17 Social Customer Service Reports You Can’t Live Without!

I have the best job in the world. I get to do what I truly love which is help clients improve their social customer service programs. I’ve been fortunate to be in this small but growing niche for almost 5 years now after spending 9 years helping some of the largest global contact centers provide a world-class customer experience to their consumers. After all these years the questions I get asked most is very similar across all the industries I’m fortunate to work in.

How do I measure the value of social care?

What metrics and KPI’s should I track?

What is the ROI of social care?

These questions of course are answered by the reporting you have in place to analyze and optimize social customer service performance. I thought you might find it helpful if I shared a quick list based on my experience on the reports I found most valuable. I’m sure I’ve missed many that you are using today, please share them in the comments section so others can learn from what is working for you!

Enjoy.

#1 – Inbound Volume by Day

Response time is a critical metric and the best way to reduce it is to make sure you are staffed when your consumers are posting to social networks. I had a client whose volume only went down 20% on the weekend but was only staffing Monday through Friday. They used an inbound volume report by day to secure investment for weekend resources.

#2 – Inbound Volume by Hour

Similar to the report above, it’s also important to know when during the day consumers are posting. Again, to optimize response time, agents should be staffed to mimic the highest volume periods of the day. A previous client staffed 8-5pm EST but after analyzing inbound volume by hour realized 5-10pm EST was the highest volume posting time. This actionable data gave them the proof they needed to create a second shift of agents and stagger them across the day to reduce response time.

#3 – Response Time

At first glance this metric seems straight forward. Simply, how long does it take to respond to consumers posting in social media? However, most clients don’t want the time they aren’t monitoring social sites to count against them. (i.e. If consumer posts on 5pm on Friday and response is sent 10am Monday, the response time is only a few hours, not a few days since there is no weekend coverage). There is only one metric for response time, that is customer time, the customer doesn’t care when you monitor or not, it does not improve your service to play games with the numbers. Second complexity is many social posts require multiple back and forth engagements before the case is closed, so is response time from the first engagement or when the case is closed? I’d argue its important to report on both so see #4.

#4 – Case Close Time

With Response Time we learned its critical to track how long it takes to provide that initial response to a consumer’s social media post. Case Close Time tracks the total time it takes to close a post or case. It’s ok to follow-up and have some back and forth with a consumer to resolve their issue, but it doesn’t do any good to respond quickly on the first engagement only to frustrate the consumer because it takes a day or two to ultimately close out their case.

#5 – Customer Satisfaction or Net Promoter Score

In Twitter I recommend sending a follow-up tweet immediately after closing out a social post that says, “On a scale of 0-10, 10 being very likely, how likely are you to recommend our social customer service?” If you have cell numbers for your consumers and have the ability to send short text/SMS surveys, that is a good option as well. (i.e. Rate your social customer service experience 1-5 by texting 1-5 to 12345. AT&T is using this method.

#6 – Total Volume Trended Over Time

It’s not atypical to see social care volume growth rates increasing 50% a year as more and more consumers adopt social as a support channel. With growth rates that significant it requires contact center managers to constantly evaluate their staffing and hiring approach. Perhaps traditional channels like email and phone are decreasing over time and that pool of agents can be allocated to the social channel.

#7 – Likes, Shares, Favorites, Retweets

These metrics are typically used by social marketers to measure the success of social content published on Facebook and Twitter. However, they are also great service metrics to show the value of responses coming directly from social customer service agents. If consumers appreciate your responses and see them as helpful they will positively share it with a like or RT.

#8 – Top Issues, Questions, Praise

The most successful contact centers have always taken the goldmine of feedback from the voice of the customer and shared that actionable data back across the enterprise so products and services can be improved. Social is no different and is probably even more critical because social word of mouth is so much more powerful than the phone, email and chat channels.  For example, every month product management should be receiving reports on the top 10 complaints, questions and praise consumers have posted on social networks. Trending these metrics over time, comparing them to previous time periods and percent change are also elements to be considered for these type of reports.

#9 – Open Case Visibility

When cases are open, that means a customer is waiting. It’s critical to have a report view into how many open cases, case age, agent assigned and type of case to make sure open case volume is proactively managed.

#10 – Volume by Social Site

It’s important to break down inbound volume by Twitter, Facebook, Google +, etc. Typically agents are assigned to queues or sites so understanding the volume can help align the right coverage for each social channel.

