USE OFSOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

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WHY BRANDS SHOULD USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE AT CUSTOMER SUPPORT

ON SOCIAL MEDIA

HOW E-COMMERCE BRANDS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

HOW BFSI BRANDS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

HOW THE INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY IS USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

WHY BRANDS SHOULD USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

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It is an undeniable fact that most people prefer to use social media for marketing their brands. But a lot of them overlook the fact that social media can also be an effective channel for customer support. While competitors outrun another for customer loyalty through innumerable offers and price cut downs, I wonder why are they ignoring the most popular channel of communication today.

They tend to forget that social media is a communication channel where people do voice their complains and queries instead of merely consuming marketing content. Let me take you through some important reasons on why brands should immediately embrace the process of customer support strongly on social media:

1.Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

There is more to customer service than meets the eye. Customer service is not just addressing issues of your customers. It is a means to satisfy them and earn their loyalty. A customer’s loyalty to a brand depends a lot on how the brand listens to them and addresses their concerns.

Their willingness to satisfy the customer creates a positive impression in the mind of the grieving customer. However, ignoring customer concerns and dissatisfying them can lead to them switching over to your competitors. As you can see below, the person ported to Vodafone since his complaints were unresolved.

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This attrition can only be thwarted if you address their issues at the earliest. Social media gives you an opportunity to reach out to your aggrevied customers at the earliest so they have a positive experience with your brand. This positive experience, in turn, ensures their loyalty.

By its very nature, social media is sharable. Friends, friends of friends and families get into conversations, driving interaction about a certain topic and sharing it on various social media platforms. And at times, such topics become viral in nature. And more often than not, brands get caught in a negative buzz on social media.A small complaint goes unnoticed and before the brand can realize, everyone in the world is talking about it. Who can forget the Audi crisis that spread like wildfire because of an influencer in the social media ecosystem! Vishal Gondal, an Audi owner left his car in the garage only to find it speeding across the streets of Mumbai. What was next! A discussion on social media that the brand could not control!

2.Social Media is Viral in Nature:

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After 3 long hours the brand replied, losing out on effective social media customer service. On the other hand, BMW was socially savvy to take the opportunity to offer Vishal Gondal a mini cooper as a comfort car for a few days.

If they had a customer support backup ready on Facebook or Twitter, the luxury brand would not have managed to tarnish its image. Tracking your digital discussions and getting your customer support team to join together in this, will ensure that negative talk does not go viral while positive talk does.

Ignoring social media does not mean people are not talking about your brand there. Conversations go on regardless of your presence. Stirring up negative talk on social media is hot. People love to complain, knowing that there are a bunch of friends they are spreading the message to.

3.Whether you’re online or not, people will talk about you

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Not having an online presence is more harmful since you are not even aware of whats buzzing. For example HDFC bank hardly addresses customer issues. However, talks are doing the rounds about its poor service and I wonder if the brand is even aware of it.

Another example that we can look at is Beam Fiber. The brand has simply abandoned addressing customer issues on its Facebook page.

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4.Social Media is the Most Convenient Way for People to Complain TodayGetting on a call and dialling the IVRS can be the most horrific experiences for people. Most of the times, the caller is kept waiting for hours which results into a frustrating experience for him/her. In comparison, logging onto social media and tweeting a complaint is much easier and a faster process.

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As you can see, Airtel users are more inclined towards complaining on social media. They don’t want to go through the painful process of calling a helpline number. This can be also be looked upon as an advantage by the brands since quick redressal of issues on a platform of customer’s choice will definitely make them happy. Moreover, using technology to help you address customer issues will ensure that it gets resolved faster.

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5.Customers understand the power of social networks more than brands doWhether we like it or not, the amount of control that brands can have over conversations on social media channels is practically non-existent. Customers are aware that if brands ignore their requests on voice, email or sms, they can always turn to Facebook or Twitter and vent all their frustration.

Not to mention the fact that they probably have hundreds of online friends who are listening to what they are complaining about. As a brand, you can either stand helpless and stay offline. Or come online and try to communicate with them and negate the entire issue. You don’t want to be the talk of the town just because a customer (with hundreds of online friends) had a small issue that you couldn’t resolve.

It is a fact! Social Media has far reaching effects and at the same time is one of the most cost effective methods of marketing. A good tool and a team of a few people can be used to set up customer service for social media. Moreover, it helps you map your customers as well.

