As a social media user, I expect a brand to hear what I have to say and respond to my questions that I ask via social channels. While I may receive a response, it most likely came from an stand-alone response team that is separated from the overall customer support organization. If I ask a phone service representative the same question, it is highly likely that the representative does not know that I posted this question on the company’s Facebook page or on its Twitter site. Isolated social channels often result in different responses given for the same question on traditional voice and web channels. Social channels offer a great opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of customers’ interests and behaviors and this information needs to be accessible from the customer data base. Sharing social insight enables organizations to anticipate customer needs and improve their customer response across all communication channels. Your social responders may be doing a great job handling inquiries but the information received must be shared to create a holistic view of customers as they navigate among all communication channels. I recommend brands with social site consider the following
Integrate social channel conversations into customer database. Customer comments on social channels need to be included in the customer history database. As brands actively monitor and filter social conversations, they gain insight into customer’s issues, problems and needs. The amount of data found on these channels is huge and it needs to be analyzed for relevant content and saved so it is available for customer service reps when the customer seeks live assistance.
Engage customers proactively on social sites. Customers want information regarding matters of interest to them. Although many service organizations proactively reach out to their customers on matter such as billing or scheduling, they often neglect using social channels for informing customers on matters of interest to them, such service delays or limited-time promotions. It is important to send only specific comments to areas of customers’ interest and to avoid spamming customers with generalized sales information.
Create Social communities. Online communities invite customer comments and ideas on a shared social site that is vendor sponsored. Many customers seek comments from peers or technical experts and want an easy way to engage with them. Companies find these communities promote problem solving and improve customers’ options of the brand and its service. Monitor comments social communities to ensure that the peer responses are helpful and accurate and share information gathered from these communities with other departments. Many communities offer “status” rewards for participation and this often promotes high interest by users who want to move to the next level.
