Social Media Marketing Expertise: customer service

The Incite Group held its 6th annual Customer Service Summit in New York last week, and as is my custom at conferences, I live-tweeted (using hashtag #INCITECS) as a form of note-taking. This makes it much easier to share my learnings later.

Much of the discussion was about customer service social media, with great case studies from brands about being proactive, handling a crisis, leveraging messaging apps (and yes, bots), and being willing to experiment.

Conversocial CEO Joshua March explained that people turn to social media for customer service because it’s easy, convenient, and mobile.But they have clear expectations of the brands they engage:

Jeff Lesser, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Twitter, added that 63% of complainers on Twitter just want to be acknowledged and shown some empathy (which happens less than half the time, he said).

And while social began as a channel of last resort for frustrated customers, the tide may be turning. "Customers are realizing this is actually a channel they can come to first," said Dallen McKee, Social Care Team Leader at eBay.

Here are 5 themes that emerged from listening to two day’s worth of great presenters:

1. Follow the customer

Start with the question of “Where are your customers having conversations about your brand?” said Kriti Kapoor, Global Director of Social Customer Care at HP. Brands must discover where customers are and then provide customer service there, rather than waiting at owned channels, she added.

Sasha Lucas, Head of Digital Customer Engagement Strategy at Verizon, concurred: “People are going to stop coming to brands,” she said. “Brands are going to need to come to them."

David Tull, Customer Engagement Manager of Jack Threads, summarized his company’s simple customer service philosophy this way: “Where is the customer? That's where they want to be. Let's answer them there.”

2. Be proactive

Several companies noted that they are shifting to a more proactive strategy on social media, which has benefits for both the customer and the brand:

HP has been consistently developing proactive solutions in social media to help customers self-serve, Kapoor explained. For example, the company creates FAQs that can be consumed by many customers in order to scale a channel where it sees hundreds of thousands of inquiries a year.
Dell introduced a Back to School blog to proactively address the “same questions” the company sees about its products every year, said Head of Social Media Outreach Amy Bivin. Dell also listens carefully to online forums, which Bivin called an "early warning system" for Dell to hear about issues with products.
Jack Threads searches for references to "prom suits" in social media during prom season to find people who might want to try on a new brand.
Customers of Frontier Communications may soon get proactive tweets alerting them to service outages, according to Vice President Hillary Hahn.

Sara Grace McCandless of Sykes Enterprises suggested that new product releases are an excellent time to be proactive. "Don't wait for the questions to come in," she advised, saying that a "preparedness kit" with FAQs can help head off customer service inquiries. Reactive customer service, she added, is "a good place to start, but it's not a place to finish".

The good news is that all of this doesn’t necessarily mean more work for the social media or customer service teams. “Being proactive reduces the need to be reactive,” says Mark Grigg, Director of Cargo Customer Service at Southwest Airlines, so “it doesn't inhibit standard customer service”.

3. Messaging is here to stay

Both Facebook and Twitter have invested heavily in their direct messaging platforms, correctly identifying them as ideal locations for customer service. Brands love that private messages are not subject to public critique, and customers love the ability to explain issues in more detail and have a more natural back-and-forth with a service agent.

When messaging a brand, customers expect: Convenience, Simplicity, Communication, Personalization, and Genuine Conversations, said Frank Chevallier, Vice President of Software Products for LiveWorld.

Citing a Nielsen study, Chevallier added that there are many potential use cases for customer service in messaging apps, including asking questions or seeking information, making or confirming an appointment, making a purchase, inquiring about product inventory or store hours, and giving feedback to a brand.

5 Actionable Social Media Takeaways from the Customer Service Summit | Social Media Today

The best news? One of LiveWorld’s clients is seeing 11x more engagement in messaging apps vs. “traditional” social media platforms.

4. Don’t fear the Bots

A discussion of messaging apps wouldn’t be complete without bringing up bots, and that subject was frequently debated during the conference.

“If you integrate bots and humans into a customer service interaction, you play to both of their strengths,” LiveWorld Chevallier said.

Twitter's Lesser demonstrated how the social media platform’s new Welcome Messages and Quick Replies can augment human customer service by making basic back-and-forth interactions fast and simple while ensuring that a human agent is only a click away.

So far, customers don’t seem to be afraid of using bots as some predicted. LiveWorld’s Chevallier explained that top use cases are already being discovered, including “quick product/service answers”, locating the appropriate human agent, ordering basic items, resolving complaints, and booking reservations.

