Web 2.0 and customer service

Web 2.0 and customer service

Michele Ide-Smith

18 March 2010

Social – people sharing, discussing, commenting, forming networks

Media – ‘user generated’ content including text, photos, videos, slides, documents, maps…

What is social media?

It’s changing the rules

“the democratisation of information, transforming people from content

readers into publishers”Wikipedia

(Over 3 million English articles, 262 language versions)

Media preferences

Cambridge Evening

News 64,063

We’re All Neighbours

7,542Facebook

165,220

“People are having conversations about us, but

we are not part of those conversations.”

Listen, then engage

Listen to what people are sayingThen engage in the conversation

Monitoring tools

http://addictomatic.com/http://search.twitter.com/http://www.google.com/alertshttp://ww.socialmention.com/http://www.netvibes.com/http://www.technorati.com/

Why use social media?

Reach – go to where people areTargeted – specialist networksTimely – update as it happensTransparent – reduce complaints

Why use social media?

Democratic - empower communitiesCollaborative – build social capitalHuman – build trust / relationshipsCheap - low cost additional channel

4 practical approaches

1. External communications

2. Campaigns to change behaviour

3. Community engagement

4. Internal communications

External communications

Central library opening

Teaser videos on YouTube showing the new building and facilities

Facebook page to build interest and get customer feedback after opening

Twitter feed for latest news

What worked?

Great for promoting events and getting feedback afterwards

Opportunity for staff and users to post photos after events

Enables two-way communication - users express likes and dislikes of the service and library building design, staff respond

What worked?

Teaser videos kept customers interested despite the delayed opening

Also good for promoting events

Top tips

Respond quickly, politely and courteouslyHave two people to monitor/moderate in

case of absence (share login details)No email notifications from Facebook fan

pages so check regularlyGet to know the tools and only use tools

if appropriate (wall vs. discussions)

Lessons learnt

Responding quickly increases risk of going ‘off message’ – need to control in political situations

Need to ensure you have resources to manage the additional channels

Data protection issues – publishing photos or video of young people

Campaigns to change behaviour

2009 Elections

YouTube – Councillors explain what’s involved in being a Councillor, citizens talk about council services

Facebook page - to connect with votersTwitter feed - for ‘as it happens’ resultsText messaging

What worked?

Interviewed service users about personal stories - showed good customer service

Dual benefit from promoting the vote and council services (able to re-use videos)

Good visual explanation of services which are less well known

DIY approach, therefore cheap!

What worked?

Timely, useful, updates as the results came in – also integrated with website

Used to promote the video interviewsSingle message – know where your

polling station is, how to voteAble to respond to customer queries e.g.

where’s my nearest polling station?

Lessons learnt

Plan / timetable the campaign well – how do social media channels fit together?

Don't over do the updates – beware the annoyance factor of sending texts, tweeting too much etc.

Traditional posters, press releases and ads are not always the way forward

Lessons learnt

Have a good brief for any film crew you are using

Or source the people needed yourself and have a good plan

Have resources to answer questions and interact with customers – social media is two-way not broadcast!

Community engagement

Wisbech Digital Engagement

WordPress site for residents to report neighbourhood issues, suggest ideas and vote on police priorities

Partners/residents can blog, post videosUsing YouTube and social networking

e.g. Facebook to engage communities

Tips / Lessons learnt so far

Audit use of social media locally and remember to check for use of non-English social networking sites e.g. Gadu-Gadu

Find out what sites/tools residents like and dislike e.g. not keen on Twitter

Engage active social media users early on (councillors, press, residents)

Internal Communications

Chief Exec’s Blog

Blog based on Microsoft SharePointChief Exec updates remotely using

Microsoft Word and a Blackberry (mobile)Latest 6 blog posts are displayed on

intranet home page

Missing slides

2 screenshots removed

What works?

Most popular internal comms channelTransparencyInformal / personable styleStaff comments appear immediatelyDiversity of topics covered in the blogUpdated frequently – Mark adds multiple

posts per week, up to 6 posts per day!

Lessons learnt

Technology choice not ideal Not easy to update blog from a Blackberry –

can’t add images or format text Can’t embed video or sound clips

Staff learn to accept responsibility for their comments

Opportunities

How can we make the most of social media going forward?

What can we learn from best practise?

As practitioners we need

Case studies – social media offers a range of opportunities, but context and usefulness is key (IDeA KnowledgeHub)

Support - to embed the use of social media as a mainstream channel - policy, guidance, skills, resource

Willingness – to manage risks effectively, try things out, evaluate impact and learn

“The biggest risk is not to get involved.”

Euan Semple, social media writer, speaker and consultant

“The important questions aren’t about whether these tools will spread or reshape society but

rather how they do so.”Clay Shirky, author, Here Comes Everybody

Questions?

Photo credits

Lego People, Joe Shablotnik http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/305410323/

Library Chairs, James Yardley http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=30390601&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=106156113195&id=1576013407

Polling Station, secretlondon123 http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretlondon/3598534263/

Stakeholder Workshop Post-Its, Paul Henderson Smile!, sean-b http://www.flickr.com/photos/sean-b/245744537/