Our business culture has always been to let the customer have the last word, they are always right after all and although some of this way of doing business can still work; it doesn’t on Facebook.

Customer service has advanced due to the easier ways of communicating with businesses through social media platforms.  Customers or potential customers are no longer lingering in cyberspace; instead, they are actively looking to interact with your brand.

Facebook has become the hub for such interactions as their pages platform have made contacting and connecting with a business the easiest. Through having the ability to comment on shared content, chat via a private message or even leave positive or negative feedback via the resistant recommendations feature.

No matter how a person contacts your Business on Facebook, your need to respond is a necessity. However, not only do you respond but now we have finally advanced enough for your business to have the last word.

At first thought, it may seem improper to have the last word, but if you have ever reviewed a Facebook page that didn’t, it looks like the business is not keeping up the page, which can give the perception to a potential customer that they cannot easily message you through the private message feature to get a response. This perception has a ripple effect; it then turns to, if the business isn’t responding online than in-store they may not be customer service driven either.

One of the many things we have learned from social media is its impact it has not only from reviews of others but from the expectations of an active presence to be available by the brand. Sloppy pages will get overlooked, non-relatable content will make your efforts mean less and non-responsive communication will make you look like you lack in customer service.

Your business’s social sites are an extension of your place of business. Just because they are not made of brick, does not lessen their importance. If a customer were to walk into your store and ask you questions, you would answer right? If they made a statement, had feedback or left with a smile, you would respond to the statement, ask how you can improve or say thank you for the feedback and smile back if someone smiled at you.

You must apply this face-to-face service to your online version of your business. Your website has now become the shelves on a store rack, your social networks is where your face-to-face time happens now and more often, especially on Facebook.

Facebook is where the people are. It is the place that people can contact and connect the quickest without having to stray too far away from what their original intentions of using Facebook within that moment was. It mixes what you share on your Facebook Page with what they have within their newsfeed and they can see more than you realize.

Therefore, when someone asks a question using the comment feature, answer it. If they leave feedback, ask how you can make their experience more helpful or thank them for it (even if it is not public) and an emoticon smiley face is a smile in return.

Your presence is important and you care about your business’s reputation and that means that every written connection should mean something to you. You would not ignore someone who came into your store nor should you ignore someone who comments on your social sites. Facebook has the largest impact and that is why having the last word especially on Facebook will have your business looking attentive and provide the quality of service that can lead from a conversation to a lead generation.

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