22 Take Away’s From SOCAP Social Customer Care Panel

Last week at the 2012 Annual SOCAP (Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals) Conference in San Diego at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado I facilitated a panel of Fortune 500 brands on Social Customer Care.

The focus of the panel was to give the audience practical straight forward take away’s in launching a social customer care program. 

Here are 22 that made the list.

1. Start your business case for Social Customer Care around RETENTION.

2. Customers are talking about your brand in social, it isn’t always positive and opinions are contagious. REPUTATION is another key to your business case.

3. Social Customer Care is more than just Facebook and Twitter. (One Fortune 500 brand receives 8 issues in forums for every 1 issue on Facebook)

4. It’s important to have a dedicated team for Social Customer Care.

5. Social Media Marketing and Social Customer Care are different. Marketing focus is on content development, Care focus is on helping consumers.

6. 78% of consumers will try to find a solution online before calling/emailing a contact center.

7. Approximately 75% of consumer’s Facebook posts, Tweets or online community posts go ignored.

8. Where appropriate, respond publicly. It shows you listen, take action and can deflect future contacts.

9. For staffing understand when your consumers post in social media. Panelists received highest volume between 5-10pm EST and only 25% less volume on weekends.

10. Crawl, walk, run with Social Customer Care. Panelists started with team of 3-5 people just in forums.

11. Social Care is not just about responding to complainers. Social experience includes brand discussion and peer reviews that can influence purchase decisions.

12. It’s common for consumers to have called/emailed/chatted before trying to get their issue resolved in social.

13. Key requirement for social technology. Lots of mentions of words like Mustang or Volt, focus on actionable content.

14. Publicly state you have done everything you can to help ‘flamers’. Then let your positive reputation and community come to your rescue.

15. Agent follow-up should be personable and human, avoid template robotic responses.

16. Partnering with marketing is critical to your success. Social Care is a compliment, not a competitor to social marketing.

17. Invite your brand teams to train your agents on social 101 and communicating in the brand voice.

18. Don’t be quick to create a brand hosted forum for your consumers, instead follow them where they already are.

19. Contact types are generally similar in social care as they are in other communication channels.

20. If you only listen and respond 8-5pm EST M-F, tell your consumers that.

21. Create response ‘swim lanes’ with your marketing team so you both know who is responding to what in social.

22. Response time is a critical metric and directly relates to level of customer satisfaction for social care.

Attention Auto Companies! Can You Handle The Truth About Social Care?

One of the most quotable movies scenes of all time is ‘A Few Good Men’ when Tom Cruise is questioning Jack Nicholson.  Tom loudly demands from Jack, “I want the truth!” and Jack replies, “You can’t handle the truth!”

Honestly, that’s how I feel sometimes advocating for social customer care.  But come October 16th we are going to get the truth!

I’ll be moderating a panel called ‘How The Big 3 Got In The Driver’s Seat With Social Care’ at the 2012 Annual SOCAP Conference in San Diego, California October 14-17th followed by a two day auto forum. The panelists include;

Jim Moloney, General Director of Customer & Relationship Services from General Motors Company
Rick Thornton, Head of Customer Relations from Chrysler Group
Rosemary O’Malley, Manager Consumer Services from Ford Motor Company

The panelists are clients of my firm 3CSI so I won’t be badgering the witnesses but I will be asking some tough questions.

Here they are;

(for those that won’t be at the SOCAP conference I will blog the panelists responses the week of Oct. 22nd)

1. Why did you start a social customer care program? Do you need a dedicated social care team?

2. What obstacles did you face in creating your program and how did you overcome them?

3. Did you have to overcome any internal fear about communicating with consumers out in the open in social media?

4. What do you think the differences are between a social customer care and social media marketing program? Are they different?

5. What are some of the steps you took to partner with your colleagues in marketing/agencies to make your customer care program successful?

6. How is your social customer care program structured? Insource/Outsource? Reports thru contact center mgmt? Are agencies involved?

7. Most people think of Twitter and Facebook when they hear the words social media, but you all started your social care programs in forums.  Can you share with the audience what went in to that decision?

8. What are the typical types of contacts you engage with in social customer care?

9. Do you try to handle your social engagements publicly or do you take the conversation private or into another channel?

10. What types of goals/metrics do you track, how do sell the value of your program internally?

11. What best practices have you applied in social care that you brought from the traditional channels (phone/email) and what is one thing that is completely different.