Social media gives you a good picture of your customer so as to help you serve him/her better.The wealth of data generated on social media can be a goldmine for a customer response team for they have all the requisite information about the customer before they can go ahead and rectify their problem.

When you as a brand successfully resolve customer issues on Facebook or Twitter, you can expect the customer to talk positive about you. The more you provide positive experience to people on social media, the more people will talk about you. And as I had mentioned, social media being sharable in nature, more people will come to know about your brand.

For instance a lady complaint on Facebook regarding an unpleasant experience and Jet airways replied within a day. When the user read this, a feeling generated in him/her that the brand addresses public concerns and cares about their customer.

6.Social media is cost effective

7.Addressing issues in public can be good for the brand

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Brands must use social media for customer support considering that today customer convenience lies online. You are in a better position to influence your customer to renew a service, take up an offer and drive social sales.

A fast turnaround process of response to complaints and queries can enhance image building. Addressing angry tweets and bad reviews with quality justification on a public platform will showcase that you care about your customer and are willing to change his/her experience. While you have service centres, galleries, toll free numbers and mail addresses set up, make social a way of life for your brand. For customer satisfaction and loyalty, there is no better place than social media.

A customer communication channel built on social media is bound to create a buzz for your brand. What do you think? Are brands doing a fair job? Is their lack of technology support the reason why they are unable to do an efficient job with customer support on social media? Would love to know your thoughts.

Conclusion

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HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE AT CUSTOMER SUPPORT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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While having a good marketing strategy on Social Media is important, you should not ignore it as an effective channel for customer support.

I had discussed in detail about the importance of social media customer support in my previous column and I would suggest that you give it a read before moving ahead.

Once you have realized why you need a dedicated customer support strategy for social media, you must find a way to execute it. You must know how to go about being effective with your customer service on social media.

In today’s column, I will be taking you through all the aspects that can make your social media customer support strategy a success.

1.Monitor complaints constantlyCustomer Service begins the moment a customer shares a complaint or a query about your product/service. On social media, tracking these complaints is essential. Direct complaints are usually posted on your brand’s Facebook wall or in the comments and could also be a tweet mentioning your Twitter handle. However, there are complaints which need to be searched for. Your handle won’t be mentioned every time.

As a customer centric brand, you should always be on the lookout for such complaints. Using an effective tool is what I would strongly suggest.

The below screenshot is a classic example for a brand missing out on a person’s complaint just because of poor monitoring.

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If only Tata Docomo had kept its ears open and had been actively monitoring complaints, it would not have missed out on this tweet.

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2.Swift response is what countsAs soon as you come across a complaint, you have to be quick with your first response. One of the most important metric of measuring customer service success on social media is the average response time a brand takes to respond to queries and complaints.

Not responding in a timely manner will put you across as a deaf brand, which will lead to a disgruntled customer. So your first step is to assure them that their complaint has been heard.

Customer Support department in an organization should be closely integrated with other departments for smooth flow of information. A speedy response requires a well planned out workflow protocol.

3.Effective workflow: Flow of information within a team should be effective

In a recent report by Unmetric, Tata Nano topped in the automobile sector when it came to responding to customer queries on Facebook. It responded to people within a minute while luxury brands like BMW and Audi took more than half an hour to even acknowledge the receipt of complaint.

For instance a user asked Jet Airways a question related to the operations department, probably while on the flight. Within 3 hours, the airlines replied. However, if there was a more efficient flow of information, a faster response time could have been ensured.

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4.Resolve the issues ASAP

Taking your own sweet time to resolve a customer’s complaint can land you in a situation where the complaint has already become the talk of the town. Social media being viral in nature, drives instant conversations that can adversely affect your brand value. The faster you resolve the issue, the sooner the negative conversations will die down.

It is a known fact that people love using the social medium to complain. And there may be few instances where these complaints often have rude undertones. But as a brand, you must be patient in resolving the issue. Losing your calm on a public platform can injure your online reputation.

Opening up social media for customer support will lead to whole lot of planning and protocols. Unlike traditional customer support, addressing of queries on social media is public. Guidelines need to be set, content needs to be approved and a certain code of conduct has to be in place before taking on customer service.

This is one of the most important aspect of your brand and you do not want to get this wrong. The type of responses that will go through the brand account should be planned meticulously. Haphazard responses can lead to a permanent damage to your brand image.

