Critical to meeting customers' needs is knowing, and as soon as possible what they are saying about your firm good and bad, suggestions and criticisms, which especially in the latter often points to issues that need immediate rectification to retain customers and draw in new ones.
Social media is rapidly becoming a key source of this information because it is available visually on a rapidly expanding array of sites. At the same time its nature: it is media, global and for the most part public, makes it imperative that you monitor, track, capture, analyze and respond to in hyper-time customers' and prospects' voices.
Camille Thompson, Marketing Communications Specialist, Inova Solutions points that after an especially negative encounter with a company many consumers, both young and old, turn to social media sites to vent about bad experiences and caution friends and family against particular brands.
She made her comments on a new Inova Solutions corporate blog at www.insideinova.com. Her firm is encouraging customers, prospects and others to interact with it via this social media site.
"The problem for businesses today, is that it's not only friends and family of individual users that 'hear' these rants," says Thompson. "Sites like Twitter and Facebook serve as loudspeakers, broadcasting dissatisfaction, and occasionally satisfaction, to millions of people across the web."
Contact centers have become the hub for monitoring and responding to these online customers, Thompson points out. Here are three keys she offers to help guide you to a successful social media monitoring plan:
1. Determine your objectives and define your goals
Before you begin scouring the web for every mention of your company name, know what it is you want to accomplish. Do you want to respond to every person that mentions your company? Probably not: if you're a huge brand that gets thousands, or millions, of mentions every day. But if you're a smaller brand, deeply engaging in conversation with your customers could be highly valuable. Do you want to respond to positive comments about your company or products? What about retweeting (or reposting) comments from users? What kind of value do you want to add to the conversation? Social media has a lot of potential, but in order to accomplish anything you must know exactly what you want to accomplish and ensure your social media goals and objectives align with corporate goals and objectives.
Having clearly defined, measurable goals is another must. Things to consider include: how many followers or fans you have; how often you want to post content; the number of interactions you want to have with people; how quickly you want to respond to comments and the list goes on and on. Laying out a plan with specific goals will help keep everyone in your contact center aware of what you're working to accomplish.
2. Determine your metrics
Once you've established your goals, decide what key metrics will help you define success. Some common metrics include:
3. Employ monitoring tools to assist you
Social media is just one item on a long list of items that contact centers are responsible for. Instead of spending hours and hours trying to monitor numerous social media sites on your own, make use of free tools and tools your vendors may already provide. A quick Google search for "social media monitoring tools" reveals over four million results including companies that offer paid monitoring services as well as ideas for free tools. If spending money on another tool isn't an option, check with your current vendors to see if their systems can integrate social media with the contact center solutions you already have in place.