Social Media Strategy for Social Customer Service Success | Blake ...

While many companies are sold on the idea, they also recognise the importance of getting their social media outreach strategy just right in order to make the most of the huge opportunities it presents.

Savvy companies are looking at how they can extend the opportunity that social media presents to other parts of the business. The contact centre, for example, is seen as the heartbeat of many businesses? customer service function and, today, plays a vital role in establishing not just communication, but also a dialogue, with consumers.

Ensure seamless communications

The most successful social media strategies are those that ensure all communications are seamless whether it involves reaching out, or responding, to consumers. When a new social media promotion is created, for example, the marketing department takes on the role of pushing valuable information to consumers. But it is the contact centre that picks up where the marketing department leaves off, responding to customer?s tweets, posts, blogs, messages and comments about whatever is being proactively communicated. Success lies where these two functions work in harmony and respect one another?s significance.

Communicate between departments

With good intra-company communication and team-work, there is a huge opportunity for a social media strategy to work across the entire business and bring significant benefits in terms of positive brand recognition and excellent customer service.

Assign communications responsibilities

Creating a social media strategy and policy that works for both the contact centre and the marketing department is essential. Both sides of the business have an equally important role to play. No one knows better than the contact centre manager that social media is not just about positive proactive outreach driven by the organisation. Social media is about reacting to customer queries, and even complaints, using the same method of communication that the customer has chosen to use.

Share social media best practice

Equally important is to get together and share best practice. Only by understanding the outcomes that the sales and marketing team want can the contact centre manager ensure that expectations are set in terms of what his team is equipped to deliver. Proactively tell the marketing department about the social media capability you already have (and haven?t) ? don?t wait to be asked.

Consider the costs of implementing a social media strategy

Social media outreach can be expensive. For example customers tweet and post twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.? It?s worth considering whether your contact centre is equipped to resource this level of activity and if not, what do you need to service these customers and how can you share the expense.

Inform senior management

It?s also wise to keep senior management and the board of directors informed of what is happening with the social media strategy ? you want them to be aware of the impact on the contact centre as well as on other parts of the organisation. They also need to know what social media success will look like across the company. Or conversely, the negative impact it can have on perception and even share price if it is not executed properly.

Social media is blurring the edges between sales, marketing, customer service and other corporate departments and many organisations could be better prepared for this when they first launch their social media programme. Developing a coherent programme that works well requires inter-departmental collaboration. If done well it can result in valuable customer insights, marketing lift and ultimately improved ROI.

Author:?Natalie Keightley?

Source: Call Centre UK:?http://www.callcentre.co.uk/page.cfm/Action=library/libID=1/listID=24/libEntryID=4219

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