The customer support and marketing team must be well trained in order to avoid mistakes. What is once published on social media cannot be undone. People read tweets, posts and updates at an express speed and make sure they respond to it too. In this situation if the team is not well trained to take the conversations ahead, it could result in negative publicity.

5.Be patient – People on social media can be rude

6.Must have protocols

7.Train the customer support/marketing team

I would suggest that you take your customer service team through a workshop where you make them understand the responsibility of handling social media queries. Handling queries on social media is a lot different from tele support.

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8.Be Pro-active In Disseminating InformationSocial media is a great platform to broadcast information that your customers can find useful. And you must equip yourself with tools that help you schedule, broadcast and analyze your customer centric updates.

Having a planned outage in the coming week? Schedule an update in advance to inform your users about it beforehand. Your goal should be to minimize the reliance of people on your support team by estimating their needs before it crops up.

If you want to handle complaints on social media in the most efficient manner, use technology. Social media is always brimming with conversations and you can’t handle it manually. You will need a good tool that helps your mine mentions and respond to them in the fastest way possible.

9.Use technology to support deliveryThe technology should also equip you with an effective workflow solution so that assigning tasks and monitoring them is easier for you. Brands in service sectors face a barrage of complaints every day and to deal with them in the most effective manner, you must back yourself with a reliable tool.

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10.Integrate social media customer support with offline customer support

Your social media customer support should be integrated with offline customer support as they are better equipped to handle a complaint. While the social media team can constantly monitor and track complaints or queries online, the responses can be suggested by the offline team.

Since the offline customer support is already trained in dealing with such complaints, the scope for double effort is reduced.

11.Build a profile of the customer

If you want to help a customer, you must have all the information about him/her handy with you. You need to understand that person’s personality and communicate in a way that will win his/her confidence. Apart from their phone number and email ID, you must have their social media profiles with you as well.

Moreover, having a list of their previous conversations with your brand will also give you a good perspective on how to approach their current complaint.

12.Track and close complaints

Once your receive a complaint, you must follow it closely till the time it is resolved. They must not be left unanswered. On a public platform there are other brands that can take advantage of a complaint or other users who can suggest better products or services. If you fail to close complaints, your customer support will be incomplete.

In the following example, the user tweeted using the Twitter handles of both Sony and Dell. However, Sony replied and tried to close the complaint before Dell could take advantage of it.

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13.Assess team’s performance regularly

The customer service team of a brand is its voice on social media. But is the team doing enough to make sure that people are happy and loyal to it? Are the team members addressing customer issues on time? Are they able to resolve the complaints quickly?

The supervisor of the team must keep a check on the activities of all the team members in order to improve their efficiency and reduce the turnaround time. The supervisor must assess the team’s performance to make sure that there are no disgruntled customers at the end of the day.

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ConclusionWhile content creates customer loyalty and increases engagement, customer service on the other hand builds trust and satisfaction in a customer. However, most brands overlook this aspect. It should instead be regarded as one of the most important ways of communication with your customer. The customer wants to talk with you, so your job is to listen to him patiently and resolve his issues.

Hope this gives you a clearer picture about how you can be good with your social media customer support. If you have any questions or opinions to share, you can mention them in the comments below.

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HOW E-COMMERCE BRANDS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

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The e-commerce industry has significantly swelled in the last couple of years. Belonging to the e-world, these companies have efficiently expanded their reach on social networking platforms. One of the key roles includes tapping the potential use of Social Media for Customer Support

Based on the popularity, I have assessed six leading e-commerce portals and analyzed how competently they are using customer support on different platforms in the last couple of months. Flipkart, Myntra, Homeshop18, Jabong, Snapdeal, Ebay India, Make my Trip, Yatra and Naaptol have a sizeable crowd within their social communities. Facebook and Twitter tend to be the virtual social hangouts for these brands, more often than not, encountering various complaints and queries.

Social Media has acquired the reputation of being a swift customer service channel and brands are now beginning to acknowledge this fact.

1.The kind of queries brands get

The brands usually have more complaints than queries on both Facebook and Twitter. The most common complaints of all the e-commerce portals are related to unfulfilled orders. Usually, customers are frustrated due to untimely shipping routines of these companies, demanding an explanation to justify delayed response from the brands customer support on mail or phone. Their next move is to turn to social media in a hope that their redressals will be addressed.