12. How has social customer care changed the game for agents? Is it a different job desc? Different training and performance coaching? What is the profile of your top agent?

13. What is the biggest mistake as a customer care leader you made in social that the audience could learn from?

14. How does your social customer care program align with your corporate primary goals and objectives?

15. What is one piece advice would you give to the audience for those who want to launch a customer care program?

16. What do you know about the service expectations of the socially savvy customer? How is that different than customer behavior in the past?

17. What does social customer care look like 12 months from now?

18. Please share a hero story from your programs where you have retained an at risk customer or perhaps helped sell a vehicle?

Am I missing anything? What else should I ask?

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and feel free to leave a comment, I reply to all of them.

Get Started! Social Service – Part 5

Although this is my final post in the Get Started Social Service series, our journey is just beginning SOCAP and CRSummit.

The rebirth of customer care has provided such a bright future for those of us struggling in the world of complaint departments.

The contact center of the future driven by social CRM gives us the opportunity to be sitting at the C-suite impacting the bottom line like never before.  But we have to seize this opportunity so let’s get started.

Technology Requirements – It would be foolish to have marketing personnel use the same contact center software agents leverage to retain and wow customers for their jobs, so why would customer care use the same listening and social reporting software as marketing?

1. Filtering – There is lots of conversation on the internet.  Not all of it, not even most of it is actionable so to avoid customer service agents weeding through the needle in the hay stack, make sure you are comfortable with the filtering functionality.

2. Routing – The relevant social conversation remaining after the filtering should be routed to the right response team based on your documented swim lanes.

3. Productivity – Keep it simple for customer service agents, they need to spend time responding and wowing customers not fooling around with a bunch of sexy bells and whistles.  Don’t be distracted with unnecessary functionality required for marketing but just reduces usability and productivity for your agents.

Tip: Reporting is always a key requirement, here is some food for thought.

Social Media Marketing Metrics	Social Service Metrics
Sentiment & Share of Conversation	How Many Customers Thanked Today
Friends, Followers, Views, Likes, ReTweets	How Many Customers Helped Today
Word Clouds & Hot Topics	Volume of Service Issues by Source (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Forums, Blogs)
Influencer Analysis	Top 10 Complaints & Inquiries in Social
Geo-Location Insights	Response Time & Escalations By Source

Key Process Requirements – Hopefully by now you’ve realized I like to keep things simple.  I don’t think you need to go crazy with process engineering and documentation right off the bat.  However, there are a few key steps to get in writing and agreed upon, hope this list helps.

1. Channel Expansion – Document all the Facebook pages, Twitter handles, forums and YouTube channels (with id’s/passwords) and how you evaluate and expand into new communities.

2. Response Swim lanes – Document who is going to respond to what on each channel and get concensus with marketing.

3. Escalation & Offline – Not every consumer can be satisfied in social media with 140 characters or on a Facebook wall for the whole world to see.  How are you going to respond to get them off-line?  Are you going to transfer them to another function? What information are you going to transfer with the consumer?  How do you close the loop back in the original social channel?

Tip: For swim lanes as your deciding on who is going to respond use actual tweets, posts and comments because it’s a harder exercise then you might expect.

Social Service Wrap Up – I really enjoyed writing this blog series and I hope you found it helpful.    I’m a huge fan of everyone in the customer care community and I look forward to evangelizing on your behalf at the next SOCAP or CRSummit.  Remember, keep it simple and just get started!

Tip: I would love to continue the conversation at cschaeffer@3csi.com or 614.302.2182. Scratch that, you are all social media experts now so reach out on twitter @chadschaeffer.

If you missed Monday’s Get Started! Social Service – Part 1; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/get-started-social-service-part-1/

1. Where are customers talking about your brand?

2. What are they saying?

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

Tuesday’s post Get Started! Social Service – Part 2; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/get-started-social-service-part-2/

4. What is your current response time?

5. When are customers talking about your brand (day/time)?

6. How to start responding if you aren’t today

Wednesday’s post Get Started! Social Service – Part 3; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/get-started-social-service-part-3/

7. How to partner with marketing

8. How to define response swim lanes

9. Free social media listening tools

Thursday’s post Get Started! Social Service – Part 4; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/get-started-social-service-part-4/

10. Social care strategy

11. How to get started on Twitter

12. Who to follow on Twitter

Get Started! Social Service – Part 4

OK SOCAP’ers & CRSummites just one more day and you’ll have a simple social customer care starter kit requiring no budget or complex technology. If you have any questions on my blog series please don’t hesitate to contact me, I love helping beginners get started.  My Twitter handle, Facebook page and LinkedIn profile are all available on the left side of my blog so lets connect!

