call center strategy 102 an ebook by mindsight
TRANSCRIPT
CALL CENTER STRATEGY 102
How to Synergize Your Customer Service andMarketing Strategies on Social Media
AN EBOOK BY MINDSIGHT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword: Be Proactive and Work Together 1
Chapter 1: General Guidelines to Responding on Social Media 3
Chapter 2: Special Considerations for Each Platform 9
• Facebook 11
• LinkedIn 13
• Twitter 15
• Pinterest 18
Chapter 3: Marketing Synergies 21
• Facebook Strategy 23
» Synergies 24
• LinkedIn Strategy 25
» Synergies 28
• Twitter Strategy 29
» Synergies 30
• Pinterest Strategy 31
» Synergies 32
Chapter 4: Afterword: Working Together 33
Contact Center Roadmaps 34
Social media is difficult to pin down. On the one hand, it provides the perfect medium to share company updates, new products, and target promotions to consumers who actually care about your company. It’s fast. It’s agile. It’s interactive. Magazines, newspapers, radio, and television ads all operate on the educated guess that fans of your company will be at the right place at the right time to see your promotions, but on social media, you know your audience. You speak to them directly.
On the other hand, social media is immensely valuable as a customer service tool. Customers looking for advice or information can use their preferred social media channel to send private messages, make public posts, and otherwise attempt to contact your company. It’s an entirely new medium of communication, and in the Age of theCustomer, the contact center must make itself open and available in every channel possible
Preface: Be Proactive and Work Together
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Social media is so popular that modern businesses don’t have a choice but to commit resources to building, maintaining, and moderating a social media presence. But once it is established, too many companies draw a hard and fast line between the responsibilities of the customer service and marketing sides of social media. Social media is not just a marketing or a customer service tool. It is both, and we need to find a way to embrace that duality.
To do so, we need to bring the contact center and marketing teams together from a strategic standpoint. The cohesive strategy we create for the two teams will accomplish more than either department individually.
In this ebook, we provide the concepts and insight necessary to competently manage the customer service side of social media while also discussing ways to leverage the skills of the marketing department. However, every social media channel is different, has different requirements and audiences, and fills a different niche. Therefore, we have structured this ebook to start with general strategies, move on to specific considerations for each platform, and conclude with opportunities to synergize your efforts with the marketing department.
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Marketing
Contact Center
GENERAL GUIDELINES FORSOCIAL MEDIA
CHAPTER 1
Think of your social media presence as the digital version of an “open door policy.” Every consumer under the sun who has an issue, a comment, or a question should feel welcomed and encouraged to share their thoughts with your company through this medium. On the contact center side, we want to foster community, build rapport with customers, and be an all-around helpful resource for consumers in need. Science fiction writer and novelist, Kurt Vonneguit, famously said that every character in a story should want something, even if it is just a glass of water. Our role on social media is to do everything we can to supply that glass of water.
That being said, there are best practices to follow while doing so. It’s no surprise that people think of Facebook as the “default” or “standard” platform. It’s the reigning king of social media and has 1.6 billion users. As a testament to their success, many other platforms (though not all) share aspects and features with Facebook. Comments, messages, sharing, groups, and “likes” are all common concepts used on LinkedIn as well as Twitter and Pinterest. Therefore, many of the general strategies on social media are going to apply to equally from one channel to another.
In this first chapter, we’ll cover the general best practices of responding to customers on all social media platforms.
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Responding to Your Customers on Social Media
Don’t Delete Negative Posts Never delete a negative comment. First, it assures that you have lost that customer forever. Second, it creates a culture of censorship on your social media page. Soon, you’ll start seeing comments that end with, “…and I know this comment is going to be deleted by the admins.” When this happens, your social media channel will have lost its credibility. Deleting comments will do more harm than good.
Be Careful with the Ban-HammerIn the same vein as deleted posts, don’t ban followers unless absolutely necessary. It can be very tempting to simply ban those who share negative reviews on your page, but censorship is ultimately not in your best interest. Truly, your best asset on social media is utter transparency. If your followers begin to suspect that the conversation on the channel is artificially manipulated, it brings every positive review into question as well.
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Respond QuicklyNo matter what the complaint is, your company needs to respond as soon as possible. You need to control the perception of these events as best you can.
Respond PubliclyDon't ask the customer to private message you, unless it's to receive sensitive information regarding his/her issue or complaint. As much as is appropriate, address the situation publicly. It shows the rest of the community that you are trying your best to solve the problem. For an exception to this rule, see our section on Twitter on page 16.