Other than product complaints, queries such as shipping limitations, shipping time, exchange policy and website technical errors are raised. Jabong however is one brand which does not allow customer posting on the wall. It has specially created a tab and named it Feedback, where users can leave their queries. The brand manages this application in a very haphazardly fashion. The response timings are vary and the responses to the queries too have a standard reply.

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A few days back, a customer posted a very valuable suggestion on the application which was replied to after 5 days in a template sentence format. The brand could have certainly received more interaction, had this been on Twitter or the Facebook wall. The response too could have been more welcoming and interactive. However, since the team handling gifting might not be connected with social media, it is uncertain whether this message will even make it to the department.

Some days back, Yatra website had some technical gliches. A user posted a statement on Twitter, that could be damaging to the brands reputation.Though Yatra was tweeting about the technical error, it failed to respond to this particular user. In future if people come across this tweet, it will put the website authenticity to doubt.

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2.How often they respond and their response time

E-commerce brands tend to be selective while choosing to respond to incoming complaints on Facebook and Twitter. While Flipkart, being the market leader responds the most to complaints and queries, Snapdeal and Homeshop18 do not bother, both on Facebook and Twitter. Although responding is definitely the first step towards successful customer support, the response time is a very important metric too.

Flipkart uses a separate twitter handle @flipkartsupport to deal with customer service. Though it responds most, it takes the longest time to reply. The average response time (ART) of the brand is 12 hours, which is detriment to the brand value. For instance, a user complained about late arrival of products and Flipkart worsened the effect by delaying the response by a whole day.

However, there are times, when the brand has conveniently chosen to ignore complaints, posted on the Facebook wall.

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3.What is their first response

Most brands begin the conversation by conveying an apology to pacify the troubled customer. After this, they usually ask for the order number which can be sent to the concerned department. Apart from Flipkart and Myntra, e-commerce brands stop at the first response and do not encourage public discussion of the same. HomeShop18 has maximum unsolved complaints which are limited to the first response. Though the customer has provided all the details that are needed to solve the query, the brand has failed to respond with helpful data.

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Myntra on the other hand begins with apologizing, follows it up with a number for assistance and successfully closes the complaint.

MakemyTrip.com has a separate Twitter handle @MakeMyTripCare which addresses complaints on Twitter. However, their response is almost robotic with no sympathy for the customer. For example in the below posts, the customer is clearly defining his complaint, however, the brand is further frustrating the customer by delaying any definite response. If the department handling the Payback partnership with Make My Trip was roped in, the issue could have been solved on Twitter itself.

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Naaptol too for instance has standard template lines which give rise to distrust in a brand. A user has posted a complaint where another user has posted the same complaint. The brand has failed to close the complaints. Everytime a user looks at this post, it will give rise to distrust and spoils the brand image. Its almost like an incomplete story.

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On Social Media, innovation is all it takes to achieve successful results. E-commerce brands should use a tool that links their regular customer’s social ids to the registered email ids. This will enable the customer support team to identify the order number immediately by looking at the Facebook id or Twitter handle, making the tracking process one step simpler, at least for all the repeat buyers. This fastens the response and resolving time.

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4.Their overall approach to customer support on social mediaCreating separate Twitter handles, has helped Flipkart, MakemyTrip and Myntra to let a team of customer support executives lead the supervision of complaints and queries. This is a smart strategy since their main Twitter handle can be conversational with other users. The main Twitter handle is usually led by an agency or an in house social media team. It is important for brands to understand that customer support on social media is completely different from creating social conversations. Therefore, it is easier to allocate 2 different Twitter handles to different set of teams.

On Facebook, Jabong and Myntra have adopted the use of customer support through an application. However, Jabong has closed its wall for user posting which is unacceptable. I also came across complaints from users where they had accused Jabong from deleting grievance posts.

Overall, the brands do not have a customer support strategy tying it back to the contact centre. While some issues are solved, most of them are ignored due to lack of integration between the two sides.

Snapdeal for instance ignored tweets after tweets, where a user demanded for explanation related to a certain order.

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5.Their average turnaround time in resolving an issueThe average turnaround time of most brands in resolving an issue is 2 days, though this is applicable only to Flipkart and Myntra. Jabong and HomeShop18 as mentioned use standard lines and leave it at that. The worst turnaround time in resolving an issue is taken by Ebay India. It is clearly visible that the customer support on social media platforms has no links to the offline departments. Since, they repeatedly enquire about order ids and never take the conversation ahead from there.

