How does social media affect Customer Experience, and what does this mean for social selling?

Customer experience, commonly called CX, encompasses customers' overall perception of their interactions with a business or brand. It includes every touchpoint throughout the customer's journey, from initial contact to post-sales service. Recognizing the significance of customer experience is crucial as it can enhance customer retention, foster brand loyalty, bolster reputation, and ultimately provide a competitive advantage.

Social media plays a substantial role in shaping the customer's journey and experience through social media marketing and social selling. Social media marketing entails leveraging social platforms to engage with customers and prospects, while social selling involves salespeople utilizing social media to interact with their target audience. Understanding how social media impacts the customer journey is pivotal for crafting effective social selling strategies.

In exploring this topic, we had the opportunity to learn from Marcy Fluitt, a seasoned marketing professional with 17 years of experience across various enterprise industries, including construction, engineering, manufacturing, telecommunications, and technology solutions. Marcy's areas of expertise encompass marketing strategy, new product introductions, and customer experience. Her holistic approach to marketing sets her apart, consistently prioritizing the overall customer experience while promoting the value of the brand's solutions.

During her tenure as the Global Marketing Director at Spectralink Corporation, Marcy focused on digital marketing and successfully implemented a social selling program. Her emphasis on digital channels and integrating social media into the sales process highlights the importance of utilizing social platforms to enhance customer experience and drive sales results.

Key takeaways from our interview underscore the impact of social media on the customer journey and the need for a well-defined social selling strategy. By recognizing the role of social media in shaping customer experiences, businesses can effectively leverage these platforms to engage with customers and prospects while ensuring a customer-centric approach. Marcy Fluitt's extensive knowledge and passion for holistic marketing provide valuable insights into optimizing customer experience through social selling initiatives.

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Why are social media channels where brands can make an impact? 

To Marcy, social media "allows you to reach your existing and prospective audience, and it builds community and engagement and eventually customer loyalty as time goes on." A perk of social media is that it enables us to deeply connect with the audience on an emotional level by letting us proactively participate in conversations.  

Firstly, it is essential to know your audience, what makes them tick, what demographics or interests your audience has, and their customer needs. Because you want to show what you have to offer—how will you solve the customer's problem? What types of solutions are they looking for? And why should they care? Using these questions, you can create a message that resonates and cause action or emotion that drives action. It is equally critical to analyze your audience. What are they engaging with today that you can bring something new or innovative? How can you add meaningful conversation around the solution that you offer? Why should they consider you? 

One unique thing about social media is that you can engage directly with your audience as a brand and as an individual salesperson. Make it an ongoing conversation! If you offer value, your audience will engage in your conversation. To be top of mind to your customers, you must sustain those conversations. 

Regarding social selling, it's crucial to be intentional in your messages. If you have too much content that is irrelevant or distracting to your audience, then you can negatively impact the customer experience. You must remain consistent with your messaging. For example, stick to three to five things, and repeat them in diverse ways. And don't distract or clutter the conversation with things that are not resonating or even relevant to your audience. 

How can you craft this strategy across the entire sales cycle?  

Every sales journey starts and ends with the customer, no matter if it's a new acquisition or a repurchase. Journey mapping is a method where you outline the areas of customer experience where a brand can have the most significant impact. That comes back to that intentional outlining of the experience you want your customer to have and how you offer solutions at each step of that customer's journey. 

A frequent practice in this field is cooperation with different departments to shape that customer experience. The marketing team often creates messaging, but you want it to be consistent across the entire sales cycle. 

It is always important to break down your customers into profile groups to build a set of messaging to engage with a particular audience. "So, if it's a new acquisition, you want to do that in a different way than if it's a repurchase opportunity," Marcy explains, "You want to determine the appropriate messaging that's going to resonate across these different buyer profiles." This procedure allows you an opening, getting them to click and learn more or schedule a demo.  

How do you shape messaging on social that is consistent between what the company puts out and what individuals put out?  

"I think to really make it easy, look at it in a three-pronged approach," Marcy states. First, you start at the top of the funnel, where you try to attract or build brand awareness by talking to more of a prospective audience. While crafting that awareness messaging, you add new messaging to continue nurturing that audience that has engaged with you until now. Then comes the upsell and retention, or having that customer recommend your brand to someone else. These three areas are essential to research and analyze when creating a strategy. 

While these areas need a lot of focus, social media can be utilized throughout the sales cycle. This is because it is the brand's opportunity to reach a broader network of people and a way to be a part of conversations that are already happening. No matter what stage you're in, there will always be an audience, so there is no discernable stage that one should start implementing social media. By participating in communication, you spread knowledge about your company and what you have to offer.  

When we look at social selling, we expect to be perceived as a thought leader, as an expert in your industry. So, you need to talk about industry trends and other topics your audience is interested in. "There are times where you can curate your message to be in that correct brand or voice but also want to give them a couple of ideas that they could think about," Marcy relays. "What's going to really drive the interest or facilitate a solution to that need? We can proactively be a part of that conversation and educate in our areas, then offer other suggestions or recommendations as a thought leader." 

How does sales cycle acceleration matter in terms of building the customer experience? 

Because social media is such a fast-moving medium, interactions happen much quicker, with more people on each side of the organization. 

Fluitt states, "I think the more touch points where you can proactively control the customer experience or show how your solution meets their needs with that same consistent message, it's going to build that brand authenticity and add so much credibility throughout the customer journey." If we look at B2B, interacting with the decision-making unit on the other side, you normally need a lot of touchpoints until you get to the decision. Social media and social selling generate all these touch points across the sales cycle, and you need to be prepared for quick-paced interactions with your clients. 

It's so critical for a brand to build authenticity and credibility throughout the customer's journey. By setting your sales team up to anticipate some of those market triggers and opportunities, they can resonate on a deeper level and be considered more of an expert in the field. This focus amplifies your network reach and speeds up market activity.  

"It goes back to knowing your audience and understanding your customers' needs," Marcy adds. It is imperative to practice social listening and build your knowledge base. Knowing where customers stand, listening to what they're saying on social media, and finding out what they expect from a brand or from you helps build and tweak your strategies and messages. You can get a lot out of reading and listening to what your audience is doing today on social media. 

In conclusion, listening to and authentically interacting with your audience is essential. In today's age, we often forget that customers are human beings with fears and desires just like ours. Listening to what customers say on social media, and improving your strategy based on that, will set you apart from other sellers. Ultimately, the goal is to build lasting relationships with customers, so it's important to be authentic and observant to interact with others in the most meaningful way.