Give Your Fans UpdatesLet your fans know if there is a system error or larger problem at play. If a number of fans are all complaining about the same thing, respond to each individually, and then create a general post about the issue and what your team is doing to correct the situation.
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Keep Sensitive Information Private Direct messages allow your customers to keep their sensitive information private. It only takes one re-post or share for that information to disseminate throughout the internet. Never divulge or request the following information through an open post:• Email address• Phone number• Username• Password• Address• Billing information• Transaction history
Be PersonableThe internet creates a kind of distance in your interactions with your social media followers. It’s easy for them to assume your responses are automated, computer generated, or somehow fake. In order to create the kind of connection that leads to an excellent customer experience, your responses should sound as personable as possible. You need to convey, without outright saying it, that you are a real person responding to their real request.
Here’s a few tips to make your responses seem more personable:• Reference information the customer provided in their post/tweet/comment• Use light humor where appropriate• The tone should be based on your company's brand guidelines
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Treat Others as You Would Like to Be TreatedAll of customer service operates under the golden rule, and social media is no different. Our efforts are just molded by the particular quirks of the medium. Generally speaking, treat your customers with respect and your strategy won’t be far off.
In the next chapter, we’ll talk about specific considerations that need to be made in each platform.
CHAPTER 2
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONSFOR EACH PLATFORM
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No two social media channels are exactly alike. Yes, they may share similarities, but at a fundamental level, the purposes and
functionality of each will vary wildly. Therefore, each social media channel has its own set of considerations, requirements, and
strategies that the contact center should follow when engaging their customers.
This is absolutely crucial to running an effective social media platform. One of the benefits of using social media is that it shows
your customers that you are hip, modern, and “with it.” Many consumers today have been using one form of social media or
another for over a decade. They expect companies to have a firm grasp of the platforms as well.
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Users Can Private Message You but Not the Other Way Around On a personal Facebook account, everyone can send private messages to everyone else. If you’re friends, the message will go
straight to their inbox. If not, it goes to a different folder.
The rules are a little different for corporate Facebook accounts. Companies cannot send private messages to customers. They can
only reply to them. However, once the follower has messaged the company, a record of that conversation is saved in the message
history where it can be accessed at a future date.
Use Your “Like” Button StrategicallyThe “like” button has taken on a number of meanings. Over
time, its meaning has shifted from “I literally like and approve of
this” to a much more vague acknowledgement of the post. Much
like the term “lol,” its solid definition has blurred and
softened. Still, as a customer service professional, you must be
more strategic in your use of the “like” button.
• Use it to acknowledge comments on your board that do not
warrant a full reply
• Use it in conjunction with replies
• Never “like” a negative post
What about Google+ ?
Many of the strategies and concepts concerning Facebook
are equally applicable to Google+. Both platforms are
targeting the same niche in the market and have similar
functionality. The primary difference between Facebook
and Google+ is the audience. Generally speaking,
Facebook has more users, a wider audience, and a higher
participation rate for most industries. However, that is not
always the case. Do a little research and find where your
audience is stronger.
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Visit Our Facebook PageSee these concepts in action on the official Mindsight Facebook Page.
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B2B vs. B2C StrategyIf you are a B2C organization and there are customers leaving negative messages on your LinkedIn posts, you should respond exactly as you would on any other social media channel. Respond promptly, courteously, and publicly to any negative criticism you receive, and then follow up to resolve the issue.
However, if you’re a B2B organization, you’re in a unique situation. Any customer or client you have should also have an account manager tied to them. The account manager should, in theory, be able to prevent these sorts of public outbursts, but if the client is posting publicly anyway, the account manager can still be invaluable in reaching a solution.
Still, the post needs to be dealt with, because even if the account manager calls and smooths the situation out, there is still a negative post about your company lingering on the web. Make sure you reply publicly and promptly. This way, if another prospective or existing client stumbles upon the post, they’ll see that you were receptive to criticism and responded to thesituation.
Users Cannot Post Directly on Your PageOn LinkedIn, a user cannot post directly on a company page. Therefore, if a customer wishes to air their criticisms to your social community, the negative post is going to be found elsewhere.
Customers can comment on any post that you share, comment on an article you publish, or even publish negative articles themselves about your brand. On LinkedIn, you have to be more aware of your content and the content of your community.
