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Social Media Monitoring and Customer Service

Heather Richards, VP Professional Services, Transversal

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Introductions

Heather Richards, VP Professional Services, Transversal

Gareth Ham, Head of Insights, Technology Partner

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What we do

» Specialists in Natural Language Knowledge technology» “Software as a Service” (since 2002)» Flexible self-service solutions that streamline customer/agent

interactions» Best Practice Consultancy» Multi-Channel Self-Service

» web sites» internal agents» mobile» targeted sales» social media

Empower organisations

to deliver consistentand relevant information

24/7

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Social Media Monitoring Landscape

» Changes in attitudes and use of Social Media» Social Media Monitoring has been traditionally used in PR and

Marketing – but now, we see a broadening of its function» Customers will contact you through Social Media» Less about volume, but more about reach and influence» Are you prepared to respond via the customer’s channel of choice?

Quocirca, 2011

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Social Media – First Steps

» RSS» syndicated content

» Facebook and customer support integration» online support through channels other than corporate website

» ‘I Iike’ and ‘Share this!’ buttons» using communities to share your content and products

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RSS Feeds – Social Broadcasting

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Facebook – Inform and Support

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Social Media –Content Sharing

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‘Social’ Customer Service

What does Transversal mean by ‘Social’ Customer Services?» Its not just about monitoring or broadcasting ‘noise’, but responding

appropriately» Creating a balance between using a social channel and providing

individualised responses» Meeting the challenges of introducing Social Media into traditional

service channels

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The Voice of the Customer

» Transversal has always advocated using the voice of the customer as part of a customer service strategy. » Dynamic FAQs» Workflow between customer feedback channels, online support and

content creation» Intelligence that provides not just what customers are looking at, but

what they are looking for

» Social Media Monitoring provides a more complete picture of the relationship between your brand and your customers.

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Social Media – Monitoring and Response

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True Multi-Channel Support

» Social Media Monitoring within the Transversal Platform provides a true multi-channel customer support tool

» Reply to emails, SMS, tweets, blogs» Prioritise which social comments need to be answered first» Get an overview of your brand in the social world, but the ability drill

down to the detail

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Gareth Ham

HEAD OF INSIGHTS

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Online customer service conversation about the leading 40 brands declined in tone year-on-year

This is further confirmation that consumers are turning more and more to the web to discuss problems about this topic, rather than to praise brands. Although we need not interpret this finding as necessarily indicative of falling customer service standards, this does not make response tactics any less important

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John Lewis customer service conversation was far superior in sentiment to any other brand in the study

Rank Brand Net sentiment score Score

1 John Lewis 57% 422 Waitrose 15% 33 B&Q 3% 14 American Express -2% 05 Groupon -3% 0

FORUMamazon.co.uk

TWITTER@fayebarker

“ Also had delivery issues with the machine and Amazon UK customer service are really poorly trained. Got the replacement machine from John Lewis without problems. ”

“ @johnlewisretail Brilliant customer service in Kingston today. Faulty toy, no receipt, no quibbles. Thanks from me and happy toddler! ”

Waitrose, also part of The John Lewis Partnership, was second in the study, proving that the group’s customer service strategy as a whole is on a higher plane than both direct and indirect competitors.

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TalkTalk was by far the most negatively discussed brand in the evaluation period

Rank Brand Net sentiment score Score

36 Virgin Media -59% -3737 British Airways -62% -3738 Vodafone -65% -3939 Santander -78% -6640 TalkTalk -74% -119

FORUMtalktalkmembers.com

TWITTER@sheffieldforum.co.uk

“ I am having a hell of a time with TalkTalk. I keep being passed the buck and am being told conflicting information about leaving TalkTalk and the early termination fees. ”

“ TalkTalk customer service just read from a script with a flow chart. Not one of them seems to have the ability to deviate from this and actually apply logical diagnosis. It's most likely a fault with their equipment. ”

Three telecoms providers made up the lowest five ranked brands in the CSI 2012. Interestingly, TalkTalk’s members forum acts to concentrate a significant proportion of consumer complaints to one location.

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John Lewis was the only brand that was discussed positively overall among the individual sector winners

Sector Brand Score Overall rank

Retail John Lewis 42 1

Telecoms Motorola -3 7

Transport Virgin Atlantic -5 10

Financial services American Express 0 5

Logistics Royal Mail -12 19

Technology Hewlett Packard -5 11

Utilities British Gas* -34 24

* British Gas was the only utilities provider among the 40 analysed brands. Despite this, the company can still be held to represent the sector as a whole for the purposes of this study.

Of the brands in the CSI 2012, the 40 selected for further analysis broke down nicely into seven sectors. As we’ll see on the subsequent slide, retail brands in general were well perceived more often on social media platforms than those in other industries.

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Brands in the retail sector were clearly more highly regarded by social media users discussing customer service

Whilst technology and telecoms providers were the poorest perceived overall. Telecoms brand operate in an industry where consumers largely only take to social media in the event of a problem, rather to praise the brand concerned. This is also the case with utilities, potentially because the brands may not be as ‘fashionable’.