#11 – Reporting by Tags/Labels

Especially with Twitter and its 140 characters, it can be tough to get enough actionable data from a tweet to share with the rest of the organization. However, most social listening and contact tools provide the ability to add tags or additional labels to social interactions which you can then report on. For example, adding specific product or brand names, location info if you are a retailer or restaurant, perhaps adding severity level to a post to understand the frequency of high priority issues.

#12 – Reporting by Influencers

All consumers deserve your best service, however, we can’t ignore the impact of influencers in social media. Because of that, its important to be able to filter almost all of the above reports by posts from influencers. Top complaints from influencers, response time for influencers, open cases by influencers, NPS/CSAT by influencers are all valuable in looking at how your social care is impacted by Klout scores and follower counts.

#13 – Cross Channel Reporting

Social is just one piece of the overall consumer support experience. Although rapidly growing, for most companies social is still less than 5% of overall support volume compared to phone and email. However, leading contact centers are integrating social into their CRM tool so they can report on not just social metrics but also cross-channel key performance indicators. For example, top issues by channel, cost per contact per channel, CSAT by channel and agent productivity by channel. To be clear, by channel I mean phone, email, chat, self service, communities and social.

#14 – Engagement Rate

In my experience clients can get too wrapped up in reviewing social posts and deciding if its technically a support post or if a post requires action. The bottom line is the consumer took the time to post something on one of your social properties, don’t they deserve a response? Isn’t friendly engagement one of the ways you build better community and a stronger presence on Facebook and Twitter? I think so and that is why I think its important to measure the total amount of posts you receive and divide it by the total number of engagements or responses to get your engagement rate. This is especially important for Twitter handles dedicated to support.

#15 – Social Profiles Captured

One of the single toughest challenges facing the social customer service community is understanding if @ChadSchaeffer on Twitter is the Chad Schaeffer in Plymouth, MI with a phone number and email address in a CRM database. Linking social id’s with traditional customer info is required for the 360 view of the customer so many marketers and service professionals aspire to. Consequently, measuring how many social profiles are being added and combined in your CRM system is a new metric I think leading professionals will begin to track and communicate.

#16 – Social Resolution Rate

A new personal favorite of mine is measuring the rate you are able to resolve a consumer’s issue within the social media channel. Too many times I’m seeing brands respond with “call us at 1-800 or email us by clicking this link”. If consumers wanted to use the phone or email to contact you they would have chosen those channels in the first place. I also don’t buy the all too convenient response of ‘we don’t want to discuss issues over social’, private messaging is available in both Twitter and Facebook to conveniently resolve consumer issues more discretely. Fundamentally, consumers are choosing social support channels because they require less effort than filling out a long email form or waiting on hold and fumbling through an IVR.

#17 – Productivity

The reason I saved productivity for last is because it’s the least important social care metric. I think the industry is learning over time that quality is always better than speed when it comes to measuring customer satisfaction. Zappos has publicly stated they don’t even measure handle time anymore for any service channel. Average time on case and average cases closed per day by agent should only be used as a coaching tool or directional guide. You might even find the agents with higher handle times also have higher CSAT or NPS scores!

 

Why Marriott Is Not ‘Plugged In’ to the Customer Experience

Hope you all have fun plans lined up for the 4th, I can’t wait to spend a few long weekends in northern Michigan later in July and August. Last thing I want you to do is stay inside and read this blog on your laptop so kick those shoes off, put your feet up, grab a cold one and pull up No Fluff Social Media on the tablet out on the patio!

Last week I blogged about my new favorite company, Uber. They reinvented taxi service, you should check them out!

Another travel company recently caught my attention for the wrong reason. Marriott!

First, let me say I’m a huge fan of Marriott and a loyal customer. Since I entered the work force in 1999 most of my years I’ve spent traveling a few days a week. I’ve spent over 100 nights at all the major chains including Hilton, Holiday Inn and Starwood.

But because of their price, rewards program, convenient locations and consistent experience I’ve gravitated more and more towards Marriott as I approach 400 nights stayed.

Last week I flew to Chicago and because I’m such a customer experience nerd I wanted to stay at the brand new Fairfield Inn literally right across the street from Salesforce.com Chicago headquarters on Illinois St. The day I checked in was their 5th day open.

