Channel overload! - Contact Management

Customer
Service
Call centers
as social
media hubs
By David Baker
O
ver the years, contact centers have begun to adopt a number
of media for reaching their customers. But even the perfect
multichannel blend of phone, email, and voice seems to lack yet
another crucial element of the conversation.
The hype is hard to ignore – social media is gearing up to have a
profound effect on contact center operations and overall business
success when it comes to communicating with your customer base.
Ignoring the onset of this medium can leave a business vulnerable and
voiceless in the face of criticism, dramatically impacting their ability to
build transparency and garner loyalty.
In the near future, contact centers will most certainly become social
media hubs because so much of consumer conversation, interactions,
and chatter is moving to and happening within the
social sphere. If organizations want to be
tuned in to what consumers have to
say about them, then
adding a social
media
element to
their CIM business plan is simply
inevitable.
Missing out on the
conversation
As customers openly share
their experience across social
networks, opinions can become
viral. Recently, there was a huge
barrage of negative messages on
Facebook about a leading global
Telecom brand. One message
led to another and it picked up
massive momentum. Not only
were customers discussing recent
issues, but they were revisiting
past conflicts surrounding the
company as well.
Fuel to the fire
Unfortunately for the brand, the
contact center had launched an
outreach campaign just around
the same time. This outreach
campaign spoke about how
important relationships are
to them and gave consumers
the name and number of their
relationship managers. As you can
imagine, this only made
the messages on
18 | contactmanagement.ca FALL 2012