In a spot on CNN Money this week, Ryan Holmes pointed out that as more consumers use social media networks like Twitter to voice customer service complaints, companies are struggling to keep up with the volume. Are Twitter “robots” the answer, tools that automate the listening and response processes to the extent that replies are sent out as “canned” tweets?
I think our social customers deserve better.
True or not, there is a growing perception among consumers that social media is a direct route to the company’s ear. A company that fails to respond to a negative tweet not only fails to resolve the initial complaint but also generates additional ill will. Just as you wouldn’t leave a customer with a problem waiting unattended at a customer service desk, you don’t want to ignore problems online. Nothing makes an unhappy customer unhappier than being ignored.
In fact, new data reported by Arnold Worldwide suggests that nearly 60 percent of consumers globally expect brands to respond to social media comments regarding service at least most of the time.
But this is compounded by the fact that a customer with a problem generally wants to be helped by a human being. The thought of “robots” fielding tweets conjures the same visceral reaction as a caller being fed into a never-ending, “please-press-one” loop with no way to ever speak to a live human.
A better solution: Empower agents to be your social brand ambassadors.
While social media demands highly personalized customer contact, your contact center can only operate efficiently when it is ruled by processes. The right processes are critical to the customer experience – and they can be extended to social interactions. Automated monitoring tools can flag potential problem tweets and posts, sending them into an agent’s queue just like a phone call. In this way, an actual human – not a robot – has the task of responding and resolving issues voiced through social channels.
These capabilities are part of Aspect’s Social Media Channel Integration, an extended solution for the contact center, which you can find details on here.
Read more:
Social Media: A Two-Way Street