This is where it goes down hill.

Question for you. If you spent all day flying and working on the go, checked-in to a hotel and got to your room for the night what is one of the first things you would do?

For me that answer is charge my phone, laptop and other devices.

Here is the problem. Marriott designed a beautiful new hotel and didn’t put plugs by the desk or the night stand. I know what you are thinking, “Chad, that’s impossible, it was probably one of those cool modern new desks where the plug is underneath or the back of the lamp on the nightstand is a secret power strip.”

Not the case! How could this possibly happen in today’s connected world? There was a plug in the entry way and the bathroom but not helpful for a laptop and cellphone while working.

Did I mention I may have set off the fire alarm at 6am accidentally when I was there? Yeah Marriott and I were not on good terms last week. I typically leave the hot water running after I get out of the shower to remove the wrinkles from my shirts. Well as soon as I opened the bathroom door, everyone got a wake up call.

I only add this piece of the story because engineering came to my room so I asked them about the plugs and they couldn’t find any either. Here are some pictures to prove it!

The closest plug to the desk is apparently somewhere down this hole which isn’t accessible.

I had to pull out the night stand and unplug the clock to plug in my iPhone. Then do it again the next day when housekeeping moved everything back.

What is funny about this whole thing, 4 days before I checked in I sent this tweet;

Why did I send this tweet? No I do not have a crystal ball! The customer experience is about how you make people feel. So what is one of the worst feelings in the world? When you are out and about at a restaurant, bar, grocery store, plane, stadium and your phone dies. Wireless charging stations are relatively inexpensive, why aren’t more places offering this? Wouldn’t you pick a restaurant, movie theater, retail store, coffee shop over another if you knew you could charge your phone?

Lastly, perhaps your thinking. “Chad, Fairfield is not really a business traveler hotel so that’s why they don’t have a lot of plugs.” Baloney, in fact a family traveling on the weekend is going to be a bigger problem. A family of 4 has 4 phones, 4 tablets/laptops, my gosh I think I’m going to open up a power strip store inside the Fairfield!

Back to Marriott, so you guys know I’m going to tweet Marriott about this right? Check out their Twitter bio. “Re-imagining the future of travel. Check out our innovations and submit your ideas on how to #TravelBrilliantly.”

Perfect, I apparently have an innovative idea no one at Marriott thought of, ADD SOME FRIGGIN” PLUGS TO YOUR HOTEL ROOMS! Genius I know, hold the applause.

Here is the tweet I sent.

You’ll notice I sent a tweet to Fairfield as well after I realized Marriott probably created a branded Twitter handle for Fairfield. Interestingly enough, check out their Twitter bio. #LetsGetItDone is based on how productive you can be while staying at a Fairfield for business or leisure travel. Unless of course being productive requires a laptop, iPad or iPhone. 

Uber – My New Favorite Company!

I hope everyone’s summer is off to an amazing start. This is such a fun time of year isn’t it? Longer days, kids playing outside, BBQ’s, bonfire’s and even music sounds a little sweeter sitting in the fresh air.

What a week! Met with three amazing companies, all with completely different social media needs.

The first was interested in strategies to drive more engagement and then more effectively report and quantify the value of those interactions.

Second, met with one of the largest companies in the US about launching a social media risk management program. Tracking conversations from their 250k employees, reputational risk associated with negative public relations and how industry factors like Obama Care impact their business.

Lastly, met with a brand on creating a social media command center filled with huge flat panel touch screens showing social media data. Its refreshing when a brand takes the social customer so seriously.

I love being exhausted at the end of the week knowing how many new things I learned and relationships I built.

During my travels two companies really caught my attention. One was good (Uber), one was bad (Marriott – next week’s blog!)

For those that don’t know, Uber is a great new taxi service. They have a mobile app that let’s you simply press a button and thru tracking your location a black car will show up in minutes.

The black cars are nicer and cleaner then a cab, they typically show up in 5-10 minutes (it can easily take twice that to get a cab in NYC, Chicago or San Fran), the drivers are professional and don’t drive like idiots, you rate each and every driver on your phone, they have bottled water and best of all you have to give them your credit card to use the app so when they drop you off you can just hop out.

