that an accurate response was more important to them than a quick response. As a result, their social media team now makes the effort to ensure that all queries are answered correctly the first time.  

They can only do this because they rely on real people to communicate directly with customers and log queries via the correct account information, to make sure that all queries can be tracked. Plus, this means consumers can have real conversations with individuals, meaning they feel listened to and less errors are made. 

Spotify 

To deal with customer queries quickly and efficiently, Spotify maintains a separate X account dedicated to customer support. As per the previous two examples, Spotify doesn’t use automation but instead relies on real people to respond to customer concerns and queries.  

For example, when a customer reached out about a potential Spotify feature, their support team quickly responded with information which both answered the customer’s original query and provided additional information to answer any potential follow-up requests. They also made sure the customer knew that if they had any additional queries, they could simply respond to the same thread, and someone would get back to them.  

It’s no surprise then that Spotify won a Webby Award for their social media customer support. 

Social media customer service: Dos and don’ts  

Importantly, what ties the success of all these brands together is an understanding of the importance of a human touch for great customer service. In fact, 44% of online consumers have stated that being able to have a conversation with a real person during an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer. 

But what else should businesses be aware of when planning to make their social media a customer service hub? Here, we’ve listed our top dos and don’ts:  

Dos 

• Subscribe to a social media monitoring tool – this can help you to keep track of mentions and comments and will also provide the analytics you need to measure key targets, such as average response time. Using the analytics it measures, it can also help with anticipating trends and future needs, based on previous activity.   

• Liaise with digital marketing experts – this is about making sure that, without following a script, all interactions your customer service advisers have with customers on your social media channels adhere to your brand’s guidelines and tone of voice. Digital marketing experts can help you to craft that tone of voice and implement it at every level of your customer service strategy.  

• Respond promptly and accurately – of the examples given above, every single one prioritises quick and, if this isn’t possible, accurate responses to consumer queries. This is because 90% of customers expect an immediate response when contacting live chat. So, by giving consumers what they’re looking for, you can help them to feel important to your brand. And if a quick response isn’t possible, an accurate one can ensure they still feel valued.  

• Rely on the help of experts – importantly, you don’t have to manage your social media customer service alone. If you don’t have a fully staffed social media or customer service team, or if you do but you need more support to deal with peaks in enquiries, it may well be more cost effective to turn to the customer service experts, like Sigma Connected. We can provide the help of highly trained customer service agents to act as representatives of your brand across multiple social media channels.   

Don’ts 

• Rely solely on automated solutions – consumers have made it clear that they don’t like engaging with automated solutions, like robot-based chatbots. They want to speak to a real person who can help them find a solution. A robot, for instance, will never be able to solve complex queries or connect on an emotional level. That doesn’t mean there’s no place for automation, when it comes to things like filtering requests to make sure they reach the right people. But, for actual interactions, stick with real, human customer service advisers.  

• Rely on untrained professionals – social media teams are not customer service experts. So, relying on them to provide customer service solutions, without any customer service training, is shortsighted. Instead, social media teams should work alongside customer service providers, so that each team can play to their full strengths.   

• Neglect the collaboration between teams – social media managers need to understand customer service best practices and customer service teams need to be able to stay consistent within your brand’s agreed messaging style. The only way these two teams can support each other’s aims is to work collaboratively.  

• Engage in public arguments – if a conversation on social media is becoming heated, always redirect the customer to a private conversation in a polite and tactful manner. This is not the same as saying the customer is always right, it’s about maintaining a professional and friendly environment on your social media channels. Then, when the discussion is private, you can attempt to engage in a calm and professional manner, and avoid bad customer service on social media.  

The best outsourced social media customer service with Sigma Connected  

At Sigma Connected, we know handling customer relationships is crucial to business success, no matter what industry you work in. That’s why we live and breathe customer service. Making us the experts at delivering outsourced customer service solutions, with a focus on the human touch, for some of the largest and best known brands.  

Our teams work as an extension of your brand, treating your customers with the same care and respect while representing your ethos. So you can cut unnecessary costs, improve efficiencies, and transform your customers’ experience.  

Whatever your motivation, our experience, our people, and the way we connect with customers will take your business to the next level. 

Want to find out more about our outsourced customer service solutions?