July 2, 2015
Social media has become so deeply ingrained in American society that these days, the outsider is someone who doesn't Take part in this new way of communicating. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook (News – Alert), Instagram, or any of the myriad other options available—it seems as if everyone uses something ‘socially.’
This is a point that has not gone unnoticed by contact centers. Since people are no longer content to simply pick up the phone and wade through a menu of options, many customers are now actively seeking a better way to get in touch. As a result, customer relationship management and those responsible for it have had to ‘step up their game.’
In a recent blog post, Mariann McDonagh of inContact provided an overview of this phenomenon.
‘With approximately half a billion tweets sent each day and 1.44 billion active Facebook users, social media presents a host of new challenges and opportunities in the realm of customer relationship management (CRM),” she noted. “People are tweeting not only about their customer service needs but also about the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of their experiences with companies.”
She also cited some figures from evolve24, a data analytics and insights company that measures audience perception and uses that understanding to help clients change behavior.
“According to evolve24, 70 percent of customer tweets to companies are being ignored — and the damage can be significant. Gartner (News 
– Alert) estimates that failure to respond via social media can lead to an increase of up to 15 percent in the churn rate for existing customers,” she added.
McDonagh outlined what she described as the “challenges” companies are facing in this new arena:
Vast quantities of social interactions. “A critical ingredient for success is the ability to identify the most relevant interactions and prioritize conversations within large volumes of social data,” McDonagh said.
Silos of customer information. As a new data stream, incoming social interactions need to be integrated with customer service management and reporting systems, as well as with other customer data sources—from CRM to billing to scheduling.
Operational efficiency. “Traditionally, social media channels have been primarily the responsibility of marketing teams, which are not structured to handle one-on-one customer interactions,” she noted. “As volume increases, companies are shifting social customer service to contact center operations.”
McDonagh cites research indicating that about 80 percent of social media posts are not relevant to customer service, which means sifting through a lot of chaff to find the “wheat.” But such efforts can pay off in the long run in terms of customer satisfaction—and customer retention. It’s an effort worth making.