Social customer care: Understanding who you are
CCA Masterclass: Social media, mobile and online customer communications
Guy Stephens25.01.11
| Course Title| 2
"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.”
Quote from The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999)
Common themes
•Moving from novelty to necessity•Everything is the same, but nothing will ever be the same again
•Customer service is changing: disjointed, fragmented
•It’s a cultural shift: mindset not toolset•Being on Twitter or Facebook, doesn’t mean you are open, authentic and empathetic
•Understanding the gaps between what I want to be, what I can be and what I actually am
•Do you know how open you want to be?
You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that
camel!From the Cluetrain Manifesto, Thesis 733© Foviance 2010
Social media is about being
•open•authentic•meaningful•empathetic•relevant•interesting•bold•experimental•courageous•transparent•real
© Foviance 2010 4
What is your DNA? Your culture? Your mindset?
It’s Monday morning…
“wtf! [insert your company name here] your service is the worst!!!”
How would you react?
© Foviance 2010 5
Shifting paradigms
Touchpoint
Value creation and differentiation happens here
CUSTOMER
Framework• Network etiquette
• Social economy
Environmental• Fragmented
• Open
Expectations• Immediate
• Shared
Technology• Smartphones
• Broadband
COMPANY
Framework• Social media policy• ROI
Environmental• Homogenous• Closed
Expectations• SLA• Hoarded
Technology• Legacy systems• Firewalls Creating ‘wow’ experiences becomes of
paramount importance
6© Foviance 2010
Customer service has changed
7© Foviance 2010
Jo(e) Bloggs has a voice
•Rise of people networks, emergence of self-branded ecosystems where information is exchanged, knowledge shared and help provided
•Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube are our first port of call
•Increasing ubiquity of smartphones
•Impulse behaviour becomes the norm
•Text supported by IRL activities
•Anytime, anywhere, anyone© Foviance 2010 8
Corporate me
•Corporate profile: LinkedIn profile: in/guy1067
•Senior Consultant, Foviance•Customer Knowledge Manager, The Carphone Warehouse/BestBuy UK
•Global Online Marketing Manager, Mars, Inc (Drinks)
– Worked in the digital space for 12+ years– Thought leader within social customer care– Member of the Founding Council of BestServiceOne.com– Instructor for WOMMA-SOCAP (US) and Econsultancy’s (UK)
Digital Marketing Master’s programme– Blogger and contributor to various publications– Conference speaker
9© Foviance 2010
YouTube
Brightkite
FourSquare
Where social media meets customer service
Gowalla
Friendfeed
Posterous
Delicious
Digg
Stumbleupon
Listorious
Gist
Pownum
TripAdvisor
Vark
Cofacio
Focus
SocialCRM Pioneeers
CustomerThink.com
Quora
Squidoo
Econsultancy.com
Best ServiceOne.com
MyCustomer.com
CustomerStrategy.com
My web shadow
2005Global Online Marketing ManagerMars, Inc
19th May 2008
@guy1067 started
26th Dec 2008
Beingguy1067 blog started
I am not a photographer
Google profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/guy1067
06/02/09
@GuyAtCarphone
10© Foviance 2011
Senior Consultant
Foviance
Complaining goes social: One-to-anyone-who-will-listen
11© Foviance 2010
I hate this company! No one ever listens
Don’t blame social for your company getting it wrong
United broke Dave Carroll’s guitar, not social!
12© Foviance 2010
| Course Title| 13
“I resorted to social media because as a consumer I am tired of being placed on hold for interminable periods on the phone which historically has been a brand's mode of choice for engaging with customers - and I wind up building up my phone bill in the process. I was also tired of sending emails which, if they are acknowledged at all, get nothing more than an automated reply - something that is extremely impersonal and gives no indication of whether anything will be done at all.”