Let’s Get Started! – Social Service Part 4!

Social Care Strategies – Typically I consult clients to start the strategy discussion around these topics understanding that every business and industry is different.

1. Retention – Primary purpose of social customer care programs.

Yes, that’s it.  I’m going to stop there.  I believe in keeping things simple and focusing on the ONE thing.  Sure you can expand your strategy as your social care program matures but if you are just getting started keep 100% focus on helping those consumers in social media that have a complaint or question.

Tip: Keep it simple and focused for the first 6 months, ask marketing how much it costs to acquire a new customer vs keeping an existing and you’ll provide plenty of ROI.  Start with a goal of 100 customers helped in the first 30 days, add 100 each month and you will have helped 2,100 consumers 6 months from now so what are you waiting for?

Getting Started on Twitter – As I mentioned during my CRSummit break out session I was surprised to hear that the esteemed panel from GM, Redbox & Time Warner all mentioned they weren’t on Twitter despite it being the channel of choice for their social consumers.

Start by just listening then follow people of interest along with family and friends.  Don’t worry about sending any tweets until you get a feel for what Twitter is all about.

Next, start retweeting other tweets you find helpful.  Now that you got the hang off it, let er’ rip.

I think its important for customer service professionals to become more social to earn the respect of marketing team members who are typically extremely active on social networks.

Here is the best resource I know on the internet for Twitter beginners;  http://socialfresh.com/training/twitter/

SocialFresh has links on the following;

1. Why even use Twitter?

2. How to create an account

3. How to add a background and write a bio

4. How to get followers

5. Joining Twitter chats

Any many more helpful resources!

Tip: Using a free tool like HootSuite you can create several tweets at once and schedule them on different days.

Who to follow on Twitter – I like following a mix of customer care and social media leaders and I’ve provided a good starter list below.  Don’t forget, you will embrace Twitter more if you make it fun.  There is nothing wrong with following your favorite athletes, musicians, actors, politicians, etc.  One last thing, follower all your own brand handles, competitor’s handles and throw in a few of your favorite companies. BTW, Starbucks and Whole Foods are awesome on Twitter.

@socialmedia2day	@jasonfalls
@socialfresh	@briansolis
@equalman	@mashable
@tedcoine	@davekerpen
@womma	@socap

 

Tip: Some of the most famous comedians are also hilarious on Twitter.

See you guys tomorrow with the final post of the series where I’ll cover;

Technology Requirements

Key Process Requirements

Get Started! Social Service Wrap Up

If you missed Monday’s Get Started! Social Service – Part 1; 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?

Tuesday’s post Get Started! Social Service – Part 2; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/get-started-social-service-part-2/

Tuesday’s key topics.

4. What is your current response time?

5. When are customers talking about your brand (day/time)?

6. How to start responding if you aren’t today

Wednesday’s post Get Started! Social Service – Part 3; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/get-started-social-service-part-3/

Wednesday’s focus;

7. How to partner with marketing

8. How to define response swim lanes

9. Free social media listening tools

Get Started! Social Service – Part 3

Upon returning from the SOCAP and CRSummit conferences the challenge for many customer service professionals was clear.

How do I launch a social customer care program?

For the past 12 years I’ve been a huge advocate and evangelist for the contact center so I’m creating a daily 5 part series to help you get started!

Its hump day of your first week back from CRSummit, don’t lose your focus and momentum, stick with it!  Remember, as customer experience leadership professionals we owe it to our consumers to get involved in social media.  They are counting on us!

Let’s Get Started – Part 3!

How to Partner With Marketing – Focus on what you can both rally around, the customer! Too often I see contact center leadership get off on the wrong foot with marketing with the “Who should own social media?” discussion. If you are just launching a social care presence, you aren’t ready to own social.  Here is what you DO own! Customers on Facebook and Twitter who have questions, complaints or take the time to say I love your products/services are being ignored like in this example.

Tips:

• Customer service has low-cost expert resources that can increase engagement without breaking the social media budget.
• Contact centers already work flexible hours and can help with off hours response.
• Ask marketing for their help in providing social media training for your contact center agents.
• Exceptional social service improves peer-to-peer recommendation and word of mouth, aka, THE most effective marketing.

