Bring The Noise: Social Media and Contact Centres

8/7/2019 Bring The Noise: Social Media and Contact Centres

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ring the noiseSocial media transforms the business feedback loop and contact centres geared up

to deliver customer service through these channels will leave their competitors in

the digital dust, Keith Newman tells why we should listen up.

T ele commu nic atio ns R ev ie w F eb ru ar y 2 0 ~1



New Zealand .eusinesses have been

slow to tune into the next big

trend in marketing and customer

(are: the social media buzz, which enables

more Intimate erlgagement with the online

€0mmunity about p roduct s, s er v ic e levels

ami brandinq. And the warning is t hat if

companies aren't aware of what's being said

about them on Facebook, Twitter, blog sites,

wikis and chat channels. escalating problems

and marketing opportunities will result in lost

business and credibility.

Rather than waiting for the next customer

service operator to become avaiiable to a

soundtrack of bad on-hold music.disqrurttled

€0nsumers are rapidly turning to social media

('Mar'1f1elsto air their frustrations.

Pion.eer.ing New Zealand social media

rnarketinq and communications consultant

Courtney Lambert, SHySsoeial media as part

of the call centre is "the big white elephant in

the room" thatno-one really wants to

talk about.

Whi le there's plenty of ciscussion around

social media for marketing, advertisinq and

PR , few enterprise tech teams are being asked

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24 Jan

@Orcon thanks for the fast response. Looks like twitter is the way 0

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to integrate the new listening and reporting

tools into helpdesk and customer care.

Lambert says business structures have

remained fairly static since the late 1950s

with marketing, communications, P R , call

centre and 'human resources operating as

separate divisions.

" Ihereneed s to be clarit y on

how to hand le commercial,

regulatoryl product, business

s tra tegy and customer~ - ,,~ "mqulr les . .

"That 's not how customers are interact ing;

they don't care about all the departments and

how your company is structured, they just

want an answer to their problems."

She says applying social networking

elements to call centres requires changes

to organisational design. Outward facing

departments have to share information and

report more closely and internal appl icat ions

have to be more transparent or the processes

won't hold.

Like good marketing, sales an d customer

support strategies, ernbracinq social

networking requires planning, resourcing and

preferably an interdepartmental brain:storming

session to ensure everyone has buy in.

"Companies are becoming their own

media organisations so you have to ask

"who is t he editor?" Who is making sure

quali ty is maintained? If everyone is act inC!j

like their own private publishers, talking om

behalf of the company, it'll be a shambles,"

warns Lambert.

More than marketing

Last year the Orcon marketing team,

managing the internet provider's Twitter

account, faced an increase in the number of

technical questions and realised their role was

better suited to the contact centre team. New

staff were added and the company began

using Tweetdeck and tools to enable multiple

people to manage an account.

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hief executive Scott Bartlett says it's

bout being in the space where people are

nd that's the best way to help manage

scalations and disseminate information.

Twitter isn't a substitute for phone calls, it'svalue-add for our customers," says Bartlett.

ding social networking to the mix shows

y ou a re listening. "People want to be

istened to, and in our business It's vital we

ear what they are saying and respond."

ssentially Bqrtlett says you get out what you

t ln. "In theory 50cia I media is (heap but it

lot of time and requires businesses to

ree up time to respond."

nly five ygars ago, he says, it was hardo find out what people thought of your

ompany, or your brand. "You had to

ommission research that cost a bundle. Now,

listen to what they are saying online. It's

great barometer of how you are doing, as

eople ,are quick to speak their mind online';

artlett sees Twitter as a quick and efficient

ay to get a snapshot of what people think

and to gain feedback on marketing plans,

but it has to be done properly as part of a

conversation. "You use social media as a one-

way marketing tool at your own risk."

II Making web site

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s ~earcbable

s o p e o p le c a n fi n d th i r l g s

I e a s il y i s a . g o o d f i r s t step in

, e n c o u ra g in g self help b u t th e

H o ly G r a il i s to get people

h e lp in g e a c h o th e r . "

Courtney Lambert

RightNow Technologies, in a recent survey

of Austral ian and New Zealand businesses,

claimed the web, social media and contact

centres could help address the high level

of attrition occurring through poor

customer experience.

Industries facing the greatest churn

were travel, f inance, insurance,

telecommunications, uti li ties, online retailers

and ISPs.Although bad service had caused

61 % of New Zealand customers to remove

business following a negative customerexper ience, i ronically many stayed loyal

because they had a low expectation of

competitors.

More than half of New Zealand respondents

(63%) actively used social networking sites

and 23% had withheld business after seeing

social web commentary on how customers

were treated.

RightNow's Director of International

Influencer Relat ions Jo BTealy, warns not to

underestimate the social web in shapingconsumer sentiment. Positive di~cussions

were equally as influential in shaping

consumer spending.

While the phone remains the preferred

means of communication, there was a strong

indication more than half of business would

move into social media in 2011 and Brealy

suggests companies refocus some of their

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how quickly, so managers have the rnetrics

to meet their service level agreements (SLAs).

