social media tag
14 result(s) displayed for social media (1 - 14 of 14):
The (Social) Customer Isn't Always Right
There appears to be a tendency with social media as a new and highly visible channel to overstock the value of the sentiments expressed in the posts and Tweets, that they do accurately represent the voice of customer and that the complaints are accurate and well-founded. And that those who made them must be supplicated to keep them as customers, lest they tell hundreds of others never to do business with one's company ever again.
These set of attitudes with social media reflect the cliché "the customer is always right."
Nonsense. Balderdash. Rot.
The "social customer"--like any other customer--is not always correct.
The New Customer Self-Service: Ourselves
Leave aside well-trained live agents, subject matter experts reachable via presence and knowledgebase-connected automated IVR/speech rec and web self-service.
One of the best (and the most affordable) answers to customer service issues--from basic product information to fixing problems--may come from each one of us, which can be termed as peer service or peer support. That is provided that this method is set up and managed right.
"Managing" The Anonymous Customer
Yes, knowing the individual customers are improves organizations' abilities' to provide excellent service to them: including giving them the attention and service and offers based on their value to the enterprise.
Yet how much information is needed and shouldn't all buyers be treated well? The data collected on consumers especially is a lousy source of predicting future behavior. No software can crystal-ball in today's uncertain economy what will happen to individuals' jobs and earnings and purchases, and value to enterprises. Individuals' values are also only as good as their last transactions.
The Dangers of Social Media Commentary
The impacts of poor social media commentary was brought home in March by a pair of 'misTweets', one by an employee of an ad agency the other by a well-known comedian--individuals who know the power of language--that embarrassed their organizations and which led to their dismissal.
More Reasons to Question Loyalty Programs
Loyalty in the social media age is only as good as what is being offered
Are Contact Centers Supporting Customers Via Social Media?
According to an excellent recent blog entry by Tim Passios, Director of Solutions Marketing, Interactive Intelligence, not as many as may well be warranted by well-publicized incidents e.g. "United Breaks Guitars" .
My counsel on social media is this: have the corporate communications departments, in partnership with Legal serve as the gatekeepers and policymakers...In that fashion then firms will get social media right. And with the rapid takeup of customer inquiries by self-service, and with the demand for higher quality service from customers, ..as well as the increasing popularity of social media as a customer service channel...it is only a matter of time when the social media response teams become the customer service teams.
Mining The Social Channel for Customer Gold
The social channel appears on first glance to provide a readily-extracted motherlode of information and insights that can help firms retain and build relations with customers and attract new ones. For in the huge volume of conversations: blogs, comments on sites e.g. TripAdvisor et al, Facebook postings and Tweets are concerns, complaints, experiences and ideas about companies' products and services that are waiting to be mined, assayed, processed, refined and used.
Before Making Your Contact Center Wish List...
This is the season where individuals--and organizations such as contact centers--make their wish lists. Yet with budgets both household and corporate limited there is no allowance--or tolerance--for unused or misused items; the penalties include reprimands and threats to cut back on how much is given next year.
Therefore it is essential that the items that go on the lists reflect critical and provable needs for which there are no on-hand or lower-cost substitutes. There must also be evidence that indicate these investments will be used and benefits quickly realized. The payoff is that in the well-run outfits, the centers that do just stand a greater chance of having more of their wishes granted.
Curing the Pareto Illness
One of the most serious illnesses to strike organizations is the Pareto Principle: the notion that 20 percent of customers create 80 percent of the value, which is embedded in CRM methodology. To maximize profits the object is to focus resources on retaining and attracting the top 20 while giving minimal least-cost service to the bottom 80.
The Pareto Principle offers firms short-term gains through cost reductions while building greater loyalty and hopefully revenue from elite buyers. Yet it inflicts the medium/long-term pain from rising expenses, shrinking customer bases and individual income and spending declines.
AT&T Teaches How Not To Respond to Complaints in The Social Era
This example of how not to respond to customers' complaints in this social media era, where unless you respond to them quickly and authentically including by the CEOs your rep is DOA, comes courtesy of--and perhaps to no surprise to those of us in or follow this industry)--AT&T, via CNN.
CNN reported Thursday that AT&T apologized to one of its customers after a staffer left a voicemail warning that individual had e-mailed the carrier's CEO with complaints.
Don't SLAPP Social Media (or SLAPP, period)
Strategic lawsuits against public participation or SLAPPs are the cowards' way of quieting dissent; the legal equivalent of glove-covered brass knuckles. Now comes the disturbing if not unexpected report from The New York Times that firms have been attempting to SLAPP consumers they appear to have annoyed and who have in turn posted comments on social media sites.
The Disinterested Customer
most customers: consumers and organizations are not really interested in such engagements. They don't want to be "fans". That they turn off after so much blather on their screen and in their ears.
Moreover, customer loyalty is fickle. A product or service that shines in the first instance may stink in the second either in the manufacturing, delivery or price, which means bye-bye buyer... There are still a large number of social and other channels and channel providers to pick from. The smart ones will make enough but are not so greedy so as to drive away the very source of their profits while satisfying or at least not annoying the customers. For it is best to have disinterested customers than ticked off ones.
Can Outsourcers Bring Social Media Home?
Outsourcing firms, especially those in the contact center space have to be that one-half-step ahead of their clientele, which tends to be fairly conservative, but which expects their suppliers to be on top of trends. This is a tail-perched-on-the-picket-fence situation because outsourcing is a notoriously highly-competitive thin-margin business and outsourcers have little spare cash, which means technology investments must have strong and immediate ROIs, yet companies find the money for them to have the tools to meet clients' needs.
And that sharp point is about to become even more uncomfortable with the rise of social media.
CorpComm/PR Not Contact Centers For Managing Social Media
One of the key issues that are emerging with the rise of social media as a customer interaction tool is who should track, analyze and respond to what is being said on these sites.
A strong argument can be made is that it should be corporate communications/public relations either in-house or outside agencies rather than contact centers.
