Serving the Social Customer: Scaling Your Support For Twitter, Facebook and More

SERVING THE SOCIAL CUSTOMER:
SCALING YOUR SUPPORT FOR
TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND MORE!
November 30, 2010! Dan York!
Dir. of Conversations!
twitter.com/danyork!
twitter.com/voxeo!

© Voxeo Corporation© Voxeo Corporation© Voxeo Corporation
Logistics!
  Please ask questions through the GoToWebinar
interface.
  Twitter hashtag: #voxeo
  Sample app source code online:
•  https://github.com/tropo/tropo-twitter-samples
  Archive will be available at:
•  http://blogs.voxeo.com/jamsessions/2010/11/

“Social networking services will
replace email as the primary
vehicle for communications for
20 percent of business users by
2014” - Gartner Research
Source: ComputerWorld UK, Nov 15, 2010

The Generation Difference!
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Neither Agree
nor Disagree
Somewhat
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Dont Know / Not
Sure
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55+
Prefer to receive SMS alerts when checking order status, delivery
updates, etc.!
Source:
Opus
Research
Consumer
Preference
survey
(2010,
n=985)

In the past 6 months, when shopping for goods and services, I have
consulted with friends on social networks!
Source:
Opus
Research
Consumer
Preference
survey
(2010)

Why Twitter?!
  Stay tuned into the customers voice (CRM)
  Support the communication channels in demand by
the masses (CRM)
  Foster loyal and engaged customers (CRM)
  Word-of-mouth / viral marketing (PR, Marketing)
  Negative publicity / damage control (PR)
  Conscious marketing presence so the organization
is not viewed as operating in the past (Marketing)

What happens if you are successful?!
HOW DO YOU SCALE YOUR
SUPPORT FOR TWITTER?!

Scaling Options!
  Hire a team of tweeters
  Force your existing team into 24x7
  Ignore all tweets outside of “work” hours – or
reply later
  Integrate Twitter messages into your existing
contact center
  Apply an appropriate level of automation

BEWARE
OF THE
TWITTER-BOT
BACKLASH!

About Voxeo!
  Founded in 1999
  World’s largest hosted VoiceXML and CCXML platform – Over
82,000 hosted ports globally; hundreds of premise deployments
  Over 200,000 developers using Voxeo platforms
  The Voxeo difference: Unlocked Communications, Customer
Obsession Teams, Communications Passion

One World, One Platform!
Slough, UK
Frankfurt, Germany
Singapore
Las Vegas, NV Atlanta, GA
Orlando, FL
Single View
Voxeo Prophecy Hosting
Hong Kong
Patented multi-tenant, virtualized architecture – 82,000 ports and growing
Optimized for real-time communication

Uniﬁed Self-Service™!
  One application investment
  Multiple communication
channels
  One deployment platform –
or use your platform of choice
  Improved, accelerated ROI
  Any tool, programming
paradigm or language
  Voxeo compatibility modes for
porting existing applications

Design Once – Deploy Anywhere!
Voice Video Text Mobile Web
Account
Information
Activity
History
User
Preferences
Purchase
History
Other
Information
IM Two-Way SMS
Personalized Dialogs and Visual Display
Real-time
caller
preferences,
location,
responses

Two Solutions For Twitter!

Voxeo Labs,
Unlocking the
Path to Innovation

Cloud Communications Service
www.tropo.com

Tropo and Twitter!
  Twitter treated as simply another text channel
•  Same app can also use voice, SMS, IM
  Tropo app can be attached to a Twitter account
•  Uses the OAuth authentication process, i.e. you need
to be logged into the Twitter account to approve the
access for your Tropo app
  Tropo sees both “replies” and “mentions”
•  @voxeo This service is very cool!
•  Sitting in an informative @voxeo webinar!

Tropo Scripting!
  Your app runs in the Tropo cloud.
•  Is also typically hosted in the Tropo cloud.
  Similar to Google App Engine.
  Access to most language libraries.
  SIMPLE. EASY.

DEMO TIME!
GET READY TO TWEET!!

