An ITEXPO panel on Wed. discussed social media integration in the contact center. Sanjay Popli of LiveOps, Manuel Ramirez of Avaya, and Alex Quilici of YouMail spent 45 minutes talking about social media and call centers.
There are five steps a company needs to take to implement social media strategy in a contact center.
- Monitor social channels
- Decide on Relevance
- Assign employees to tasks
- Establish Policies
- Design procedure for interacting with the rest of the Org
The contact center could be monitoring for leads, complaints or opportunities on social media platforms. These platforms can include twitter, Facebook, Google+, Yahoo groups, forums, LinkedIn or any of the other thousands of online communities and networks that exist.
It is a way for call center to move from a cost center to a revenue center. Not just by following up on sales leads, but by preserving the brand and reputation of the company.
One item that all panelists agreed upon was that the time for response from a company has shrunk from a day to an hour. It's about speed now.
Another reminder from the panel is that conversations about your service and brand ARE indeeed taking place online (like on DSLReports and GetSatisfaction.com). Ignore it at your own peril.
Monitoring or Listening also includes finding out where your customers are hanging out online. Go where they are.
A final note was that previously most online commenters were anonymous. Today, about 70% are very traceable. That means you can identify them and interact with them. There are many books written about creating raving fans out of disgruntled customers. It is possible online as well.