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Visit Our LinkedIn Page
See these concepts in action on the official Mindsight LinkedIn Page.
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Character LimitTweets and replies you post can only include up to 140
characters. That’s only about a sentence long. This character
limit shapes your entire strategy when working on the platform.
Be PersonableWhen you only have 140 characters to work with, it can be
especially hard to convey the usual empathy that customer
service representatives use to diffuse situations or express
genuine enthusiasm. Unless you make a point to add
personality, your tweets can very easily seem like a
pre-programmed auto-response robot. Those kinds of robotic
customer service tools are acceptable over the phone or
perhaps through a web form, but people want to talk to people
on social media.
One quick tip to help your tweets seem more authentic is to
add your initials to the end of the tweet. It shows that a real
human is involved.
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Keep the Conversation on Twitter, but Move to Direct Messages:140 characters simply isn’t enough space to resolve most customer issues. However, for clarity and convenience, we recommend keeping the conversation on Twitter, instead of switching to a call, email, or another social media channel. Adding additional platforms will only increase the complexity and confusion.
The goal then should be to quickly move the conversation from public tweets to direct messages. While on other platforms we recommend keeping the conversation public, the character limit on Twitter is too restrictive to make a detailed conversation flow naturally. Any lengthy response would be broken up into multiple tweets. A direct message will make it easier on both the reader and the contact center agent. In a direct message, your team can write and receive long-form responses up to 10,000 characters and find a resolution to the problem.
Twitter has recently made this easier by adding a direct message quick-link feature. Now, you can quickly add a direct message link to your tweet. Simply inform the customer that you are here to help and that you just need them to direct message you some more information, which will make the interaction go more smoothly.
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Visit Our Twitter Feed
See these concepts in action on the official Mindsight Twitter Feed.
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Evergreen ContentOther social media channels are based around “feeds” where the latest content is published to the top of a long string of chronological content. As time passes, your post is buried underneath a steady supply of new images, videos, and posts. On Pinterest, there is still a feed, but when users click to your page, they won’t just find a string of “pins.” They’ll find a permanent collection of “boards.” Nothing is buried, and a pin you made a year ago could, in theory, be just as relevant as the pin you made this morning.
Most Users Come to YouBuilding off the evergreen content idea, Pinterest’s strategy is based around creating an engaging and interesting collection of resources, optimizing them, and waiting for your customers to come to you. You don’t need to constantly tweet or post to reach your audience at just the right time. Build something great, and your customers will find it.
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Image First, Copy SecondPinterest allows you to include up to 500 words to explain, qualify,
or elaborate on your pinned image. That being said, the focus of
Pinterest should always be on the image itself, rather than the text.
When pinning, include any necessary copy you need to clarify, but
your pins themselves should be self-explanatory. In an ideal world,
the extra copy would never need to be read at all.
Buyable PinsIn the contact center, one of the best ways to reduce operational
costs is with self-service options. Interactive Voice Recordings
(IVRs), the company website, and a mobile app are excellent ways
to divert calls from the contact center without reducing
overall revenue or sales. Pinterest can be another powerful
self-service option for your organization. Your team can add “buy”
buttons to your product photo pins on your page, effectively turning
your Pinterest page into an interactive, image-driven
ecommerce store.
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Check Out Some of Our Favorite Pinterest PagesCurrently, Mindsight does not have a Pinterest page, but we’ve gathered some of our favorites here.
Cisco Systems Collaboration Pinterest Page
ThinkGeek.com
Yelp Creative
CHAPTER 3
MARKETING SYNERGIES
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Up until now, we’ve only discussed the customer service side
of social media. The marketing department requires just as
much strategy, knowledge, and awareness as the contact
center to wield their social media accounts effectively. We
won’t dive too deeply into the specific marketing strategies
here. Instead, we want to focus on how marketing can help
your customer experience initiatives and vice versa. Social
media is a hybrid of marketing and the contact center, and by
finding ways to join these teams together, we can capitalize on
this unique platform.
First things first—before these two teams can help each other,
the contact center must at least understand the marketing
strategy for each platform at a high level. In this chapter, we
cover the top four channels and then follow each with a few
ideas to synergize your efforts.
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Facebook Strategy
Facebook is a social media platform that allows you, as a user, to
share photos, videos, links, articles, or whatever you like to a select
audience. It is an open forum of ideas and discussion. It is an
online photo album. It is a way for people to stay in touch with those
that they love, those that they admire, and to reconnect with those
whom they have lost touch. Facebook is not, however, a television
commercial.