That’s right, no hoping you have cash and waiting for change. No waiting for the credit card to be processed and hunting for a pen. Literally, you jump out of the car and go about your business and the receipt, tip included, is emailed to you immediately.

Brilliant service, especially for business travelers.

So why do I love the Uber story so much?

They reinvented the taxi experience and that is tough to do. How can you possible differentiate the taxi experience? Every single car is exactly the same, the rates are the same, how you get a cab is the same, how you pay is the same and they analyzed that situation and said;

1. We don’t want people to have to wait for a cab anymore with their hand up on a street corner in the rain or late at night. Solution: Click a button on your phone!

2. We don’t want people carry cash or wait for those slow credit card machines, then write in a tip and sign. Solution: Auto bill and email you receipt.

3. We want to give limo type service, for a little more than a cost of a dirty, smelly taxi.

Downside? It is about 20% more expensive than a cab. So a $40 cab ride would likely be $50 on Uber for the same distance.

My only complaint? They need to pay closer attention to social media!

I flew from Chicago to San Francisco recently, arrived late and my cell phone had died. I asked the driver if he had an iPhone 5 charger and he didn’t so I thought I would not call, not email, you guessed it, tweet Uber with a suggestion that their drivers should carry an extra cell phone charger in the car.

Unfortunately no one replied to my tweet! Let’s talk social customer care Uber!

How Kroger Ruined, Then Saved My Daughter’s Birthday!

Happy Monday morning everyone! Throw away those Monday morning blues, it’s going to be a great week. I had a fantastic weekend but it almost turned disastrous! I love it when I can tell real life customer service stories here on my blog.  Thanks for visiting this week.

My daughter Sophia Rose turned 5 years old. We did the typical summer barbeque, with about 40 of our closest friends and family.

Sophia prefers cookies over cake so my wife Staci ordered 2 cookie cakes from our local Kroger.

A few hours before the party I went to Kroger to pick up the balloons and cookie cake and unfortunately the cakes were not ready. In fact they didn’t have our order.

Now I realize mistakes happen, I’ve spent my career helping huge brands improve their customer service and I’ve seen everything.

When I explained the cookie cakes were for my daughters 5th birthday I got that “what do you want me to do about it, it’s not my fault look”. The woman behind the bakery took her time looking through the orders as slow as she possible could.

I got all the negative body language as well, the rolled eyes and talking under her breath to her coworkers.

The rude unhelpful bakery employee did say if I could wait she would make the cookies but I was on my way to a soccer game and didn’t know what Staci wanted written on the cakes. At the end of the day, this isn’t even close to the worst thing that could happen in life but this Kroger employee was so frustrating.

I simply said, “this situation is really disappointing that my 5-year-old daughter won’t have her cake ready for her birthday” and walked out. I called the last person in the world Kroger wanted to hear from at that moment. A stressed out mom planning, cooking and cleaning for a party.

This is where the story turns.

A very pleasant, empathetic and remorseful store manager assured my wife that this situation is not reflective of how his customers should be treated. He insisted that his bakery manager would make the cookie cakes and with time running short, personally deliver them to our house.

Wow!

Sure enough prior to the party a smiling, friendly bakery manager hopped out of her car and delivered the cookie cakes on time.  She didn’t say I hope you will still shop at Kroger or please give us another chance. Just a simple apology and heart-felt I hope we didn’t ruin your daughter’s birthday.

Disaster averted!

Often times when I’m dealing with executives about making more investment in customer service I’m met with a very common objection. There is no way to tie return on investment or direct impact to the bottom line from soft measurements like lifetime value, retention and loyalty that are all benefits of superior customer service.

I hope Kroger executives hear about my story. Since I travel a lot which puts a heavy load on my wife Staci, every weekend I take the kids to the grocery store to give her a little break. I also manage our personal budget and pay the bills and can say with confidence we spend about $175 a week at Kroger which is only a half mile and very convenient to our house.

Let’s do some bottom line math. $150 a week x 52 weeks = $7,800 annually. At risk because of $25 in cookie cakes and 1 bad employee that could care less about a 5 year old’s birthday party. By the time my kids graduate high school we will probably spend over $125,000 at that Kroger.

I think the store and bakery manager’s little investment in good customer service had a pretty strong ROI don’t you?

Switzerland: Chocolate, Cheese, Watches and Social Media?