Quote from a customer of The Carphone Warehouse about why they used social media to complain
Companies no longer in charge: Fish where the fish are*
•Democratisation of the tools of self expression•Tension between past and future, carrying the weight of industrialisation, while looking at the possibility of the future
•New ways of working: Connecting, sharing, participation, engaging, listening, enabling, interrupting, influencing, collaborating
•Generational resistance to ‘traditional’ methods of communication
•One-to-many & Many-to-many conversations•Customer engagement takes place in public spaces 24/7
•‘Now’ touchpoints •PR/brand opportunities
*Jeremiah Owyang, Social Media Marketing Storyboard #1: Fish where the fish are© Foviance 2010 14
Impact on customer service
•Customer service is at the forefront of customer engagement
•24/7 PR opportunity•The time between the touchpoint and the complaint has condensed
•‘Closed one-to-one’ to ‘public one-to-anyone-who-is-willing-to-listen-or-participate’
•Underpinned by empathy and trust, transactional interaction to emotional and experiential engagement
•Emergence of independent sites•Resolution to experience, where experience is the service
•Technology and process with emotion and empathy wrapped around it
© Foviance 2010 15
Impact on customer service continued
•Call centre moving from cost saving to customer engagement, tactical to strategic business unit
•Customer service is decentralising, moving outwards into the hands of people
•Multichannel/multiplatform world•Customer service ‘at source’•Compete against/work with your own customers/people
•Redefine what customer service is, what the call centre is
© Foviance 2010 16
Roles are changing
Creator
Participant
Prisoner
Promoter
Bystander
VoyeurPassenge
r
Listener
Passerby
Pundit
© Foviance 2010 17
New help channels are emerging
18© Foviance 2010
| 13 January 2008
| Course Title| 19
"Somebody has gone to BT Centre and BT Tower in Google Maps and where you can comment – which is obviously built more for writing ‘isn’t the Eiffel Tower wonderful, I had a lovely day there’ – I found a whole set of complaints as well as some positive comments. That would never had occurred to me … Now I have somebody working out how we start to answer in Google Maps. I also get complaints on LinkedIn. So you have to go where customers choose to go. It is hard but you can’t stop this journey."
Quote from Warren Buckley, MD, Customer Services, BT
‘Mundane signposts’
•Complaints: Identify, acknowledge, resolve, escalate, close
•Help tips•Product/service queries
•Early warning system•Service alerts•Stock availability•Lead generation•Brand monitoring
© Foviance 2010 20
Crowdservice: Let’s help each other
http://www.youtube.com/user/marketingprofs#p/a/u/1
/jt6ChqJHKHk
21© Foviance 2010
John Bernier talks about Twelpforce
Cofacio.com: Get help and give help
Customer service is disjointed and fragmented
22© Foviance 2010
But who owns social?
•“For our clients, social media either sits in customer service, marketing, PR or technology. And where it is put simply depends on what the outcome is. If they are ultimately concerned with reputation issues, it is a PR concept. If it is a cost-related issue in that there are complaints about the product or a specific service and the customer is potentially leaving, it becomes a customer service thing. If they see social media as a new technology concept then it sits under IT. And if it is about brand and getting the name out there then it tends to be under marketing. But few organisations are enlightened enough to have true working across the organisation.”
Qaalfa Dibeehi, COO,Beyond Philosophy
© Foviance 2010 23
| Course Title| 24
"Customer service is the biggest interface you have with a customer, particularly in a retail organisation like ours, and therefore it has a role at the front line. And so the line I take around social media complaints and analysis is that it belongs to customer service. That is the role we play in the organisation and we have to work very closely with our marketing colleagues, and PR colleagues and sales colleagues.”
Quote from Warren Buckley, MD, Customer Services, BT
It’s Monday morning…
“wtf! [insert your company name here] your service is the worst!!!”
How would you react?
© Foviance 2010 25
Knowing where
your brick wall is
© Foviance 2010 26
Understand your brick wall
•What does ‘openness’ mean for your company?•Do you know how open you want to be? •Do you know how open you can be? Should be? Could be?
•Do you know what your brick walls are?•Do you know where they are?•Where do you put them? •Are your brick walls real, perceived or convenient?
© Foviance 2010 27
Where’s your brick wall?
•‘I’m sorry, we’ve got it wrong, how can I help?’– Integrating traditional, social and mobile channels–Ownership and accountability–Metrics–HR implications–Resourcing & skillset–Definition of a complaint–Where customer service is now provided and who
provides it–Definition of customer service–Definition of the contact centre–All too often the barrier is a personal one: I don’t get it!
28© Foviance 2010
| Course Title| 29
“With an open strategy, decision shifts from if you should be open ... To how open you need to be to accomplish your overall strategic goals.”
Quote from Charlene Li, Being open without giving away the store: The secret is a sandbox
covenant, Altimeter Group
Closing remarks
•Social media is changing the way customers and companies engage with each other
•The use of social media to deliver customer service is at the forefront of this change
•Be clear•Don’t be afraid to make decisions•Create your ‘freedom within a framework’•It’s a cultural shift: Mindset, not toolset: What’s your mindset? How open are you?
© Foviance 2010 30
It’s Monday morning…
“wtf! [insert your company name here] your service is the worst!!!”
•Understanding your culture so you know how you would react before you are forced to react
© Foviance 2010 31
Thank you for your time today
Guy StephensTwitter: @guy1067Mobile: 07795 387 366Email: [email protected]
32© Foviance 2010