6.How to improve customer support strategy over social mediumCustomer Support Strategy should aim at complete satisfaction of the customer. It should ensure that an unhappy customer turns into a loyal customer, hence activating a brand endorser. Three imperative points need to be put to action in any customer support strategy.

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A lot of queries surround product information, sales, events and website policies. Today it is a best practice to provide contact centres the ability to automatically identify, prioritize and route targeted customer service-related social media to the right contact centre agent and measure the effectiveness of their response. Measures that help reduce turnaround time in resolving an issue.

Some conversations are not basic and need process/vertical/product specific expertise. Your contact centre agents should be empowered to handle such conversations depending on agent skill set thus ensuring continuity of discussion as well fast response thereby reducing the average response time.

One individual should be appointed to continuously track brand mentions on popular social networking sites. Many times, complaints are not directly aimed at brands by tweeting their handle or posting on the wall. It could also be in the form of a status update.

To make the whole process simpler and well-organized, using technology is apt. A tool that helps you put in order every step starting from tracking and monitoring complaints, swiftly responding to them, closing complaints, coordinating between departments as well as tracking the performance of the team can be extremely useful and increase the productivity of the company.

Lastly, embed your customer support policy via social medium into your overall contact centre will complete the formation of a customer support strategy.

Expert View by Jayanta Bhattacharjee, Marketing Manager, India, SAARC and Middle East at Aspect Software – A leading provider of fully-integrated customer interaction management, workforce optimization, and back-office solutions.

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As contact centre become the center of the multi-channel customer contact activity organizations need to have the discipline to be able to solve customer’s issues over social sphere by extending the contact centre into the social medium. Today customer support strategy can’t be restricted to simply monitoring social media conversations on marketing campaigns or promotions on the social web, and sometimes responding to them. However, as customers increasingly turn to social networks for customer service response interaction, organizations need to embrace social media as a vital, two-way channel that can amplify their ability to deliver a differentiated customer experience by converting unhappy customer turns into a loyal customer, thereby activating a brand endorser.

Integration with the contact centre as well as CRM systems, knowledge bases and communities gives a more comprehensive view into the customer and provide contact centre agents with necessary information to provide a faster and smarter response. Additionally providing specific tools and capabilities by empowering contact centre agents and supervisors to not only identify and track changes in sentiment but also the ability to answer customer requests and proactively inform social consumers of events, issues, promotions or even changes (i.e. new service number or email) when they need it through their channel of choice, minimizing repetitive requests.

Disclaimer: The views of the expert are his own views and not of the company.

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HOW BFSI BRANDS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

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Banking, financial services and insurance brands have expressed an inclination towards social media late in the day after being apprehensive of its significance. However, they have coped very well and ensured a tight grip on social platforms. This shift in the mindset among brands with regards to social media has bought in a sense of camaraderie between BSFI brands and socially driven virtual institutions.

In India, apart from crunching numbers, there are a lot of other benefits that social media has on offer. One of the major benefits includes customer support on these public platforms. There are many advantages to offering customer support publicly, if executed efficiently. I have picked a few brands within this sector to study their customer support strategies.

These include ICICI, Axis, HDFC, Kotak, SBI, IDBI, Federal and Yes bank among banks and ING Vysya, Bajaj Alliance and Birla Sunlife Insurance among Insurance companies.

1.The kind of queries brands getIt is extremely disappointing to see leading banks like ICICI, Axis, Kotak, IDBI and Yes bank have not opened their wall to customer posting, and are still on a one way communication basis on a social media channel which was designed for two way communication. Overall, banks get queries related to their ATM services, banking services and customer complaints.

HDFC bank on the other hand has more queries related to banking services than complaints, and these queries are being handled very well by the brand. Replies are made very fast, customer issues are being resolved immediately, both on Facebook and Twitter. What the bank has done, is that they have included the name of the customer support employee at the end of the comment, increasing authenticity and pacifying the customer.

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Federal Bank too receives a lot of queries, and not too many complaints. Though the bank replies to concerns, they miss out on certain queries as well, showing a lack of efficient customer support on social media.

