Streetlife: Our must-add-value approach to social media

Presented by:

Matt Woor

Social Media and Customer Satisfaction Co-ordinator

Suffolk County Council

What are we going to cover?

1. What is Streetlife?

2. Contact centre join up

3. How we add value

4. Some of our responses from customers

5. More information/Any Questions

Streetlife (www.streetlife.com)

Streetlife – (www.streetlife.com)

What is it: A cross between a notice board, a directory and a local

newspaper. It hosts opinion, discussion and calls for help. It also works

as a way for journalists to access stories (partnership with Archant)

What is it used for: Discussing your local community. Used for trying

to identify local resources and peoples social capacity (volunteering)

Who uses it: Used by individuals semi anonymously – 15,000

registered users in Suffolk. No adverts and no businesses really.

Vocabulary: Thumbs up, posts, thread, Followers,

Contact centre join up

• Our contact centre contains the both capacity and the customer handling expertise to add real value to our social media conversations

• Social media is no different to an everyday telephone call – it’s just potentially being eavesdropped by 15,000 other people

• Allows the opportunity for social media MI to be recorded in exactly the same way as a telephone call

Contact centre join up

• Remember that these officers are the experts at customer contact – they have a tone of voice which works.

• Start off softly – (Not everyone enjoys using social media, forcing people never works out well)

• Identify key champions within the contact centre to be “go to” people

• Provide support for them outside the contact centre itself• Build confidence• Provide constant feedback on messages posted

How we add value• Just being on social media is not enough – you must

actively look to add value to the conversation wherever possible.

• Know your boundaries – Officers/Councillors, front line/back office.

• Pick your battles• Always answer a direct question – never be afraid to say

“I don’t know – let me try and find out”• Never spin – the public can smell spin a mile away• Remember social media is a conversation not just a

platform to advertise services from

How we add value• Personalise the messages – the council is full of people

not faceless logos and buildings• Sometimes the customer isn’t always right – but that

doesn’t mean you have to tell them so• Social media is about managing expectations both of

your response and the council services• When things go wrong (and they will) apologise. It really

can help smooth things over.• If a conversation becomes difficult – have a clear

escalation process – often customers respond better if they think the issue has been escalated – even if the answer is the same.

Some of our responses

Website Consultation

More information/Any Questions

• If you would like to see us in action visit our Streetlife thread: https://www.streetlife.com/page/suffolk-council/

• For more info about getting your council on Streetlife speak to Claire Elsden at Streetlife on 0203 137 5321 or by email at claire@streetlife.comTell her Matt from SuffolkCC sent you