Using Facebook for Better Customer Relationships

One of the greatest aspects about Facebook is there is pretty much something there for everyone. A community of 500 million members, growing every day, is sure to provide ample opportunities for your company.

Whether you’re a Fortune 500 entity or a small to medium sized business hoping to tap into the marketing channels Facebook creates, having a little knowledge about how to best use the tools available will provide you with the advantages you need to stay ahead of your competition.

As a business which provides products or services to customers, developing and maintaining quality relationships with your clients is likely at the top of your daily to do lists. Facebook has developed a number of ways that you can reach out to your existing customer base and interact directly with those who are most responsible for your company’s revenues.

Facebook’s basic premise is that once you have an account, you can reach out to others you know and become “friends” with them through the service. Once you have a list of others following you through the site, every time you post something on your page, your friends also get a copy of what you’ve published on their pages. Essentially a one to many broadcast opportunity. But the viral nature of how Facebook has engineered its services means that when one of your followers interacts with your message, what they’ve written now gets seen by all of their friends. With very little effort, messages can become viral and experience massive popularity in relatively short amounts of time.

It’s important to realize that Facebook, like many other social media communities is but one channel available in your customer relationship management tool chest. Granted, the potential to access massive numbers of existing and potential clients is alluring, you still have to be smart and decisive with how your business uses those tools.

As a business you can exploit this behavior and take advantage of gaining the eyeballs and attention of potential clients far outside your normal sphere of influence. From a budgetary perspective, Facebook communications tools can make your marketing budget stretch like never before.

Likewise, once you have a page set up for your business where others can come along and subscribe, you have the ability to provide very low cost relationship management services. By encouraging visitors to share their experiences of interacting with your company, you are on the front lines of being customer service representative number one.

Sometimes things go awry with the sales process. Either an employee has behaved less than satisfactorily or the product purchased is just not right. With Facebook, you have the chance to set the record straight, and in a very public and favorable way. When communications need to go private, simply communicating directly via Facebook’s built in email system allows you to keep certain aspects behind closed doors.

If you’ve little to no experience with a site like Facebook, it might seem overwhelming, and at times, juvenile. The reality, however, is that there are enough of your current and potential clients already using the system for you to figure things out. Your bottom line will thank you for making the effort.

At the end of the day, it’s just not good enough to simply use Facebook or your website for that matter, as an online brochure destination. The richness of communications available via channels like Facebook is just too cost effective not to take advantage of. Take a little time to learn all the amazing ways you can use a community site like Facebook to promote your business and provide your clients, new and existing, with great customer service.