5. Try new things

“Good things come to those who try," said Tull from Jack Threads, which seems like good advice for more than just fashion.

After listening to its customers in social media and observing how they shop, Jack Threads changed its entire model to what it calls the “Tryouts” program. Customers can now order anything they want on the site without paying, try everything on at home, decide what to keep and what to return in the free return box, and only pay for what they keep.

"It created a lot of work for us and took away a lot of work for the customer," Tull explained, adding that the program has been successful in increasing sales.

Author: Dan Gingiss
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Social media takes time. Lots of time. But it has the potential to really build your business and brand.

If your waking hours are needed elsewhere and you don’t have a team member to take over, you should consider using a freelance resource. That may sound like an easy decision, but finding a competent resource is a real challenge.

Many people talk the talk, but very few walk the walk. Alas, the world is full of fast-talking people who know enough buzzwords to convince you to hire them as “social media experts.”

Here are 12 questions I now ask of anyone – whether it’s a potential full-time employee or consultant – who claims social media expertise and proposes to help with social media.

Take this list seriously, because paying someone who does nothing for you is worse than doing nothing in the first place.

1. What was your college major?

Social media management requires professional-level English language and writing skills. First and foremost, it’s a writing job.

While there are always exceptions to the rules, those who didn’t major in English, journalism, marketing, or PR, or haven’t worked extensively in those fields, may not be able to communicate and engage at the level needed to represent your company.

2. What type of unedited writing samples can you share with me?

Everyone has a portfolio; but by the time things get published, editors and copy supervisors have often spent as much time rewriting as the writer invested in the first place (if you want an earful, just ask any editor).

You never want to look at published samples; you want to see the raw copy that was submitted to the publisher. While there may not be writing samples of social media posts, anyone applying for the job should have articles or relevant memoranda to share.

3. What’s your client service experience?

Managing social media requires a good sense of how to do client service and customer service correctly. If you haven’t worked for a company as an account executive, client service manager, customer service manager, etc., you can’t service potential customers in social media.

4. What are some examples of how you have worked to sell your ideas in collaborative environments?

Social media is a collaborative marketing and communications function. How has this candidate led a team, or been a major contributor to one?

Critical here are superior listening skills (as opposed to fast-talking skills). How well does this candidate understand, and work with, the various threads of conversation?

5. What is your experience with public relations?

Look for any involvement in setting up or managing events. Ask to see press releases (unedited examples, of course).

Gauge experience in working with the media and an understanding of how the world of journalism operates. This is critical to developing relationships with the media and getting them to cover you.

6. What is your experience with graphic design?

Ask the candidate to name the graphics programs he/she is proficient in, and to rate his skill level as competent, advanced, or able to teach the course.

Then ask this question: What is the best way to create and add graphics to the top four social networks.

7. Can you answer these questions?

What is CPM?
What is CPC?
What is excess inventory?
How do you manage content?
Can you show me an example of a marketing calendar you have done?
What is a social ecosystem?
What is a flight?
How many social networks are there?

These are basic knowledge for anyone laying claim to a social media skill set. If you, the hiring manager, need the answers, contact me. If you’re a job candidate and can’t answer them: You’re not ready to take a paid job in social media.

8. How would you deal with this situation?

This is your opportunity to see how the candidate thinks. Provide one or more social media challenges that need to be dealt with (or have been previously dealt with).

These challenges should relate to your social media goals. Evaluate the level of sophistication of the response.

9. How would you assess our current plan?

Share your social media plan and get live feedback. Evaluate the level of the questions the candidate asks. Don’t provide the plan in advance – you want to see how candidates think on their feet, without outside help.

10. Do you have experience in advertising?

It’s a bonus credential if the candidate has ever bought, sold, or managed media, especially online media. As always, ask for examples.

11. What types of references can you provide, who can address what you have achieved for them?

Perhaps this should be the first question, since if there is no one who can endorse the candidate’s skills and accomplishments, why spend time on the other questions?

12. How many hours do you think this requires?

This is a key question when the social media job is part-time or outsourced. Someone who “practices” social media daily will be able to answer the question of how many hours need to be allocated daily/weekly to everything you need done. Then, it’s up to you to budget for it or review your expectations.

Summary

This might seem like a lot to ask in an initial round of interviews, but it’s better to lose some time up front than lose your sanity later due to a social media pretender.

Any questions you’d add to the list? Leave or comment, or connect with me directly.

Image Credit: Jason Howie/Flickr¸

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Tuesday, 22 November 2016

5 Actionable Social Media Takeaways from the Customer Service Summit