TikTok is a powerful way to get your products in front of millions of viewers. However, in order to truly convert viewers into customers, you need to leverage the company’s in-app features to explain the ins and outs of your brand.
A lot of people will stumble on your TikTok account without any context about what your brand is or what it sells. That makes TikTok an important early-stage platform for customer support.
By creating a FAQ that can be viewed directly on the TikTok app—making videos explaining who you are and engaging thoughtfully in the comments—you can convert a one-time TikTok viewer into a loyal customer.
Here are some strategies for how you can build out your customer support strategy on the platform:
Brands should be sure to pin high-quality TikTok videos to the tops of their profiles. Pinned videos appear first on your TikTok profile—after your TikTok username and bio—even before the chronological videos pop up.
They can be a great way for you to highlight unique qualities about your brand. If you just dropped a new collection of products, for instance, you can make a video highlighting what’s new and exciting in your catalog, and pin that video to your TikTok page.
The personal care brand Manscaped, for instance, has a pinned video that explains to new followers “What to expect when you follow Manscaped on TikTok.” (Its explanation includes “giveaways” and “pure chaos,” among other things.)
You could even pin a video—that’s accompanied by a creative hashtag—of a popular influencer introducing your product. Just remember, before posting and pinning any content, to be aware of TikTok’s policies.
On Instagram, many businesses have begun to provide their customers with information about their products, events, and return policies through Story Highlights, the pinned Stories feature that appears across your profile.
Fewer businesses probably realize that you can create a similar effect on TikTok. TikTok doesn’t have Stories, but it has a tool called Playlists. Playlists let businesses group together various clips that fit a single theme and then place them at the top of their profiles.
When you toggle over to a TikTok profile on the mobile app and see a row of “play” buttons, each with a caption like “Recipes” or “Spring 2022 Collection,” those are Playlists. Playlists are a great way to adapt an FAQs section for TikTok:
One of the simplest strategies for conducting customer support on TikTok is to talk to your customers in the comments. Replying to customers helps build a sense of community on your account, especially when you do it with the trademark TikTok brand of self-effacing humor.
The European airline RyanAir, for instance, has mastered the art of a humorous TikTok reply: the brand regularly engages with many of the most-liked comments underneath each of its videos, and it feels distinctly in on the joke.
When one user commented, “I’ll buy a plane ticket to London with RyanAir if u answer my comment,” RyanAir was quick to jump on it, with the simple response: “Enjoy bestie.”
Behind-the-scenes explainer videos are incredibly popular on TikTok. A great way to engage with customers is to pick some unique aspect of your product and then explain to customers how you make it possible.
The Los-Angeles-based soap brand Dr. Squatch, for instance, has a Playlist on its TikTok profile titled “soapmaking”. It takes people inside their manufacturing center to show how the soap moves from a liquid into a solid.
You could also protect your viewers and your brand by showing how to:
TikTok has an active commenting culture, and the comments section under a video can sometimes be as funny as the video itself.
More so than on other social platforms, TikTok users frequently take to the comments to react to content. These comments consist of jokes, screenshots of memes, critiques, or people simply expressing surprise at a certain detail in your video.
A savvy brand will pay attention to the ways in which users are reacting to the comments, and they might tweak aspects of their products—or product description—accordingly.
The New-York-based DTC sunscreen brand Habit, for instance, posts a lot of informational videos about the importance of sunscreen. When TikTok commenters react positively to a particular fact, the brand makes sure that fact is front and center on its websites.
For instance, Habit decided to update its marketing materials to mention the link between SPF and anti-aging more prominently.
Tools like Chatdesk Trends are able to do this kind of data analysis for you. Chatdesk tags all of the messages you receive in your inbox, DMs, and social media comments, and then identifies patterns in how customers are reacting to your brand and product.
Of course, the ultimate task of a customer support operation is to be ready to respond to any customer concerns that pop up. On TikTok, rather than trying to directly contact support, many people end up using the comments section to pose questions about:
It’s important for you to be available and Chatdesk can provide you with your own TikTok support team made up of real fans of your products. These Superfans then respond to customers’ comments and address any of their issues in a timely fashion.