Good Morning ‘No Fluff’ Social Media readers. Last week’s post on social ad’s was a hit, I’m thankful so many of you took the time to reach out and let me know you enjoyed the videos. I’ll understand if people take a break from my blog this week with the holiday weekend but if you chose to be here you have my gratitude.

Duty calls so it’s no holiday in the Schaeffer household. Especially for my unselfish, patient and understanding wife. I’ll be hopping on a plane for Switzerland today while she manages three kids by herself for a week. I don’t think my amazing wife reads my boring blogs but if you do, I love you honey! Did I mention your beautiful, stunning and gorgeous?

I’m going to be speaking at a workshop on Social Customer Service. A topic I love. I’m still finalizing the presentation but here is the outline. What do you think?

1. The History of Customer Service

• From the general store when the owner knew every customer by name thru phone, email and now Facebook and Twitter.

2. How the Customer Has Evolved

• The most important word in Customer Service is Customer, not Service. It’s always about the customer and the customer has changed. We are much more knowledgeable today, we buy what our family/friends recommend and want to do business with companies that align with our personal values.

3. The Customer Service Department is Dead

• Brands can’t afford to have customer service as a standalone department. It simply has to be weaved into the fabric of everything the organization does. It’s like culture, there is no culture department, it’s the way people behave and make decisions. Customer service is the same.

4. Marketing Will You Marry Me? Love, Customer Service

• Customer Service IS the new marketing. As consumers we don’t care about TV commercials, newspaper ad’s and big billboards. We get online and read reviews and ask our peers before purchasing a product or service. Customer service and marketing have to work in concert because customer acquisition and retention are no longer mutually exclusive, they are one in the same. Happy customers buy more, happy customers get new customers to buy. Dissatisfied customers leave, and take potential consumers with them.

5. Listening Strategies for Social Customer Service

• Traditional social listening is focused on brand/product mentions, competitors and campaign measurement. Listening for social care is proactively looking for consumers that need help, have a question, communicated a negative experience, took the time to share a positive experience or perhaps just in pre-purchase mode doing a little online research.

6. Social Customer Care Metrics and KPI’s

• As discussed in the previous point, because listening strategies are different between marketing and customer service so are the metrics. For example, social care metrics measure how many customers helped each day, top complaints and products issues. However, although different on the surface, service can learn from marketing because shouldn’t we be measuring likes, shares and reach of our service recovery engagements?

Well that’s an appetizer, there will be much more to the presentation including;

• Operational models on creating a Center of Excellence vs Localized support vs Centralized program structures
• Technology requirements and the ecosystem of tools required to deliver outstanding social customer service
• Social Customer Care Playbook. The process, training, certification, reports, and roles/responsibilities involved in launching a program.
• Social Customer Care Maturity Curve. Excited to be delivering a brand new creation to help brands with a crawl, walk, run, fly approach. Social care is a journey, not a project with a start and end date.

I’ll let you know next week how it goes hopefully with some really cool pictures of Switzerland, I’ve heard its beautiful.  Have a fun safe holiday weekend and thanks again to all of you who comment, share and like my blog.

What Keeps Me Up At Night

Good morning everyone! Happy Friday.  More importantly Happy Mother’s Day Weekend to all of you fortunate enough to have children, what a blessing they are thanks to you Mom. I’m very lucky, my mom Donna is an amazing mother and I love that I moved back to Detroit to spend more time with her. As lucky as I am, my 3 children have really hit the jackpot with Staci. One day is nowhere near enough to celebrate all she does for our children.

Mom’s….and Dad’s for that matter in social media I haven’t been getting much sleep lately. There are so many exciting opportunities and challenges in social that I thought I’d put a list together of the things I’ve been working on with clients that keep me up and night.