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Retail and transport brands were the most likely to elicit general praise about customer serviceThe chart below corresponds fairly accurately to the findings of slide 12

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OTHER METRICS

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John Lewis was the most prolific brand on Twitter in the evaluation period

TWITTER@m6wxy

“ Appalling service I received at the checkout @bandq still grating. Not an hello,goodbye no eye contact. Just talking 2 her friends #b&q ”

“ @MrGaz_H Hiya, sorry to hear you received bad service, please email at forumfeedback@b-and-q.co.uk with details and I will look into. Sue ”

TWITTER@bandq

B&Q was the second most regular contributor, posting two-thirds of the output of John Lewis. Four of the leading five brands in the CSI 2012 posted more than five times a day on Twitter.

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John Lewis was the fastest of the top five brands to respond to tweeters

TWITTER@woodhallclare

“ @johnlewisretail Hi, online the Barbour Leather Travel Explorer Bag, Brown is out of stock. Does your Solihull store have it in? Thanks.”

“ @WoodhallClare Hello! Please contact the Solihull branch on 0121 704 1121 and they will be able to check availability for

you. ”

TWITTER@johnlewisretail

Combined with the findings of the previous slide, the positive perception of John Lewis within social media customer service discussion becomes slightly clearer. The brand posted nearly as often as the most prolific tweeter, whilst responses to consumers are by far the swiftest.

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Groupon was the leading performer on Facebook of the top-ranked brands, responding to an impressive 88% of postsInterestingly, John Lewis and B&Q, the most prolific tweeters, were significantly behind Groupon in terms of Facebook output, suggesting that the leading brands in terms of customer service could be choosing one platform on which to devote the majority of resources.

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Sample John Lewis exchanges

TWITTER@jlcustserv

“ @JLcustserv have forwarded my husbands earlier email to your customer services. Terrible service ”

“ @johnlewisretail #JohnLewis customer services really are second to none. Unfailingly polite and helpful #settingthebarhigh

#happycustomer ”

“ Favourite Shop of mine rapidly becoming a bit of a nightmare! Dishwasher delivered eventually and installed only to leak water all over my kitchen floor this weekend... ”

“ @JudeandOllie It's John Lewis thank you we are now following up as discussed and the refund is in process ”

“ @AmyCS1974 @johnlewisretail It's John Lewis Thank you for your kind comment about our service it good to get your positive feedback ”

“ Hi Tracey, it’s Madeleine. Thank you for your post and for bringing this to our attention, our apologies you have had this experience with your dishwasher. ”

TWITTER@judeandollie

TWITTER@amycs1974

TWITTER@jlcustserv

FACEBOOKTracey Collins

FACEBOOKJohn Lewis

The threads singled-out below show three exchanges between customers and official John Lewis representatives. Staff responded to requests of varying severity, even seeking to further enhance consumer loyalty by thanking a complimentary tweeter. The example to the right shows how John Lewis attempts to personalise its dialogue as a means of appearing more empathetic.

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ConclusionFor two consecutive years, the Customer Service Index has shown a clear trend towards negative posts in this field on social media. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of all customer service content posted by social media users in the UK in the 2012 study was downbeat towards the companies in question and a mere three of the 40 brands analysed showed more upbeat content.

But should we consider this normal? If we consider the reasons driving people to social media to discuss brands, it’s perhaps understandable that complaints and wider negativity is more prevalent online. In the wider context of our interaction with goods and services providers, bad customer service remains anomalous. Despite a range of Twitter users attempting to prove this conclusion wrong, the chances are that consumers rarely turn to the web to convey mundanity - in this case regular, or even good, customer service experiences.

Although we may understand this to be the case, this should not present a reason for brands to be blasé. Even if the vast space of online consumer discussion is widely negative, this remains damaging for the companies on the end of the stick, potentially damaging footfall and revenue. Acceptance of this arena should, contrary to relaxation, cajole brands into managing this negativity. Concentrating a social media strategy on building a loyal and vocal fanbase, for example, should help to dilute the importance of downbeat conversation. Why wait for complaints to be posted before carrying out great customer service?

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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

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Monitoring conversation in real time allows a brand to react to customer service updates as they are posted » Customer service enquiries are frequently posted by social media users – monitoring

these using an SMM tool means that responses can be given much sooner» Monitoring this content helps to quickly deal with difficult situations in the form of

complaints (left) as well as encourage and escalate complimentary content posted by social media users (right)

» Fast monitoring allows for responses to be sent to users by dedicated staff rather than a simple automated message acknowledging receipt of a tweet

» Listening to social media conversation has taught us that users by far prefer good quality, personal responses over speed alone

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SMM also allows data to be analysed over time togain more insight into what works

» Data can be categorised in a multitude of ways to ensure that specific areas of customer service can be reviewed and scrutinised. Rather than simply question the sentiment of brand conversation, we can ask questions such as: Why are complaints about our mobile phone division often negative on Facebook but not on Twitter?

» Bespoke metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be used to give a snapshot of whether strategies are working over time

» Data can be visualised using charts and other graphics to combine and contrast findings from various places

» Sales or NPS data can be overlaid to identify the more tangible impact of good (or bad) customer service

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Social media strategies can be implemented to provide great customer service before complaints are received

» Adidas uses similar approaches on both Twitter and Facebook. The brand engages with social media users proactively by segmenting output by sport, retail product and customer type to build a loyal community of fans

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Find out more about our Social Media Monitoring Solution:

www.transversal.com/solutions/social-media-monitoring

Contact us:

01223 488 700

www.transversal.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Transversal/158958360663

http://twitter.com/#!/transversaltalk

http://www.linkedin.com/company/transversal