Customer Service Buzz

I saw an interview on CNN over the weekend with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. In this short spot, only a few minutes long, one of Dorsey’s few talking points was how wildly popular Twitter is as a customer service platform. 

We all know that Twitter is popular. And not just among the millennial generation—almost 65% of Twitter users are over 35 years old. Last month’s World Cup Final is a prime example of Twitter’s reach—people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages, generating more than 2,000 tweets-per-second.

The opportunities in social media for customer service are many: drive loyalty, deflect contacts, educate customers, and capture VOC. Those are nice goals, but are they really different from goals of the live channel? Mostly not. But there’s something unique about the spirit with which Twitter accomplishes these goals.

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Having spoken recently with some of CCC’s European members (one from the Travel & Leisure industry and three from the Financial Services industries), one of the questions that invariably arise is: how should I use Twitter or Facebook or other types of Social Media for customer service? 

Photo: Andreas Praefcke

In my last post about Social Media, I didn’t address this specific question, only venturing as far as to say: 

Using Twitter [or Social Media in general] in the customer service realm is not about amassing the most number of followers or how many emails we send, it’s about measuring the number of customers we help and showing that to executives. Second, it’s using that customer feedback from Social Media to make real improvements, hopefully at the root-cause level, to our customer experience to boost satisfaction and loyalty.

That addresses what Social Media’s general goal/success measure should be, but that doesn’t address the question of how to take action in social media channels to achieve that goal. Read More »

Prank calling is one of those things we know is wrong, but it is hard not to laugh at a good prank call.  It’s a similar feeling to slapstick comedy—you’re indulging in somebody else’s misery.  Once upon a time, to enjoy a good prank call, you actually had to make the calls yourself.  Today, though, YouTube offers a seemingly endless supply of prank calls at your fingertips.  All of the laughs, and none of the guilt.

If you browse the prank calls posted on YouTube, you might find your company is on the wrong end of the joke.  These interactions are generally benign (aside from wasting your money), and your company likely won’t come away with a tarnished reputation (assuming that your rep handled it as a normal call or at least exited the conversation gracefully).  For now let’s entertain ourselves with perhaps the most adorable prank call ever, conducted by Little Becky (she’s a pro).

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(This is a guest post by Anna Bird of the Marketing Leadership Council, our sister program for marketing leaders and their teams.)

Best Buy’s Twitter-based customer service tool has created a lot of buzz over the last year. We asked John Bernier, Best Buy’s Social Media Steward, what makes it work behind the scenes. John is the Digital Product Line Manager and Social Media Steward at Best Buy. He develops digital products and tools for Best Buy employees and customers, while shepherding social media initiatives, such as Twelpforce.  He has worked at Best Buy since 2004, playing a variety of roles in marketing communications and marketing strategy. We spoke to him early last month. Read More »

When you step in the elevator at work, what’s everyone doing?  No, I’m not talking about that awkward shuffle to maintain appropriate spacing… Everyone is on their mobile device. Checking e-mail, reading the news, texting.

It’s habitual for me and I’m not alone. Say a friendly “hi” to a co-worker? Nope, gotta get rid of these e-mails burning up my inbox before the third floor. Yes, it’s pathetic.

Welcome to the era of the truly mobile customer.

It’s an understatement to say that we struggle to keep pace with how customers interact with our businesses. Six years ago, I remember advising companies to dive (not just dip a toe in the water, but a cannonball plunge) into self-service.

At the time, self-service portals were nothing more than glorified (and quite stale) FAQs. Most service organizations had minor input into this largely marketing-owned channel. The “call center” think about self-service? Please.

Just as we got serious about getting customers to the web, CCC data highlighted that need to shift focus away from migrating customers to self-service channels, toward getting them to stick in those channels. We discovered that nearly 60% of all phone contacts traveled through the web enroute to the phone, and yes, customers now value self-service just as much as live service. That study was another signal that we’re still playing catch-up with customers.

Last week, I read a startling finding – for the first time, customers are using cellular networks more for data exchange than voice.  Read More »

Needless to say (especially living in Washington, DC) it’s hard to find a conversation topic that elicits the same reaction from everyone.  But my experience working in customer service reveals one commonality across all ages, nationalities, races, and eye colors:  If you tell someone you work in customer service, they’ll tell you their latest call center catastrophe. Your former classmate was transferred four times before he found out why his computer screen went blue.  Your aunt could have swept the floors of Madison Square Garden in the time it took her cable company to pick up the phone.  And all your friend’s husband wants to know is what it takes to talk to a human being.  Like it or not, these stories reflexively pour out whenever we answer the inevitable question, “What do you do?”

Our industry certainly receives a disproportionate share of public scorn.  But thankfully, some comedians channel this frustration into something funnier than the typical cocktail party venting session.  Which brings me to my question: What’s the funniest customer service scene you’ve ever seen? (learn about my favorites after the jump)

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I’m an early adopter and passionate advocate of Social Media. It’s part of my job (but primarily it’s because I like this stuff) to help customer service executives be aware, read, and follow some of the best thinkers in this area. This is a few weeks old I admit, however, but there were good takeaways from a SXSW panel on customer service in a 140 character world (e.g Twitter) that I wanted to share.

Thanks to Jeremiah Owyang (by the way, you should be following & reading this guy, he’s doing smart work in the social media space) for the heads up on this panel, which included customer service representatives from Comcast, Microsoft, and HP. Disclosure, the Council works with some of these organisations.

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Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Walgreens are all limiting customer choice in the grocery and drug store aisle.  Why aren’t their customer service and support organizations following suit?

In line with the economic downturn, many retailers and consumer product good firms have realized that limiting customer choice can actually help drive purchase decisions.

The “Paradox of Choice” movement has evangelized this idea.  But it seems the message hasn’t trickled down to service and support…yet.

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I recently came across some data indicating Twitter’s user base has decreased by as much as 19% over the second half of 2009.

While many contradicting findings have been reported—and Twitter says usage is at its highest levels yet and expected to grow—if it isn’t already happening, user base consolidation likely will occur soon as growth cannot continue indefinitely.   Read More »