BillingViews Social CRM Series: Evaluating AT&T

Our Series on Social CRM

Case File #1: AT&T Corp.Addressing usability, economics, and

channel management risks

October 2011

Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

• Examines how Communications Operators engage customers on Facebook

• Focuses on overall approach and usability issues

• Identifies positives and negatives• Provides a checklist of practical

improvements• Working to establish industry-wide

best practices for Social CRM in communications

About Our Social CRM Series


Why Facebook?• Because it is currently the most popular, consumer-facing social

networking community in the world.

Why not Twitter?• Well, we may get there. We’re starting with Facebook.

What’s your purpose?• Social Networks are evolving and may become superb, low cost channels

for customer engagement. We want to facilitate a dialogue about what is and isn’t working.

Isn’t this just fluffy, pop culture stuff?• It can be, but we aim to apply proven principles – channel management,

user interface design, common sense – to call out useful lessons learned.

FAQ


Positives(+) Commitment to Social CRM Channel(+) More than 1.7 million “likes”

Negatives(-) Legacy (expensive) approach(-) Basic usability issues(-) Inelegant integration to Online Self-Care(-) “Search-ability” issues (-) No governance of resellers or trademark

Case File #1: AT&T Corp.


(+) Commitment to Social CRM Channel

AT&T Positives


Has embraced Facebook as a place to engage, inform, and care for customers.

Has a dedicated team of agents who respond directly to customer questions and comments.

AT&T Positives


(+) More than 1.7 million “likes”

Shares useful information about products, promotions, and helpful tips on services to maintain dialogue with followers.

Has a healthy and active community of people talking about and interacting with company.

AT&T Negatives


(-) Legacy approach (expensive)

- Dedicated team of agents ‘putting out fires’.

- Headcount intensive approach to an ideal self-help channel.

- Duplicates a problem call centers already have; staff should not be first line of defense.

“Social media care is often more costly than other means.” Chris Bauccus, Director of Social Media, AT&T

Source: Pipeline, April 2011

AT&T Negatives


(-) Basic Usability Issues

- Why is the link to Customer Care labeled “Welcome”…?

- Too many menu items with no logical or intuitive organization

- “Discussions” – a good self-care forum – is only visible when user clicks “more” on menu

AT&T Negatives



- Another layer of clicks between users and the areas for shopping and accessing care tools

- Too much screen real-estate consumed by a static graphic

- Buried on a sub-page with no call-out in main menu

AT&T Negatives



- Yet another layer of clicks between user and care

- “More options” link only returns to previous page

- Main action button takes user back to Facebook wall

- Access to online self-care hidden “below the fold”

- Too many clicks dissuade users from accessing tools, driving them to seek “expensive” help from reps via Wall or worse – phone!

AT&T Negatives


(-) Inelegant integration with online self-care

- All access to existing online care is two clicks from main page and hidden “below the fold”

- Clicking on these links launches a separate window, forcing customers out of Facebook environment

- No “social sign-on” option to access online care and account management; adds another barrier to care

AT&T Negatives


(-) “Search-ability” issues

- Search for “AT&T Wireless” brings up everything but AT&T Corp.’s profile

- Hundreds of search results for everything from authorized resellers to imposters and hate groups

- Even the AT&T Social Net app page does not link back to main corporate profile

AT&T Negatives


(-) No governance of resellers, impostors or TM

- Resellers do not conform to any standards for Facebook “storefronts” – as they must in retail locations

- Impostors abuse trademarks are not pursued; TM law in US is “use it or lose it”

- Wall posts show that customers seeking AT&T Corp. are confused and seeking care from resellers and impostors

There are dozens of impostors such as this:

• Minimize clicks. Don’t create unnecessary barriers between customers and the care they seek.

• Label things correctly. Label menus and buttons overtly; provide clear instructions; and organize by relevance.

• Stay within the environment. Use Social CRM as an easy path to existing online care, but don’t force customers to leave the intimacy of the social network.

• Govern the channel. Give authorized partners guidelines and tools for their social network presence.

• Enforce trademarks and pursue impostors. Engage Facebook, or other social networks, at a corporate level to help. At the very least, report abuses to the site owner.

• Make yourself easy to find. Customers may search for your brand in different ways. Make sure there are many ways to find your profile.

• Get the economics right. Social CRM should be a low cost way to provide high-touch care. If it costs more per interaction than a call center, something is very wrong.

Lessons Learned


• Vodafone UK• Verizon Communications• Telefonica• Deutsche Telekom• America Movil• NTT DoCoMo• France Telecom• Telenor• And many more…

Coming Soon in Our Social CRM Series


BillingViews is the global home for billing and CRM expertise and intelligence in the communications and media industries.www.billingviews.com


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Alex Leslie• Globally recognized billing and

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expert• Ghost writer and strategist for

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