1. Social Sales – Everybody wants to know how do I make money with social, how do I show a hard ROI.
2. Social Customer Care – Executing the use case for customer retention and customer service in social media and showing the impact on retention/loyalty.
3. Social Marketing – Optimizing the most effective and efficient use of marketing investment across the social internet, social marketing is the last unaccountable spend but not for much longer.
4. Competitive Analysis – There is such a hyper focus on competitors in social media, wish more resources were focused on improving internally first.
5. Social Technology – Integrating social media listening, publishing, advertising and search strategies to optimize social investment, resources and results.
6. Social Partner Management – Define, document and present a preferred social media ecosystem including digital and creative agencies, media buyers, solution partners and system integrators.
7. Customer Experience – Present a coordinated Web/Mobile/Social customer experience every single time.
8. Employee Engagement – Educate, create and harness the power of a brand’s greatest social media advocates? Think about the power of employee advocates for a brand like Lowe’s with all those customer touch points.
9. Social Culture – Drive the same cultural revolution inside a brand at a faster speed than consumer behavior is changing on the outside in social.
10. Social Decision Making – Driving adoption to the point to where a brand routinely leverages social data and customer feedback to make improved business decisions.
11. Social Center of Excellence – Create a social media nerve center centralizing key functions including PR, Communications, Agency, Customer Service, IT and Marketing into one physical location all centered around the customer.
12. Big Data – Measure the impact of online to offline transactions on new customer acquisition, conquests and retention.
13. Social Media Playbook – Building a social media playbook outlining the key goals, metrics, roles/responsibilities, process, policies, content and engagement guidelines, education and adoption strategies.
14. Sponsorships & Events – Maximize the positive impact of social media on sponsorship opportunities and live events.
15. PR & Crisis Management – Protect the brand and mitigate risk from the tidal wave of negative sentiment.

I think it’s going to be a long night! See you next week. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Why Air Canada Failed Customer Service Training

Thanks so much for sticking with me for 8 straight weeks, can’t believe we are so far into 2013 already.  Hope you are enjoying my blog posts, I certainly enjoy your comments and for those that have signed up to receive No Fluff Social Media via email or share my blog on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn please allow me to return the favor.  What can I do to help you?

Just got back from a super fun trip to Dominican Republic so feeling nice and refreshed.  Prior to that I was visiting Radian6 in Canada and currently I’m in New York meeting new teammates at Buddy Media.  Been a bit of a whirlwind with 9 flights in the last 16 days and it got me thinking.

About 10 years ago I spent almost 2 years living in Europe and working with British Airways, Aer Lingus and Finn Air.  As a customer service advocate I couldn’t wait to dive in.

If you love a challenge, obviously airlines are at the bottom of the barrel when comes to deliver a memorable consumer experience. I should share that although I blog mostly about social media, this post is about my first and only true love, customer service.  I’ll understand if you want to skip out now and I’ll see you right back here next week.

Caught in my customer service cross hairs on a recent flight was Air Canada.  Here is why.

I’m sitting down reading my Kindle waiting to board my flight.  The gate check in agent makes an announcement over the loud-speaker.

With an aggressive tone she states, “We are in an oversold situation this afternoon.  Three of you must rebook on a later flight or this plane is not taking off.  I repeat, this flight is oversold, unless three volunteers come up to the desk to book a later flight, no one will get to their final destination. We are offering a $500 flight voucher to any passenger who will rebook.”

Did her name tag say Customer Service Agent or Drill Sargent? You may be thinking, just relax Chad, $500 is a lot of money and I’m sure a herd of people sprinted up to the counter tripping each other on the way.

Not exactly the case! I was already 2 days late in getting home thanks to the winter storm Nemo.  I’m sure many of my fellow travelers were in the same situation.  Some probably had it a lot worse and weren’t able to get a hotel room and literally were sleeping in the airport.

And let’s not forget the poor crabby check in agent. It’s very likely because of the storm and hundreds of cancellations she was working overtime and had been yelled at by obnoxious passengers all day.

But all this is not the point is it.  Regardless of circumstances, is this how you speak to customers? Is this the best way to motivate people to rebook?  I’m pretty sure it was not the passengers fault Air Canada overbooked the flight.

Here is what I would have said if I was working behind the check in counter with that microphone in my hand.

“I have an announcement that a few lucky people are going to be very excited about.  First, thank you for being so patient and friendly here in the gate today. No question it has been a long weekend for some of you, I especially feel for those that are either traveling with children or have not been able to get home to see their kids.  If you wouldn’t mind giving me your attention for just a few moments I have an important announcement you will certainly want to hear.

Although its freezing and there is lots of snow outside right now, it’s a sunny beautiful 80 degrees in the Caribbean.  Imagine the sand between your toes and fruity drink in your hand on the beaches of Mexico.  Perhaps there is a loved one some where that you haven’t been able to see in so long it hurts.