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The Insurance sector on the other hand, has barely begun to take baby steps on social media. Bajaj Allianz, among the three is more active than the others. Though it has not opened its page to user posting yet, it receives queries and complaints through comments.

On Twitter too, Bajaj Allianz is the only insurance brand that is active and addressing customer queries.

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2.How often they respond and their response timeOverall, banks are ignorant towards their customers and do not respond frequently. On Facebook and Twitter, among all the banks, HDFC bank replies the fastest within an average ART (average response time) of 5 hours.

On Twitter, @ICICIBank_Care, @HDFCBank_Care, @AxisBankSupport and @SBIconnex are separate handles created by the bank to address customer queries. They respond to customer queries frequently and are more competent than the rest of the banks.

On an average, the other banks respond to customer queries within a day.

3.What is their first response

While ICICI does not have any outlet, customers chose comments to get rid of their frustration. Although ICICI replies to each one of them, the replies are more template based lines and are never closed. This increases distrust in the mind of other users when they read the comments.

Kotak Bank has a customer support application where users can post their complaints and queries. However, this tab does not have a single post. Users have instead complained through comments and Kotak has only one standard line to address these concerns. It replies to most comments only once, without closing the complaint or bothering to reply back.

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Most other banks have standard template lines as mentioned above. It is the same with the Insurance companies as well. For instance, have a look at how Bajaj Allianz has replied to every query.

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Brands must understand that customer support on Social Media should not be limited to template lines. The team should be well equipped with regard to responding to complaints and queries on the social platforms itself.

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4.Their overall approach to customer support on social media

BSFI brands are taking cognizance of the fact that their presence on social media is important and cannot be ignored anymore. While banks have begun to take social media marketing more seriously, insurance companies are still yet to make their mark.

The banking approach to customer support looks unorganised at the moment. With standardised responses and no concrete answers to questions posted by users, banks are only executing awfully limited customer support on Facebook and Twitter.

It seems as if there is a fear amidst the banking sector towards negative feedback from users and this explains why most of them have closed their walls to user posting. However, they must understand that they will not be able to prevent negative feedback, because customers will still find ways to get their grievances across–by commenting on Facebook posts, or by tweeting. They need to equip themselves better to deal with these complaints and use it to build trust and customer loyalty.

Also, the complaints or queries are more often than not redirected to either an email address or a toll free number.

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Even for simple questions, where the admin just has to post a link off the internet or answer in a Yes or No, the response is a straight request for an email.

5.Their average turnaround time in resolving an issueThere is no way to determine the average turnaround time these sectors require, because the issues are seldom closed by these brands. Even though ICICI, HDFC and Axis do cater to user complaints, the last response is always a promise to get back to them. It is needless to mention that most of them do not even reply.

Axis bank has a Customer Feedback system on Facebook where customers can rate the bank on its services. Unfortunately, Axis does not bother to reply to any positive or negative feedback there. Most queries are filled with customer complaints which have not been resolved by the bank. As I scrolled to view complaints that were posted earlier in the month to find the slightest trace of any reply, I could find none.

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IDBI closes the complaint by encouraging email communication instead of communicating on Twitter. It took almost 10 days to close the complaint and that too was pushed off to emails.

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6.How they can improve their customer support strategyThe Banking sector needs to immediately ramp up their customer support strategy on Facebook and Twitter. Currently, customer support within this sector is seen as assisting customer queries with a standard response and directing them to further send an email or call on a tollfree number.

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Integrate Twitter within your online banking ecosystem. You can use Twitter instead of online Live chats for banking and service related queries. You can build a customer support team that can execute live chats on Twitter.

The customer support team should be friendly and approachable. It wouldn’t hurt if your customer support executives were made known to online users by using a name to personalize the chat. You could even have a brief discussion about them as an application on Facebook.

Technology is core in Banking. Banks should use the latest tools for supervising superior customer relationship management online. These tools allow you to keep track of complaints, monitor them and even assess the performance of your team. Needless to mention that this increases the turnaround time of the responses. This is a very important metric to measure social media success.

Fearing negative comments does not solve the issue. Firstly, open up your wall so users can post their queries. Secondly, complaints open up the possibility of setting things right and getting genuine feedback. Put a strategy in place to solve these issues and make your service better.

Social Media is like instant noodles. If the right answers are not up within 2-3 minutes, customer service on social platforms is of no use. Online community managers should be well trained to respond to online users at an express speed.

