The Role of AI in Social Customer Care (and Why it’s Not a Replacement for Humans)
If you’re not used to being more personalized on social media, it can sound daunting and overwhelming. However, think of it this way… by being more proactive and spending more time engaging with your customers and audiences, you’ll create a lasting impact on how they feel and talk about your brand on social media. You’ll become more of an asset to your team and organization, and it will help you identify endless opportunities. It will also help you spot gaps and areas where you may need more support.
When it comes to support, especially if you don’t have a big team, this is particularly where AI can come in handy to take some of the load off. AI can help you with your responses, however you will need to fine tune to make sure it fits your brand voice the right way, answers the question or comment correctly, and adds that more personalized touch to it.
But, before we get too deep into how you can use AI, let’s first talk about its strengths and limitations:
AI Strengths
- Speed
- Efficiency
- Pattern recognition
- Sentiment analysis
AI Limitations
- Lacking empathy
- Nuance
- Deep brand understanding
Now knowing some of the strengths and shortcomings of AI, you should be able to navigate where AI will or could support you in your day-to-day, and where you’ll need to be more readily available for oversight. A great starting point would be to review your team size, understand the tasks that take the longest and why, and where the team needs the most help to do the more granular pieces.
In the role of social customer care, it’s best to come up with a strategy for human-AI collaboration so you and your team can navigate the flow. For example, knowing when to let AI handle the initial response, when it should be escalated to a human for deeper engagement, and how AI can help gather insights for better personalization. Looking back to my experience with Ben and Jerry’s that I wrote about in my previous blog (HYPERLINK), AI could have flagged my initial comment to them as a positive brand response, and in turn, that could’ve been moved to a human to review for creating a “surprise and delight” experience.
The Shift from Reactive to Proactive Social Customer Care
Many brands don’t get ahead of an issue on social media because they don’t know there is one, they don’t have the support, it becomes an after thought, or because they’re hoping there won’t be an issue.
So, what does proactive social customer care look like?
- Monitoring trends and jumping in before customers reach out.
- Engaging in relevant conversations and addressing concerns in real-time.
- Using AI-driven listening tools to identify potential issues before they escalate.
- Turning frequently asked questions into valuable content.
From the list above, I’m sure social listening came to your mind immediately, and you’d be right! Social listening is a HUGE piece of proactive social customer care. By staying on top of those elements, you’re not only aiding your social audience, but also everyone else in your organization. You’re helping them be aware of product issues, content opportunities, prospect possibilities and more.
How to Turn Customer Care Insights Into Storytelling and Content Strategy
Now, for those of you that don’t know me personally, you should know that I will find any opportunity to turn something into content 😉 What a treasure trove we have when we consider the endless amount of content that can come from every customer question and interaction—it’s all an opportunity to shape your brand messaging.
Social listening is a great tool to use to extend your social customer care to create content, however you could end up in an endless cycle of information, so it’s important to identify the types of content and promotions that align best with your audience. Below are a few options to consider:
- FAQs → blog posts and video content.
- Customer concerns → product updates and feature improvements.
- Common misconceptions → educational content and social media polls.
- Praise and success stories → user-generated content, case studies, and testimonials.
- Social media polls → blog posts, video content, webinar topics, etc.
When done right, you’ll have an abundance of ideas and then the next step will be identifying who can help create it (if it’s not you). This is where AI can also be of use, especially if you’re a small team or need to create outlines to help those looking to participate in content creation.
Learning and knowing as many people as you can in your organization, as well as their strengths and expertise, can help you in this content journey. Building and exploring relationships across your business will help you create a “call-list” of experts for every occasion.
5 Things Brands Can Start Doing Today to Elevate Their Social Customer Care
If this blog post feels a bit daunting, have no fear! You CAN start small—you don’t have to tackle everything at once to make an impact. Below are five things you can start doing today:
- Audit your current social customer care process.
- How fast are you responding?
- Are you using AI effectively?
- Are you personalizing responses?
- Train your team on AI + human collaboration.
- Set clear guidelines on when AI should assist and when humans should take over.
- Start using social listening to be more proactive.
- Identify common issues, sentiment shifts, and customer pain points before they become bigger problems.
- Develop a response strategy that prioritizes personalization.
- Move beyond canned responses—engage with customers based on their unique situation.
- Turn your customer insights into content.
- Align customer care with marketing to create valuable, informative, and engaging content.
The Future of Social Customer Care is Human-First, AI-Enhanced
If you treat social customer care as a chance to build something and not an obligation, then your brand will thrive on social media and your brand reputation will soar. And with the help of AI, and using it to enhance, not replace, your skills then you’ll generate more timely, empathetic, and personalized engagement.
At Thulium, we believe that social media is about trust, not trends, and we help our clients create meaningful content and foster interactions that truly benefit their audience. It’s about providing real value, not just being noticed. Contact us today if you’re ready to create lasting impacts.
Inspiration: Tamara McCleary LinkedIn Article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bridging-gap-rediscovering-human-element-customer-ai-tamara-mccleary-jhuef and https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2024/06/04/effective-social-media-customer-experience-care