Your strategy on Facebook must mirror its purpose. Many
companies make the mistake of treating their Facebook page as if
it were strictly an advertising platform. They only post about
products, coupons, special offers, money-saving deals, and the
like. The point of your corporate Facebook page is to create a
connection between your brand and the consumer. Post interesting
articles relevant to your business, industry news, videos, and other
blogs. Have a sense of humor, and create content that you would
click on if you were a fan of the page.
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Contests, Giveaways, and EventsIf your marketing department is hosting a contest, giveaway, or event, Facebook can be an immensely valuable tool if the marketing and customer service teams work together. Facebook allows you to integrate upcoming events onto your account’s events page. Marketing can use Facebook to promote the event and even post about specific elements of the event to drum up excitement. Meanwhile, the contact center team can help by answering any questions customers may have about the rules, the status of their application, or the prizes. The contact center team can also be responsible for reaching out to winners to inform them of their good fortune.
LivestreamingFacebook has recently given companies the ability to livestream events, interviews, Q&As, or anything they want. This feature is a perfect opportunity for the contact center and marketing teams to work together.
Every livestream has a message box where attendees to the livestream can chat in real-time. Whenever your marketing department is hosting a livestream, staff a small team of contact center professionals to moderate the chat box. One agent can respond to messages as they come in and a second can gather links, articles, or data for the first agent’s responses.
Synergies
Here are some ways your contact center and marketing team can join forces to make a better Facebook presence:
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LinkedIn Strategy
LinkedIn differs from other social media sites in one key area. Other social media sites are primarily for recreation and leisure. LinkedIn is strictly for business. This social media platform enables professionals to keep in touch with past colleagues or reach out to new ones.
As a result, the discourse on LinkedIn tends to have a more professional tone. The subject matter of discussions is usually centered on business, the users’ industries, or relevant news. Of course, some people are better at sticking to this than others. You will still see the occasional bit of personal news, funny memes, or posts you’d expect to see on other social media platforms.
With an understanding of what LinkedIn is, the next step is to discuss how to use it.
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Business to Consumer (B2C)When developing a strategy for your LinkedIn page, it is important to recognize that business professionals are not on LinkedIn to shop. If individuals follow you on LinkedIn, it will most likely be for business reasons. Therefore, your strategy must reflect this dynamic.
You have to be a little more indirect. Instead of posting special offers, coupons, or humorous content, your goal should be to position your brand as a thought leader. For example, on Facebook, you might post a coupon for your bagel shop. On LinkedIn, however, you would post a case study on the best bagel preparation methods in the area. Then when someone downloads the case study, they receive a coupon to the bagel shop. In this example, you aren’t pitching your product. You’re pitching your brand as the utmost authority on bagels.
LinkedIn can also serve as a very effective recruiting tool. You should try to attract professionals in your industry, share the posts of your industry’s influencers, and position yourself as a competent company in a competitive field.
Two Purpose of a Business LinkedIn Account
Unlike Facebook, the core functions of your LinkedIn page will vary depending upon your business model.
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Business to Business (B2B)If you are part of a business that sells products or services to other businesses, LinkedIn is likely going to be your most effective social media account. it can still serve as a powerful recruiting tool, as it does for B2C businesses. However, this is also where your clients come to engage in discussions relevant to your business.
This brings us to the stark differences in buying cycles between B2C and B2B customers. In a B2C environment, your purchase decision is largely an emotional one. Quick, quirky ads can be really effective here, and you see these examples all over Facebook. In a B2B environment, purchases are far more calculated. There may be multiple people involved in the buying process, and some purchases may require C-Level approval. Your clients could be delivering detailed presentations to their boss to justify using your company. While this does create a longer buying cycle, what it really means is that your customer has to have extreme confidence in your brand. That confidence can be fostered by positioning your company as a thought leader in the industry.
Create and publish white papers, case studies, ebooks, and more to demonstrate your experience and excellence in the industry. If your existing clients regard you as an expert and potential clients find your page valuable, they’ll both be more likely to continue to or begin to do business with you.
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Ready Responses for Ebooks, White Papers, and InfographicsAs mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is an excellent place to promote ebooks, white papers, infographics, and other professional content. Upon the release of any new content, brief your contact center team on what the white paper or ebook is about and supply them with additional resources. Then, when users comment about the new publication, your contact center team is ready to engage the customer and provide more helpful information.