Expert View by Jayanta Bhattacharjee, Marketing Manager, India, SAARC and Middle East at Aspect Software – A leading provider of fully-integrated customer interaction management, workforce optimization, and back-office solutions.

At a time when the global peers have already embraced social media by putting the contact centre at the heart of their customer experience, the Indian Banking Industry, which has shown substantial presence and growth on Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, has its engagement confined to launch of new products, endorsing celebrities, likes, tweets, fan followings and their erstwhile marketing department.

With intensifying competition and lower switching costs, connected and well informed consumer banks needs to make customer experience one of the most compelling differentiators. Below are some of the must dos for banks:

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By extending your erstwhile customer contact centre into the social medium, banks cannot only drive the discipline to be able to solve customer’s issues over social sphere but also use the speed of social marketing to their advantage.

Move away from “listening only syndrome”. Although this is an important activity, banks can’t be restricted to simply monitoring. They must also be involved with social media conversations on marketing campaigns, promotions on the social web or sometimes responding to them. However, as customers increasingly turn to social networks for customer service response interaction, it is imperative for banks to embrace social media as a vital, two-way channel that can amplify their ability to deliver a differentiated customer experience by converting an unhappy customer into a loyal customer, thereby activating a brand endorser in the process.

Disclaimer :The views of the expert are his own views and not of the company.

The ability to integrate bank’s contact centre with CRM systems, knowledge bases and communities will give a more comprehensive view into the customer and provide contact centre agents with necessary information to provide a faster and smarter response.

Don’t shy away from negative comments as they can actually be a great resource to identify product defects or figure out where to improve necessary processes.

Additionally create a social media policy by empowering contact centre agents and supervisors to not only identify and track changes in sentiment but also train these spokespeople in appropriate web etiquette, response times and protocols, enabling them to answer customer requests and proactively inform social consumers of events, issues, promotions or even changes (i.e. new service number or email) when they need it through their channel of choice, minimizing repetitive requests.

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HOW THE INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY IS USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT

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Social Media is one of the easiest ways to maintain a brand rapport within the Telecom industry which constantly indulges in price wars. Given a medium that helps brands connect directly with their consumers, it should have become priority to execute support seamlessly through integrated online channels. However, sadly this is not the case.

The telecom industry in certain aspects does not even fulfill the basics of customer service, leave alone strategies that enable brand loyalty. For my study, I picked the leading players as well as novice to strike a comparison among their social media engineering. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Tata Docomo, Uninor, Aircel, MTS and Loop mobile have their presence on Social Media and I have taken a closer look at individual support services.

1.The Kind of Queries Brands GetCustomers have a lot of queries and complaints regarding the products and services of the brands. These queries are about tariff plans and add-on services. The complaints are mostly related to billing and network issues. Airtel gets the most number of queries and complaints on its Twitter and Facebook accounts with over 40 posts a day. Other brands do not receive so many queries but even if they do, they choose to redirect the customers to a weblink, a toll free number or email address.

Even simple queries which can easily be solved if the representatives are trained to respond get redirected. For instance, a user is asking for a list of latest offers but Docomo chooses to give a weblink instead of checking the link themselves and offering an answer.

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Aircel too does not pay heed to straightforward questions. How much time would it take for Aircel to ask the user to send across the number, or better track the number through the name and deactivate a service. It should not take more than 15 minutes if the executive is trained to do so.

2.How often they Respond and their response time

Most brands do not respond on Facebook and only some respond on Twitter. Aircel and MTS have even closed their page for user posting. The comments section of every brand on my list is brimming with conversation that is damaging the brand reputation and the brands simply do not care. A huge list of complaints against Idea Celullar has gone unanswered on Facebook.

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The response time of the brands on Facebook is an average of 2 days. While Airtel is the fastest at 4 hours, Uninor takes upto 3 days. This is a lot of time for a medium like Social Media where response time is one of the most important metrics to measure success. A very casual attitude comes across among all telecom brands while analyzing their customer support strategy.

On Twitter, again Airtel responds the fastest within an average time of 8 hours while Uninor takes over 2 days.

3.What is their first responseTemplate lines are all you will find if you scout through the social media pages of these brands. It is unbelievable how brands can use standard lines while replying to the most basic question. It should be understood that users have tried the traditional methods of calling and emailing and are tweeting to get a faster response. Airtel surely replies the fastest and the most out of all brands but all it responds with is repeated lines. Aircel and Reliance Communications too follows suit.