Defining Response Swim Lanes – Consumers are slowly migrating away from traditional customer service channels and moving towards Facebook, Twitter and other social communities for service growing the online conversation.

This presents a challenge: Who is the right internal team to respond to each of these consumers?  How do you keep from bumping into each other?

The answer is to define, agree and put in writing the most common categories of social conversation and who will respond to each.

For example, Sony has over 2 million fans on Facebook.  Their customers have questions about promotions, future products, technical questions, fans uploading photos, quality complaints, where to buy questions and thousands of other engagement opportunities.

If each team stays in their swim lane, each customer can receive outstanding service from the most knowledgeable company ambassador.

Tip: Here is a quick and simple example of swim lanes

Marketing/PR	Customer Service
Future Product Questions	Product Complaints
Campaign Complaints/Inquiries	Product Suggestions
Crisis Communications	Existing Ownership Product Inquiries
Blogger/Influencer Interactions	Warranty & Rebate Questions
Upcoming Events	Service & Policy Issues
Charity/Environmental Concerns	Thanking Customers For Compliments

Get Started With a Free Social Media Listening Tool – Most global 1000 brands with a strong online customer care presence have pretty sophisticated social CRM requirements and ultimately a technology partner will become a necessity.

However, don’t let the process of creating an RFP, approving a budget and choosing a vendor stand in your way of getting started right now!

HootSuite is an awesome tool for beginners that will allow you to track your brands Facebook pages, Twitter handles and company blog. You can also create custom searches based on keywords/hashtags (i.e. top product name).  Most importantly, you can respond and engage directly with consumers via HootSuite.  Actually most importantly, did I mention Hootsuite is free?

See you tomorrow when I discuss;

1. Customer Care Goals & Strategies

2. How to Set Up a Personal Twitter Account

3. Social Media Thought Leaders

If you missed Monday’s 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?

Tuesday’s post Get Started! Social Service – Part 2 is right here; https://chadschaeffer.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/get-started-social-service-part-2/

Tuesday’s key topics.

4. What is your current response time?

5. When are customers talking about your brand (day/time)?

6. How to start responding if you aren’t today

Get Started! Social Service – Part 1

I recently presented at the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Baltimore and the Customer Response Summit in Austin on some of the fundamentals of creating a successful social customer care program. The most frequent question I was asked was, “Where do I start?”

I’m creating a week-long series of simple tips that requires no budget or fancy technology. I hope you find my blog helpful. Let’s get started!

Social Heat Map – First, you have to understand where the relationship building opportunities are by evaluating how much conversation takes place on each social community. Keep it simple, if there are 50+ opportunities a day its hot, 20+ its medium, 1+ its mild. It can vary by industry but start in this order;

1. Twitter
2. Surprisingly second, check out online forums and user communities
3. Facebook
4. Google+
5. Company Blog
6. LinkedIn (Company Page Comments, Groups)
7. YouTube (Company & Personal Channel)
8. Personal/Industry Blogs (WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger)
9. Review Sites (Yelp, Trip Adviser)
10. Pinterest
11. FourSquare

Remember, you are looking for actionable relationship building opportunities, not just brand mentions.

Tip #1 – A large 3CSI automobile client has 6 times the conversation on forums like Camaro5 and Corvette then they do on Facebook.

Social Conversation Map – What is the tone of the online conversation? Evaluate on each channel the primary reason for discussion. Twitter is great for compliments, proactive and sales leads. Forums generally have customers troubleshooting issues and asking questions.

1. Complaints
2. Questions
3. Compliments
4. Proactive (i.e. In the auto industry, participate in discussion about fuel mileage or towing)
5. Sales Leads (i.e. Should I buy the new Cadillac CTS or Lincoln MKZ?)

Tip #2 – Aren’t we trying to create raving fans in social so they influence their friends and family? So start by acknowledging and thanking all the customers online that already love you and take the time to share their praise.

Social Response Audit – Once you know where the conversation is happening do a simple self audit on Twitter, a few top forums and Facebook looking for consumer questions/complaints/compliments that have been ignored. Industry data suggests that about 70% of brands don’t respond to customer complaints on Facebook and Twitter.  Don’t be a part of that stat!

Tip #3 – Start from the bottom of Facebook streams and work your way up. Generally brands respond to the first few comments and ignore the stream as it grows.