8 Tips to Take Your WeChat Customer Service to the Next Level

Brands that provide exceptional customer service experiences have two things in common: They engage in authentic conversations, and they communicate on the platform of their customers’ and prospects’ choice.

Focusing on providing service where customers are can be a challenge for global brands, but not an insurmountable one. Companies like HP understand the importance of integrating messaging apps into their customer service strategy, whether that be Facebook Messenger in Australia or WeChat in China. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines recently got an edge over its competition by being one of the first airlines to embrace WeChat as a customer service channel for its clients.¹

What once were apps used as free or cheap alternatives to SMS text messaging have exploded into multi-featured mobile messengers central to the social media landscape in Asia.² While WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in 109 countries,³ WeChat is quickly gaining momentum with over 800 million active users.⁴ With Chinese adults averaging 40 minutes daily on this innovative messaging platform,⁵ it’s time to start integrating it into your customer service strategy.

Once you’ve applied for your verified WeChat Official Account, you’ll want to give it a human touch by setting up personalized agents. WeChat allows you to set up as many as 100 custom avatars and agent names for use when chatting with followers. More are available upon request.⁶ With live chat customer service, customers can talk to an agent just like they would chat with a friend. According to Teleperformance, “they can ask about a product, receive suggestions on what to purchase, or find help with troubleshooting the website.”⁷

WeChat’s keyword automatic reply feature allows businesses to manage expectations and personalize their fan interactions.⁸ With keywords, you can add text, pictures or sounds so that if a user sends that keyword, it will trigger your preset auto-reply message.⁹ This feature is particularly helpful with frequently asked questions.¹⁰

Scan posts and assign priorities based on customized keywords, so agents work the most important issues first.

Route customer replies back to the original agent before looking for another available agent.

Assign cases rather than posts to your service agents for a more holistic customer experience. This requires integration with CRM and maintenance of a robust customer history (for example, knowing that you talked to the customer last week about the same problem).

Use surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, triggered after a transaction is complete.¹¹

Give prime real estate to your QR codes, with a value proposition telling the user why they should scan it. Grata recommends using “unique ‘parametric’ QR codes to track the performance of each placement and to embed routing rules (e.g., so your taxi card QR code routes directly to the concierge) and alert agents to the context of the current conversation.” ¹²

Most importantly, don’t go it alone. Choose a social media management tool that’s designed not only for social customer service but also integrates with regional messaging apps like WeChat. Look for a tool that includes conversation threading and detailed customer profiles.

55% of WeChat users open it more than ten times a day.

Technode

Learn more about transforming your customer service strategy to a winning one with our Digital Customer Care Playbook.

¹ https://www.clickz.com/how-klm-uses-chinas-wechat-for-customer-service/96598/

² https://www.statista.com/statistics/258749/most-popular-global-mobile-messenger-apps/

³ https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/worldwide-messaging-apps/

⁴ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeChat

⁵ https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/worldwide-messaging-apps/

⁶ http://blog.grata.co/wechat-for-customer-service/

⁷ http://www.teleperformance.com/en-us/white-paper-connection-wechat/

⁸ http://blog.grata.co/wechat-for-customer-service/

⁹ https://ashleytalks.com/wechat-automatic-messages-ep-29/

¹⁰ http://www.teleperformance.com/en-us/white-paper-connection-wechat/

¹¹ http://www.the-makegood.com/2014/02/13/how-to-use-chinas-most-powerful-mobile-app-for-business/

¹² http://blog.grata.co/wechat-for-customer-service/