Customer Support Goes Social Workshop

Customer Support Goes Social 3 Important Business Lessons &

Pitfalls to Avoid

Mike Lewis, Chairman and CEO, ILD Corp. and Social Strategy1Steve Ennen, President and Chief Intelligence Officer of Social Strategy1

#OASocial

Twitter Hashtag: #OASocial

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Today’s Topics

• Real World Experiences

• 3 Important Lessons

• Marketing and Customer Service

• The Case for Social Customer Service

• Key Take-Aways

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Brought to you by:

Today’s Speakers

Michael F. “Mike” Lewis Co-founder OfficeArrow.com and Social Strategy1Chairman and CEO of ILD Corp. Author of “Social Media Leadership”

Steve EnnenPresident & CIO, Social Strategy1Founding Managing Director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative & Wharton Lab for Innovation

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Brought to you by:

Today’s Deal of the Day

• I would definitely recommend this book to all business professionals. In fact, I am about to have the other partners in my business read this as well. By hardymeagan

• Easy to Understand and Informative Book For Business People Wanting to Learn How to Apply Social Media to Their Biz By Matthew C. Fischer

• There is no `geek-speak' or computer language. This is a well written introductory book that puts the social media in the spotlight for each blogger or business. By S. Williams

Customer Reviews

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2K5RD6NPGZ1DJ/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1Q3TNFTD594YM/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1Q3TNFTD594YM/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1BE3EGDEJNSUK/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1BE3EGDEJNSUK/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp


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Just How Big It Is

• More than 1 Billion people using social media globally

• More than 100,000,000 blogs worldwide

• 53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product (ROI Research for Performance, June 2010)

• The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers (Keller Fay, WOMMA, 2010)

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ILD Experience – Background and Challenge

• Background– ILD division is a third party payment processor for phone

billed transactions between merchants and consumers – Merchant charges display on the ILD portion of the

consumer phone bill

• Challenge– Targeted by consumers and bloggers

– Negative dialogue toward brand and customer service issues gained momentum

– Challenge was to help ILD join the conversation to quiet the negative and amplify paths to resolution online.

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ILD Experience - Action• Monitoring program to track all online outlets

• Weekly monitoring reports: one related to brand issues and one specific to merchant mentions

• Rapid response to brand issues; correct misinformation and openly and honestly address the negative

• Customer Service Hotline, Escalated Email Address and employ Customer Advocate Team to quickly resolve customer service issues

• Call center recording gave option to visit website

• ILD Self Help - give control directly to consumers to learn more about a charge, cancel service and even credit their account

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ILD Experience - Impact

• Visits to self help site increased by 251%

• Percentage of visits resulting in emails and calls are down by >20%

• Resolved more than 50,000 consumer issues online and emerged as a leader in proactive customer service in the industry

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A Small Customer Service Issue Can Result In Big & Costly Lessons

• After 3.6 million views, the airline donated $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

• Within four days of the video’s posting, United Airlines’ stock price fell 10 percent, costing stockholders about $180 million in value

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Brought to you by:

Lesson #1: ListenInfluence Can Be Damaging

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Brought to you by:

Lesson #1 Listen

• Use all channels to listen

• Any comment posted on Twitter, a blog, or a forum can land on WSJ, and vice versa

• It’s vital to listen to all channels because you never know where a golden bit of information will appear

• There is no customer service strategy without listening

• Listening never stops

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Lesson #2: Keep It Real

A comprehensive and authentic online approach to customer service can:• Clear up

misunderstandings• Simplify issue

resolution• Send signals that we

care about our customers

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Keeping It Real – Skillful Crisis Management

• Reputation can easily be damaged by just forgetting the basics of customer service

• “No comment” no more

• How you handle a bad situation can make or break your company’s future

• Respond quickly

• Be authentic

• Listen to the conversations

• Train your staff to lead with the company’s values

• Plan for what to do when bad press hits the fan

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Keeping It Real – What NOT to Do• Do NOT engage in anonymous postings about your

own company’s stock and that of a competitor that you’re trying to acquire

– Reputation tarnished, forced to issue a public apology, and endured investigation by both the SEC and an internal committee within Whole Foods

• Do NOT launch deceptive marketing campaigns– Wal-marting Across America blog written by two regular folks who

were taking an RV trip across the US and stopping at Walmarts to visit with customers and employees, but was ad agency contrivance, fans felt betrayed and the Walmart brand took the hit

• Successful companies rely on social media as an integral part of their customer support strategy and transparency is key to that strategy.

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Value of Keeping It Real

• Successfully integrates social media into customer service and recognizes the value of keeping it real with customers

• Zappos social media team– 342-person, round-the-clock customer loyalty team answers 5,000 calls a day, 1,200

emails a week, and monitors Twitter and other social networking sites for mentions of Zappos

– Use data to proactively reach out to potential shoppers

– Zappos does NOT track call times or require operators to read from scripts

– Empowers staff to act and be helpful, no matter where they are on the organizational chart

“We’re very transparent. One of our core values is being open and honest. It ends up creating more trust with our customers, employees, and partners. It’s the opposite of what most businesses do. Most try to be secret with their secret strategies.” - Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

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Brought to you by:

Lesson #3: The Customer Has Friends

• “Conventional marketing wisdom long held that a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But…in the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell ten million.”

- Paul Gillin, Author, “The New Influencers”

Photo Credit: John Lund

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Lesson # 3: The Customer Has Friends

• Lots to gain by listening to customers

• Referral still the best way to grow the business

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Marketing & Customer Service: Another Line Blurring

• Customer support is typically viewed as a cost center, however there is a strong relationship between service and brand perception

• Companies not engaged today have 2 options

1. Wait for a social media-driven PR disaster resulting from poor customer service takes a real bite out of brand image and earnings

2. Immediately integrate social media interactions into existing customer service, contact centers, and help desks, uncovering real cost savings while burnishing the brand

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Brought to you by:

Business Benefits of Social Business Adoption• Nearly 5,000 consumers prefer better

customer experiences even over lower prices

• 42% more communication with customers

• 31% increase in customer retention

• 34% higher brand awareness

• 28% decrease in support call volume

• 34% more feedback and ideas from customers

• 27% increase in new customer sales Sources: Jive Software and Forrester

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Brought to you by:

Key Take-Aways

• Customer support is the best place to build your business case for embarking on a social media initiative

– Cost consideration:

Face-to-face interactions and live support calls

VS.

Virtual army of unpaid, but willing, customer support volunteers

• Actively listen

• Traditional customer support should be augmented by social media tools to reduce costs and expand larger marketing efforts

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Key Take-Aways

• Negative information has an extraordinarily long shelf life - extend customer service into real time where your customers are talking

• Companies embracing a proactive approach to social customer service will be the biggest winners – must be part of the corporate culture

• “There’s a strong correlation between trust and profit.”

• Commit across your organization to provide excellent customer service and to use social media as a major part of your customer service practices

• The customer, remember, is always right – and he/she may have ten million friends!

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Brought to you by:

How to Be Successful Using Social Media• Measure to determine proof of performance and be agile with your

strategy

• Align metrics with strategic objectives

– Include reactive customer service and proactive marketing

Courtesy of Social Strategy1

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Contact Info

Steve [email protected]

@EnnenSS1646-334-5893

Mike [email protected]

@michael_f_lewis904-273-2440

@sstrategy1 @officearrow

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mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


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OfficeArrow Deal of the Day

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Customer Support Goes Social Workshop

Business

Transcript of Customer Support Goes Social Workshop