Well for the first 3 people who would give me the pleasure of rebooking you on the very next flight will receive a $500 flight voucher to swap those snow boots for flip-flops. Or perhaps you would rather warm your heart with a hug only a special friend or family member can give.

Truthfully, I’m a bit embarrassed to have to inconvenience 3 of you.  This overbooking situation is Air Canada’s fault, not yours, and I understand you just want to get home. Please accept my heart-felt apology.

I know some, maybe many of you will want to work with me to rebook your flight but I can only accommodate the first 3 customers. Thank you for considering my offer.”

If my style and customer focused voice seems aligned with how you would like to speak to your customers but you are struggling with the words please contact me, I love to share my passion and help others.

I hope you crush it this week, thank you for reaching my blog. Next week I’ll be writing from San Francisco where I’ll be in new hire boot camp with Salesforce.com.  Delta better have a friendly check in agent!

How to Solve the #1 Challenge in Social!

For those of you who have joined me every week in 2013 here on the no fluff social media blog I really appreciate you. If its your first time checking it out, Welcome!

Working for the Salesforce.com Marketing Cloud I get to discuss social media with the world’s largest brands everyday and there is almost always one common challenge.

How do I know if my customer Chad Schaeffer, who lives in Plymouth, Michigan, and has an email of chadmschaeffer@gmail.com and the new 313 area code cell phone is the same guy on Twitter @ChadSchaeffer.

BTW…..Did you realize there are three Chad Schaeffer’s in South Dakota alone? This can be a tricky problem!

In the world of marketing and customer service everything starts with knowing who your customers are and this challenge in social media has companies pulling their hair out. Some of the systems being used to store customer data can’t even capture twitter handle.

I think the reasons are obvious why marketers want to know who you are in social media, things like;

1. They want to target you based on demographic data

2. They want to target you based on what you do and where you go online

3. They want to target you based on what you have bought in the past

Likewise in customer service

1. They want to personalize their service, maybe give you the white glove treatment if you are an influencer

2. They want to know if you have called, emailed or chatted with them before about your issue/question

3. They want to build a customer history for you, understanding what your experience has been like with their brand

So how do you match twitter handles with your existing customer data?  Don’t do what I’ve seen some companies trying to do. Building complex search algorithms that match Twitter profile data with customer data in a CRM database and try to merge the two together automatically.

The solution is far easier and we only have to go back 13 years in history to find it.

It’s called email.

When I first started working in CRM in 2000, brands began preparing for consumer email.  Personal email starting becoming popular around 1995 but it always takes a few years for companies to catch up to consumers.

In 2000 it was the same question, people are sending me emails from bigbooty@aol.com and slimshady@hotmail.com, how do I know who they are?

Remember what happened next?

Apply for a store credit card (enter email address), call customer service (can I have your email address), join a loyalty program (email address), buy something online (create a username aka email address), want to receive coupons and special offers (email address), want to stop junk mail and join or email list (email address).

Fast forward and what do most Fortune 500 consumer base companies have? Giant CRM systems filled with consumer information linked with an email address.

I’m just not smart enough to think of the really advanced brilliant technological solutions so I have to do the best I can with my average smarts and find the simple no fluff common sense approaches like start asking your consumers for their twitter handle every time they interact with you!

Here is the last point, again similar to email. Your customers data privacy should be a high priority, same with only using that twitter handle for things your consumer has agreed to.  Let’s learn from the credibility many companies have lost by spamming consumers.

Heading to Punta Cana for a few days, I hope wherever you are the sun is shining on you as well! Until next week.

How Brands Can Sell More TV’s Using Social Media

Since I’m looking for a new TV and in celebration of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas I thought I’d blog about how brands can sell more TV’s using social media.  Below is my actual tweet at 10.36pm on Jan. 9th. The rest of the twitter conversation is completely made up.

ChadSchaeffer 10:36pm via HootSuite Going to buy new TV soon. Suggestions? 55″ so it can be hung in built in. Plasma vs LED? Wireless for apps obviously.

Panasonic sees my tweet and replies……

@chadschaeffer Who are you rooting for? Is there anything more fun then a new TV? Man cave or family room? How big will the wife let you go?

@panasonic Uggh! Cowboys fan. TV for SB party in family room. thinking 55”. Want wireless for netflix, youtube, amazon, app store.