Example 1: Simple Reply App!
  Blindly sends back canned response
  Try it out: @tropohello <anytext>
  Sample code (JavaScript):
say ("Hello there, @"+currentCall.callerID+". Thank you! ");

Replies vs Mentions!
  A “reply” has your Twitter ID at the beginning:
•  @voxeo Your support team rocks!
  A “mention” includes your Twitter ID:
•  Listening to a @Voxeo developer jam session.
  For a reply, Tropo removes your Twitter ID
from the beginning of the message
•  Allows multi-channel apps to treat tweets as they
would any other IM or SMS message
  To differentiate, you can test for the presence/
absence of your Twitter ID

Example 2: Night Service!
  If the tweet: 1) is a reply; and 2) arrives between certain hours, send back
a response saying the office is currently closed
•  Mentions are ignored because the message was not “to” us.
  Try it out: @stratohelp <anytext>
  Note: Tropo servers are set for UTC – you need to factor that into your
hour calculations.
  Sample code (python):
•  The final “else” could be left off, in which case the app will take no action.
from datetime import *
if currentCall.initialText.find("@stratohelp") == -1:
if datetime.now().hour not in range(12,21) :
say("Our offices are currently closed. Please ...")
else:
say("Our offices are open. We'll reply back to you soon.")

Example 3: Keyword Actions/Alerts!
  Sends out SMS alerts based on keywords or Twitter
replies with appropriate links
  Try it out: @tropohelp <text>
  Rules:
•  If Twitter account is mentioned in a tweet with the word “fail”, in
either case, send an SMS alert (which goes to my phone)
•  If the message is a reply and includes the word:
•  “help” – reply with URL and send an SMS alert
•  “faq” – reply with the URL to the FAQ
•  “documentation” – reply with the URL to the documentation

Example 3: Keyword Actions/Alerts!
  Sends out SMS alerts based on keywords or replies with appropriate links
  Try it out: @tropohelp <text>
text = currentCall.initialText.lower()
if text.find("fail") > -1:
message("Whoa! " + currentCall.callerID + " is tweeting a fail",
{"to":"tel:+14075551212", "network":"SMS"})
elif text.find("@tropohelp") == -1: #Is it a reply?
if text.find("help") > -1:
say("Tropo lets you build apps ...")
message("Tropo help request from: " + currentCall.callerID,
{"to":"tel:+14075551212", "network":"SMS"})
elif text.find("faq") > -1:
say("The Tropo FAQ is at https://www.tropo.com/docs/...")
elif text.find("documentation") > -1:
say("Tropo docs are at https://www.tropo.com/docs/")

Example 4: Twitter Contest!
  Perform some action based on “secret password” or other text
  Try it out: @ClubTropo Tropo Rocks!
  Example merely sends back a different response, but could add
information to a database or take some other action
  See http://blog.tropo.com/2010/08/13/linking-to-twitter-using-javascript-
tropo-scripting/
  Sample code (JavaScript):
message = currentCall.initialText;
if(message == "Tropo Rocks!"){
say("You just learned how to make a Twitter bot with @Tropo for free.
Welcome to the club.");
}
else {
say ("Say what? Try it again - send us a tweet with the correct
password to get on the list.");
}

Example 5: Yahoo Weather!
  Tweets back latest weather for US ZIP code
  Try it out: @danweathertest <ZIPcode>
•  @danweathertest 32801
•  @danweathertest 90210
•  https://github.com/tropo/tropo-twitter-samples/
  Multi-channel application:
•  Voice: +1-407-374-3994
•  SMS: +1-407-374-3994
•  Skype Voice: +990009369991438833
•  SIP Voice: sip:9991438833@sip.tropo.com
•  IM (Jabber): danweathertest@tropo.im

Scenario: Augmenting Human Agents!
  Human agents and Tropo app can share the
same Twitter account
  Tropo app could:
•  only reply at certain times (ex. night service)
•  reply based on certain keywords
•  gather necessary information so that human agent
has all the info he/she needs to reply
  Combination of human and app can get
customers their information as fast as possible

Some Notes About Twitter!
  Twitter messages are restricted to 140 characters
•  Your application needs to take care of splitting messages that
are longer
  Duplicate tweets are rejected (i.e. containing identical
text sent to same Twitter account within a certain timeframe)
•  You need to be aware of this in testing. Applies to both:
•  Messages you send to your app
•  Messages your app sends back to you
  Direct Messages, Twitter Search and Public Timeline are not
yet supported
  Twitter is... well... not entirely reliable – nor is it realtime.