He says a qood system should enable an

agent to switch from public eng,agement

on Twitter to private email and back again,

queue social media messages to dHferent

operators. schedule comments or broadcasts,

and personaliseand qual ity check tweets

before they are posted.

advertising budgets in that direction to

build stronger, experience-based customer

retention strategies.

Kiwis sitting on the fence

In the UK the shift to social media in the

contact centre is now 'business as usual'

but locally, says Rob Parker, Business

Development Manager with software

innovator Datasquirt, most companies are still

t rial ling ahead of choosing the appropr iate

management platform.

Typically that platform would offer a single

view of al l customer interact ions, integrating

social media with voice, email, SMS and fax

Telecommunications Review

communications but only after determining

what kind of interaction was needed.

"We map pilot projects from' a listening

perspective to understand the positive and

negative sentiments about a product or brand

and how to trap and report specific social

media content," says Parker.

Datasquirt develops APls (application

programming interfaces) to integrate existing

customer facing tools with blogs, YouTube,

Facebook or Twitter feeds and adds listening

tools for relevant social media content.

Parker says contact centres need the same

management controls, service levels and

reporting for social media as they have for

voice, including who is handling what and

It is imperative reporting data is simple and

easy to understand ana that customers are

kept in the loop, This niight be as simple

assettirrq up auto responses for queries or

chat requests outside business hours, 50

customers know when to expect a response.

Social hearing aids

Lambert say'sa test case wil l help determine.

if your structure is geared to support the

outcome, and help determine how SOCIal

media can assist your business.

She suggests ring fenCing a specific project

or area of the business, perhaps around a



He says social media allows for a more

expansive conversation. "A phone call is

very directed while the social media space is

more relaxed and over time we can get more

details from customers and present more

comprehensive solutions."

- - - _ -

. F E A " J i U R E .

sponsorship, a campaign or event rather than

putting your main brand at risk. For example

creating 'social objects' hasworkedwell for

Cadbury Creme Eggs, NZI State 's Nat ional

Jandal Day Surf Life Savin'g promotion and

Heineken open Tennis.

However she warns some agencies are

overselling expensive listening tools, largely

because there's a big retainer for them.

The real value often has to do with who's

operating them.

"If you don't have an analyst sitting on the

other end, a dashboard will never tell you

who is online, whether they're an inf luential

person or how careful you should be with

your messaging."

And you shouldn't expect all the feedback to

be positive. She says Hel l Pizza was gett ing

bagged last year for the content on its

website. "All people do is complain. They

really need to address that if they want real

value from their social networking."

Tuning in by degree

2degrees has a team of three people

monitoring social media feeds with tools to

pick up any mention of their name, even if it

relates to the temperature in colder parts ofthe world. Contact Centre Manager Richard

Fuli, says social media is a vital component of

helping and informing customers but it can

be a struggle unless key stakeholders agree

Or:! how to work together and ensure the right

systems and internal support are in place.

There needs to be clarity on how to handle

commercial , regulatory, product, business

strategy and customer inquiries. "It's a much

more honest and inclusive chanhel. We run

tight processes and it really does hold us

accountable for certain measurements."

"A lthouq h bad service had

caused 61 % of New Zealand

cus tome rs to remove business

ta l.lowing a nega tive cus tome r

experience, ironically many

stay ed loy al because theyhad a low expectation of

competito rs . "

The compariy took advice from Facebook

users - it currently has more than 50,000

fans -ahead of its launch last year and is

about to expand its use of monitoring and

management tools.

Fuli says it's important to diversify in order

to understand and appreciate the changing

behaviour of customers as they move from

voice to smarter channels. "If you don't,

you risk losing contact and the opportunity

to develop stronger and more intimate

relationships."

Smooth operators

As ambassadors at the front line of corporate

culture, contact centre agents need to

know how social media communities work

and how this relates to changing customer

relationships.

Written word skills are more important, as is

knowing how to interpret and defuse online

tension. Awareness of whether journalists are

picking up on a story angle, or .awareness thatrival companies might be able~to capitalise on

your misfortunes, is imperative.

Scott Bartlett from Orcon says agents require

patience, maturity and common sense: "A

number of Kiwi companies have been drawn

into online arguments that are publicly

broadcast to thousands of followers, which is

not a good look."

He says social media is like being in a crowded

bar. "There's always someone expressing their

opinions more loudly than everyone else. A

wise man wilJlisten for a while, but not get

involved in a shouting match."

Lambert says making web site

communications searchable so people can

find things easily is a good first step in

Call: 0800 Zeacom

Email: [email protected]

Sort out your business

communicati.ons quickly and

easiIy with Zeacom.

We understand Contact Centres and

Unified Communications. It's what we do.

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FEATURE

encouraging self help but the Holy Grail is to

get people helping each other: "It works well

on the Vodafone Forum where housewives

are giving each other advice on how to install

modems. However they have about eight

people using a fairly sophist icated social

media programme and listening tools and

they try to integrate this into their marketing."

