Social media is becoming an important channel for customer service. To succeed, companies need to get their traditional customer service foundations in order by understanding how customers want to interact, providing universal customer histories, and taming their knowledge problems. They then need to extend customer service to social channels like Facebook and Twitter while still preserving a consistent customer experience. Social media should be integrated with existing customer service systems and knowledge bases to ensure an excellent customer experience across all channels.

1. Social
Turbocharging Customer Service Through Social
Technologies

2. Kate Leggett
Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
@kateleggett
kleggett@forrester.com
//blogs.forrester.com/kate_leggett
4/25/2012 ©2012 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 2

3. Ninety percent of customer service
decision-makers tell Forrester that a
good customer experience is critical to
.
their company’s success. Sixty-three
percent think the importance of the
customer experience has risen.

4. Few companies deliver an outstanding customer
experience
© 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

5. Customer experience is good for business

6. Social technologies will help you
deliver excellent customer service.
You need to get your foundations in
order before moving forward.

7. Agenda
The customer service leader’s challenge
Getting traditional customer service right
Extending customer service with social technologies
Social customer service: what this means to you

8. The customer service leader must balance the needs of
his customers with the needs of his business
Cost
Customer
Satisfaction and Compliance
loyalty
Revenue

9. The customer service leader must balance the needs of
his customers with the needs of his business
Cost
Customer
Satisfaction and Compliance
loyalty
Revenue

10. Consumers want quick answers to questions or
will abandon
Impatience increases with
older demographics
though younger
consumers are more likely
to prefer online service.

11. Social media has a broad reach for both B2C and B2B
companies

12. The customer service leader must balance the needs of
his customers with the needs of his business
Cost
Customer
Satisfaction and Compliance
loyalty
Revenue

13. One solution is to move customer service to less
expensive communication channels

14. But, understand what channels customers are using

15. And realize that online channel usage has grown in
the last two years

16. Agenda
The customer service leader’s challenge
Getting traditional customer service right
Extending customer service with social technologies
Social customer service: what this means to you

17. First, focus on the foundational
elements so that you can deliver
an excellent customer
experience.

18. Understand how your customers want to interact
with you

19. Provide your agents with a universal customer history

20. Tame your knowledge problem
Email

21. Extend lightweight business process management to
customer service

22. Agenda
The customer service leader’s challenge
Getting traditional customer service right
Extending customer service with social technologies
Social customer service: what this means to you

23. Social - its not just about buying software
Social workplace Social software Public social
software extending software
customer service
software

24. Are you preserving the customer experience across the
entire journey?

25. Start by listening to what your customers are saying
Post identified
and classified
Community management
Escalate Direct
to communication Leverage KB.
service? to poster.
Respond to poster.
Escalate to Track activity.
customer service.
Create
service
record
Customer service management
Leverage knowledge
Resolve issue, and base.
Route to
contact poster via
customer Respond to poster.
optimal channel
service agent.
(traditional or social).
Track activity.

26. Discussion forums are the social media channel of
choice
July 2011 ―2011 Social Technographics® For Business Technology Buyers‖

27. Service via Facebook and Twitter must be incorporated
into your other service offerings

28. Use social processes to align your knowledge base with
customer demand
– 9,000 new articles added; 27,000 evolved in 2011
– 76% of support staff contribute to the knowledge
base.
– Decreased operational costs by $0.5 million

29. Push customer service to where users spend their
time
Source: VMware (http://www.vmware.com/)

30. – 2008: 2.5 million users; 2010: 10 million users
– $10 million savings in call deflection
– 800 comments per month
Source: VMware (http://www.vmware.com/)

31. What this means: Add social to your foundation . . .
Social is another communication
channel into your contact center.
Your brand value and business
processes must be upheld over all
channels.
Your universal customer history must
include all interactions — traditional
and social.
Your corporate knowledge must be
extended with community knowledge.
. . . to ensure an excellent customer experience.

32. Recommendations
How to get started?
Understand the demographics of your customer base.
Pinpoint the methods that your customers want to interact with
you
Get your foundations in order
Listen to your customers’ sentiments over social channels
Create feedback loops within your organization to address
expressed sentiment.
How to succeed in the long term?
Integrate social software with current customer service
technologies one at a time
Promote new capabilities
Measure your success

33. #SCON12
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