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Vodafone too does not take customer service seriously on social media. The user below has only raised a concern regarding the fact that he does not have the customer contact number. Vodafone has clearly not even read the query and copy pasted the line used above within half an hour of first contact. They have done the same thing on Twitter.

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There is a classic case of Loop mobile not replying to a customer and the customer has posted a damaging reply to every user complaint post that. Unfortunately, Loop mobile still did not pay any heed to this user.

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Uninor directs people to their offline customer care service, claiming that it is speedy. What can be more speedy than an efficient online customer support set up on Social Media?

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ven worse, Vodafone asks its customers to visit the gallery to solve their query. It is understandable that some problems cannot be resolved on Social Media if there is a technical issue but a proper apology, followed by an assurance can be the first response by a brand instead of bluntly asking them to visit the gallery.

When a user responds saying they are interested in changing the service provider, Vodafone does not care to reply further. Such is the sad state of the telecom industry on Social Media.

MTS does not have a presence on Twitter and does not reply on Facebook.

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4.Their overall approach to customer support service

The customer support strategy of the telecom industry can be explained in three words; Haphazard, unhelpful and slapdash. I assumed that I can expect a good strategy in place since most leading players like Vodafone, Airtel, Reliance communication have given enough importance to customer support in the non virtual world. However, they are clearly not bothered about customer sentiments online.

5.The average turnaround time in resolving an issue

I can hardly comment on this since 2 out of 9 brands close customer complaints on social media. The two brands Docomo and Reliance communication who close complaints too do not respond if a customer has further queries.

Reliance communication closed a query after 10 days but the user still did not get his problem resolved and no further communication was initiated by the brand. After coming across a few such instances, I am wondering if Reliance has been closing complaints without even verifying the same.

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Docomo however has closed the complaint very well with a complaint number and an invitation to raise further queries. This builds trust in another customer and assures him that his/her complaint will be resolved. However, Docomo still took 3-4 days which is rather slow.

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6.How to improve customer support strategy on Social Media

The telecom industry is nowhere near good when they should be excellent in online customer support owing to the number of complaints they get each day. Inspite of the social media industry growing leaps and bounds, the brand managers have not been able to keep up with technology. Improving their customer support strategy on social media should be the primary objective of the leading telecom brands.

Expand your customer support team to integrate offline strategy into online operations. Apart from expanding, brands should realize that unless there is a swift response on these public platforms, they are not taking complete advantage.

Customer support should be present round the clock, every day of the week and at every hour of the day. This ensures bundles of credibility and loyalty considering the fact that not many are doing this. If your brand begins executing brilliant customer support of Facebook and Twitter, you will have an added advantage over competitors.

Brand image and tonality should be replicated while executing customer support online. For instance Vodafone has been resonated with Happy to Help for long but this is not extended on Social Media. Also, Airtel is a happy brand but this is not conveyed online. The tone of Airtel customer support online is hardly Happy!

Instead of constantly trying to redirect queries and complaints to emails and toll free numbers, the brands should publicly solve the queries. How difficult is it to deactivate a service or track down a query through a number? Or even track down a number by referring to the name of the customer, if displayed in full on social profiles.

Using advanced technology or supporting your business conversations via a customer service tool can help your brand resolve queries swiftly. It organizes the overall CRM process and eliminates scope of haphazardness.

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There is a major scope of improvement once these brands start working on the basics. Technology being core in their operations should be incorporated within this segment too. Sadly, the brands only tend to ignore the gains.

Expert View by Jayanta Bhattacharjee, Marketing Manager, India, SAARC and Middle East at Aspect Software – A leading provider of fully-integrated customer interaction management, workforce optimization, and back-office solutions.

The telecommunications industry has laid emphasis on inter-human relationships for decades through traditional media channels. Replication of these attributes on social media channels through facilitating seamless customer service should have been priority for leading telecom brands. However, online CRM is hardly integrated with the contact centers of the brands.

Customer service is enroute social media at a rapid pace. Brands need to surpass creating strategic content buckets and grandstand their CRM services in order to reverse the existing scenario. Usage of first-rate tools to manage queries and boost the turnaround time for replies is key to empowering brand image through socially viable practices.

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