In the US she says there's a growing trend

towaf€l 'hyper-local reporting' with people

commenting on and updating news items

usimg social media. "This is going to put

gr,eater pressure on companies to respond to

issues mere quickly."

Lambert says smart companies should be

watching f® F hot points so they know when

to escalate to the PRdepartment to get a

statement released that informs people and

takes the sting out of difficult situations.

She's concerned at the inability of many

organisat ions to understand the messaging

and communications risks' and nervous

that the debate locally is still occurring at a

technology level.

16 Telecommunicat ions Review February 2011I

While 'digital natives' fresh from university

might think they know inherently aboutsocial

media and can drive the apps with ease, it

could be quite Inflammatory if they're put in a

"Y ou h ad to co mm iss io n

re se arc h th at c os t a bund l e .

N o w , y ou lis te n to w h at they

a re sayinqonline, It 's a g re at

b arome ter of how you are

d oin g, as p eo ple a re q uick to

sp eak th eir m in d online."

Scott Bartlett

position where they're advisinq executives or

dealing with media issues. If there's a power

outage in Aucklar id or an internetprovider 's

service is down, hundreds of people might be

talking about this online.

"Some companies are hiring graduates with

no communications experience to manage

their social media presence and they're

getting flamed. At the other extreme you can

have people who are too technical and don't

know how to communicate simply."

While corporates such as Telecom have

been very protective of their public profile

and selective of those deemed allowed to

make comments, social networking creates

a huge area of vulnerability. The risk is that

any employee, more often those in junior

positions, may let-slip a comment about

what's happening at a strategic enterprise

level that could be picked up by a journalist

watching Twitter, which raises some complex

ethical and HR issues.

"I don't see a Lot of people in marketing

and communications asking what the

messaging and media risk is and who should

be the spokesperson. Technical people

don't have the unders~anding about media

communications and bow stories get 'broken"

Once senior managers get involved iMthis

discussion it terrifies them."



Op po rtu n it ie s a nd r is ks

An ad hoc approach to integrating social

networking canbea recipe for disaster but

failing to recognise the opportunities at call

centre level could seemany businessesleft

behind in the digital dust.

In an age where.marketing and anti-spamregulations make it increasingly difficultto

massmail existing and potential customers,

social media provides an opportunity to

expand the conversation and deepen the

relationship.

The challenge isto do your homework,

improve interdepartmental communications

and outward facin.gstrategies, and at

the very least differentiate their customer

relationships at a time when there's a

growing online backlashaqainst poor service

and sub-standard products,

With the right management and monitoring

tools, social media enabled contact

centres will not Gilly help address on-

hold frustrations but significantly improve

responsivenessasan integral part of the

runaway feedback loop now being driven by

tech savvycustomers. E C I

T h e A lc a te l-Lu c en t G en e sy s So c ia l M e dia St ra te g y e n co u ra g e s

e n te rp r:is e s to c o n str uc t a n in te g ra te d s o c ia l m e d ia a p p ro a ch th a t

b u ild s a n fo u r a c tio n s :

1) Ca p tu re a n d le ve r a g e community I t r ib a l k no w le dg e to g a in va lu ab le

in s ig h t in to c on s um e r s en tim e n ts a bo u t p ro d uc ts , s e rvic es a nd e m o tio n al

e n g ag e m en t w ith th e b ra n d .

2) . - De fin e a n d p r io r i t is e w h a t a c t io n s to ta k e to w a rd th e c o m mu n ity .

in d ivid u al p o sts o r w ith in th e e n te rp ris e .

3) - • . Pro c e e d w ith r e le va n t a c t io n s to re s p o n d , in fo l 'm a n d n o t ify

in d ivid u als a s a pp ro p ria te w h ile fo cu s in g re so u rc es o n censumers o f p a r ti c u la r

va lu e to th e c om p an y.

4)' •• - ~ In te g ra te c o n ve r s a t io n s a c ro s s m ark e t in g a n d eustemer s e r v i c e

o rg a nis at io n s a nd o th e r to u ch p o in ts w h ile le ve ra g in g e xp e rt is e across th e

b ro ad e r e n te rp ris e a n d e xis tin g IT in ve stm e n ts .

a sn e t T e Gh n o lo g ie s

Chao ' sa Po lycom ...a n d w a tc h y o u r b u s in e s s s a ve t im e , c u t t ra ve l c o s t

a n d Lift p r o d u c tivity . Po Ly c om vid e o c o n fe re n c in g

n etw o rk s a llo w o n-d em a nd m e et in gs in h ig h d efin it io n ,

w ith a n yo ne , a n yw h ere , a t a n yt im e .

~ P<u LYCQ IV rF re ep h on e 0800 P O L Y C O M o r vis it w ww . a s n e t t e c . h n o l o g i e s . c o . n z

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Bring The Noise: Social Media and Contact Centres