@chadschaeffer Link to cnet TV reviews http://ow.ly/gez, link SB party recipes http://ow.ly/cke, 2 Excedrin for being Cowboy fan

@panasonic you must be Eagles fan! Looks like P55VT50 is highly rated.

@chadschaeffer If we are lucky enough to earn your business here is link to P55VT50 http://ow.ly/gez. Twitter code #TW01 15% discount.

@panasonic Wow! I think you did earn my business. Great service. BTW..love the hot wing recipe!

@chadschaeffer Please send us a pic of your new Panasonic once it arrives. Questions just tweet us, here to help. Enjoy the game and wings.

My last tweet would probably mention @panasonic

If you are looking for new TV check out reviews on @panasonic. Plus they have awesome service on Twitter. Bought P55VT50. Please RT!

Now I only have about 1,300 followers on Twitter, 425 Facebook friends and a few hundred people read my blog.

So my reach is 2,000 people.

Perhaps 1% of my followers read and RT and they each have a reach of 2,000 people. 20 x 2,000 is an online reach 40,000.

Panasonic would likely RT my last comment to their 16,000 followers, again same ratio of 1% read and RT and their reach is 320,000.

Total online reach is 362,000.

Now 1% would be way too high a number, 3,620 people are not going to run out and buy a Panasonic.   But is 1% of 1% too high?

Could an interaction like the one above influence the buying decision of 36 people? Maybe but probably still high. Would 3 people be reasonable and at $2,000 for the P55VT50 would you agree the return on investment of 3 or 4 tweets is worth $6,000?

Also keep in mind this does not take into account my offline influence through positive word of mouth when I share my incredible experience with Panasonic.

But here is the hundred thousand dollar question. How many total TV buying conversations are on Twitter everyday leading up to Christmas and through the Super Bowl.  I’m guessing hundreds of thousands.

I smell opportunity!

Ready for the million dollar question? How much is it worth to the Panasonic brand to just be social? To connect with people talking about TV’s? To engage and have conversations about TV’s? Or simply be nice and helpful?

Get Started! Social Service – Part 2

While presenting recently at the SOCAP & CRSummit customer service conferences focusing on social media I met so many fantastic people who were struggling with how to launch their social customer care program. They recognize the avalanche of customer service opportunity is growing by the day and its time to do something about it and I’m here to help!

Each day this week I’m creating a simple blog post for beginners that will require no budget or technology.  (just a LITTLE bit of time commitment)

If you missed yesterdays Get Started! Social Service – Part 1 post, you can find it right here: https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/get-started-social-service-part-1/

The focus was on 3 things.

1. Where are customers talking about your brand?

2. What are they saying?

3. How well are you responding to customer service opportunities today?

Now its time to move on to Part 2. Let’s Get Started!

Response Time – If you are in the 25% minority that does respond to customer service opportunities in social media, how responsive are you in each channel?  Do a quick audit of your Twitter & Facebook pages, typically do you get back to customers within an hour? 24 hours?  That number is different dependent on industry but in general under an hour will WOW your customers, under 3hrs is still very good, 24hrs and you are pushing your luck.

Tip: Forum response times in the 4-6 hour range are typically seen as strong, even up to 24hrs is acceptable.

Social Arrival Pattern – Closely linked, in order to have an effective response time you have to understand what time customers post service opportunities in social.  The numbers may surprise you, for one of my large clients more volume comes in from 5pm-12am EST then 9-5pm EST.  Furthermore, their weekend volume only dips about 20% from weekday volume.

Tip: If you decide to start with 9-5pm EST, post those listening times in each social channel to set customer expectations.

How to Start Responding (Every Time!) – This is the one step that makes customer care professionals the most nervous.  Trust me, it’s not going to be as difficult as you might think.  Simply report on the top 20 reasons for contact for email and phone calls.  Typically, customer service opportunities in social are very similar.  So you can leverage the years of experience in responding to consumers in more traditional channels with all the same tools at your finger tips like your CRM tool, response library and knowledge management system.

Tip: Print out a common email response template, have your agents reword in 140 characters.

See you tomorrow when I discuss;

1. Customer Service & Marketing Partnership in Social

2. How to Create Response Swim Lanes

3. Free Social Monitoring Tools