Synergies
Here are a few ways your contact center can team up with your marketing department to improve your LinkedIn page:
Prove Your LegitimacyYour contact center team can be excellent ambassadors for your LinkedIn marketing strategy. Familiarize your team with key industry influencers, so they can draw upon that information in their responses. Much like promoting your own ebooks, white papers, and infographics, equip your team with research reports, TED Talks, and other 3rd party resources to convey to your audience how credible and informed your company really is.
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Twitter Strategy
Twitter is most often used as a news aggregator. Users log onto to Twitter to stay informed of the latest events, the comings and goings of companies or individuals they like, and to post their own news. For this reason, Twitter is an excellent platform to make company announcements and by-the-minute updates. Keep your posts relevant and informative. For example, if your company is experiencing an outage or technical difficulty, you can keep your fan base in the know with regular updates on Twitter.
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Crowd Control During a CrisisTwitter is a great platform to distribute news alerts about your company. If there is a crisis in your company—a server crash, natural disaster, or other delay—Twitter can quickly inform your customers of the issue and keep them abreast of any changes. Here’s where your contact center team can really shine. Inevitably, your customers are going to have questions and concerns regarding the issue. Deploy your contact center team to quickly and courteously respond to each and every inquiry. A crisis can be an opportunity to demonstrate your concern for your customers, your competency, and your commitment to solving the problem.
Customer Feedback Surveys The best way to improve your customer service operation is through direct feedback from your customers. Twitter now offers a convenient way to deliver customer feedback surveys directly in a tweet. These surveys can take the form of two common formats: Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction Survey.
• Net Promoter Score: This score indicates on a scale of -100 to 100 the willingness of your customers to recommend your products and services to others.
• Customer Satisfaction Survey: These surveys often take the form of multiple choice questionnaires. They give the company direct feedback on the quality of service customers have received. Using this feedback, you can keep your finger on the pulse of the customer experience and determine action items for improving the experience of your customers.
SynergiesHere are a few ways your contact center can work with your marketing department to create a more effective Twitter feed:
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Pinterest Strategy
Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest “pins” are expressed entirely through images and video. Users “pin” pictures, drawings, infographics, and other images to “boards” and assemble an album for a particular topic. This often takes the form of recipes, do-it-yourself arts and crafts projects, and other ideas. A popular user group for Pinterest are couples that are preparing a wedding. This group will often use Pinterest to create a board of ideas that others have posted to inspire their own wedding plan.
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Pinning FAQsYour pins can be customer service tools in and of themselves. Create a series of images explaining FAQs, uses for the product, and ways to reach out if there is a problem. A lot can be conveyed with a short amount of text in an infographic.
Synergies
Here’s a few ways your marketing department can help your contact center create a better Pinterest experience:
Pin in Response to Customer InquiriesAlong the same vein as the previous tips, the contact center has a much closer relationship with the customer than the marketing department. Listen to what people are saying on your Pinterest board. If you are frequently receiving questions about a certain product, perhaps the product photos used in the pin are inadequate. Perhaps a different angle or a more thorough description of the product is necessary. Consider establishing a monthly strategy meeting where these trends can be discussed, so Marketing can produce the kind of content the viewers want to see.
CHAPTER 4
AFTERWORD:WORKING TOGETHER
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Social media is a unique experience, and it requires the teamwork of two business units that normally don’t partner on too many projects. We’ve only scratched the surface of the multitude of ways these two departments can become stronger together and better utilize their social media platforms.
In line with the strategies discussed in this ebook, we’d love to hear your thoughts on how your contact center and marketing teams have found success on their own channels. Follow our social media accounts below, and let’s get a conversation going.
Schedule a Contact Center Roadmap with Mindsight
At Mindsight, we offer contact center strategy and technology consultations throughout the Chicago Metropolitan area. Through our Contact Center Roadmap, our senior consultants work with your team to identify opportunities for improvement in your department.
Contact Mindsight today to improve your customer experience.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight is a technology consulting firm that provides thoughtfully-crafted and thoroughly-vetted perspectives to its Chicago area clients’ toughest technology challenges. Mindsight’s recommendations come from its experienced and talented team, and are based on a solid understanding of its clients' unique business and technology challenges. Mindsight believes in being transparent and candid, which means more productive interactions and less pretense. The company provides the best thinking to achieve the best result. When you need a different point of view, you can count on Mindsight.
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