Tropo WebAPI!
  For developers who want more control and/or
tighter back-end integration, including reporting
and analytics
  Twitter configuration identical to Tropo Scripting
  Tropo connects to your web server

Tropo WebAPI!
  REST API
•  Familiar request/response model, using JSON or XML
  Full access to all language libraries, including
custom development
  Tropo WebAPI libraries available for:
•  Ruby, PHP, Python, C#, Node.js
•  http://github.com/tropo
  Example apps in other languages:
•  Go, Scala, Scheme, Erlang, ...

What if... !
  you want to build very complex
applications?
  you want a solution that will be
installed on your premise? behind
your firewalls and in your data center?
  you need to tie your social channels into your existing analytics and
business intelligence software?
  you have a development team that already uses the industry
standard Eclipse IDE?
  Answer.... VoiceObjects!

Application Lifecycle Management!
1
6
VoiceObjects Analyzer
3
VoiceObjects
Desktop
Design
2
GUI Design
Storyboard
Manager
5
Debug Viewer,
Trace Viewer
Load
Tester
Phone-less
testing
4
Project
Documentation Storyboard Manager

  Out-of-the-box Data Capture by VoiceObjects Server
-  Dimensional Data model optimized for BI analysis
-  Integrates with data from ASR, CTI, and CRM
CTI
Data
IVR
Data
CRM
Data
Infostore
VoiceObjects
Analyzer
(Business Objects,
Cognos,
MicroStrategy)
3rd party
Analysis Tools
  Analysis and Reporting
-  Based on standard business intelligence tools
-  60+ predefined Reports, based on real-time data
-  Extends existing Data Warehouse
-  Includes Customer behavior and business analysis
  Highest Rated Analytics Package in the Market
VoiceObjects Infostore and Analyzer!

How to provision a Twitter app!
  Steps to success:
1.  Create a VoiceObjects text application
(or add a text layer to an existing voice application)
2.  Deploy it on a VoiceObjects Server
3.  Add an application within your IMified account
a)  Configure URL to VoiceObjects Server
b)  Add Twitter account
4.  Send initial message to start Twitter dialog

Step 1+2: Create and Deploy!
  Build normal IVR call flow in
VoiceObjects
  Adjust presentation layer:
•  Output
•  Input (Grammars)
  ... but keep business logic & backend
integration
  Deploy

3: Create Application on IMiﬁed!
3. Add to end of URL:
&vsDriver=173&User-Agent=IMified
instructs VoiceObjects Server to
activate IMified mode
1. Create (free) IMified account
http://www.imified.com/
2. Create new Bot
4. Go through Twitter activation
process

What Next For Twitter?!
  Several ideas under consideration
  Direct Messages
•  Allow for private communication
•  Requires “following” to be successful
  Twitter Search
  Public Timeline
  What would YOU like to be able to do?

On The Horizon - Facebook!
  Facebook Chat is possible
today... but basically useless for
companies because of FB accounts restrictions
  OpenGraph API now allows interaction with
Facebook Pages that wasn’t possible before
  Ideas under consideration:
•  Monitor a Page and alert on new postings /
comments or a new Like
•  Posting of content to a Page
  What would YOU like to be able to do?

Next Steps!
  Sign up for a free Tropo account:
•  http://www.tropo.com/
  Download a free copy of VoiceObjects:
•  http://developers.voiceobjects.com/

Resources!
  Tropo – http://www.tropo.com/
•  Documentation - https://www.tropo.com/docs/
•  Blog posts: http://blog.tropo.com/tag/twitter/
  VoiceObjects – http://www.voiceobjects.com/
•  Developer site – http://developers.voiceobjects.com/
  Unified Self-Service blog:
•  http://blogs.voxeo.com/unifiedselfservice/
  Voxeo Labs
•  http://labs.voxeo.com/

Topic: Who you gonna call? Place and Receive
Phone Calls from your Web Browser using
PhonoSDK
Date: December 16, 2010, 11am US Eastern
Next Developer Jam Session!

Serving the Social Customer: Scaling Your Support For Twitter, Facebook and More

Serving the Social Customer: Scaling Your Support For Twitter, Facebook and More

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