Allow the Social Channel to Break Down Contact Center Walls

American author, Dr. Maya Angelou expressed an important sentiment that everyone in customer experience should deeply understand. She believed that:

This is true for many organizations that respond to negative customer postings on social sites and engage customers in a positive way to not only remedy their problem but also make the customer feel valued.  This is very important to providing great customer experience because customers stay loyal to brands that connect with them on an emotional level.

To connect with customers – brands must do business with a customer the way they want and that means organizations need an omni-channel presence, tracking interactions and using customer insight to make meaningful business decisions across the enterprise.

Why is Social Listening Important?

In a recent industry survey we conducted, 67% of respondents didn’t know what customers had said about them on social channels in the last hour. Because they lack a social listening tool, they not only miss out on leveraging positive customer reviews but also leave themselves open to a public relations crisis.

Let’s take a look at the British Airways story, where British Airways lost a business man’s luggage. He then tried contacting the airline’s customer service department with no resolution. To retaliate, he purchased promoted tweets targeting British Airways 302,000 followers. Eight hours went by before British Airways responded.

They not only lost him as a customer, but they also took a hit to their brand reputation.

Enterprise Wide Social Vision

With this said – we as organizations need to move from trying to manage customers to meeting their needs with an accurate and frictionless experience.  The data we get from social interactions alone can help…

• marketing teams segment and refine messaging so that it’s relevant and meaningful
• sales representatives upsell or cross sell based on customer segments and SLA priority  
• service route customers to the right agent

We learned while interviewing customers on the San Francisco streets that customers want to be communicated with in a personalized way and find value in organizations using data to provide them information that is helpful to their daily lives.

Further – brands that were able to provide meaningful content and possessed shared ideologies were considered to be part of the customer’s social circle. Patagonia was one such brand that was sited as “really cool” and aligning with customer’s ideals about environmental responsibility to the point that the customer enjoyed seeing Patagonia ads within her Facebook feed. Patagonia positions themselves as a friend to customers by being relatable and sharing content that customers identify with. 

While the value of leveraging social within an organization is undeniable, the only way we can leverage social listening to truly transform customer experience is to make sure it’s owned by entities across marketing, sales and service. Currently, over 60% of organizations only house social in marketing, communications or PR and do little if anything with the customer insight gained from listening.

With proper planning and organizational change, social media can be a channel that increases customer loyalty and revenue. 

Learn More About Social Listening & Response