As we mentioned last week, social media is becoming increasingly important in building customer loyalty. If your customers enjoy interacting with your brand on Twitter, Facebook, etc., they’re more likely to see and act on your messages, from sales to reviews to requests for help.

But those requests for help go both ways.  If you’re asking your customers for feedback, you should also prepare to answer their incoming questions.  Here are examples of 3 ways our Creative Concepts clients have used Twitter to help solve their customers’ problems.

1. Store Locators

Both Bigelow Tea and Ouidad are store-based clients of ours.  Bigelow Tea is sold across North America, while Ouidad has certified stylists in salons nationwide (and beyond).  But sometimes their customers can’t find a certain tea flavor at their local grocer, or they wonder if there’s a Ouidad certified stylist in their neighborhood.

When these comments pop up on Twitter, Bigelow and Ouidad can reach out and offer lists of nearby salons or stores that can help a discerning tea lover or fashionista find what they’re searching for.

(Like tea?  Follow Bigelow here.  Got curls?  Follow Ouidad here.)

2. Helpful Suggestions

Just because your products or services are designed to solve problems, that doesn’t mean your customers necessarily remember to use them.  Sales are one approach to reminding your customers that you exist.  Suggestions are another.

During cold and flu season, Bigelow Tea offers moral support (and suggested tea remedies) to those poor folks with nagging coughs and sore throats.  Or, when people voice their frustration with inefficient (or ecologically unsound) cleaning products, Ecover can confidently suggest their own line of household cleaners.  (You can follow Ecover here.)

3. Shared Wisdom

Yes, a company is a business, but a company is also comprised of people — and your customers are people too.  Sometimes, questions can come up that have nothing at all to do with your products and services, and everything to do with life in general.  If you know the answer, don’t be afraid to offer it.

For example, letting someone know that a group of butterflies is sometimes called a kaleidoscope may not have anything to do with laundry detergent, but that doesn’t mean Ecover couldn’t share that information with a person who’d asked.  Did it sell another bottle of product?  Not necessarily.  But it did remind someone that Ecover exists, and that they’re listening — and that they know a thing or two about the environment.

After all, at the end of the day, people remain loyal to the brands they feel best about.  And when your brand takes the time to care, and to be personal, that’s one more reason for you and your customers to keep talking.

Want to talk more with us? Let’s connect on Twitter or Facebook!