What is a socially enabled call center? Well, to put it simply, a socially enabled call center is one that utilizes social media to effectively interact with and handle all customer service. The socially enabled call center is not limited to one or two channels, such as live-chat or voice, but uses social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter to handle customer service issues.
The world of customer service is changing all the time and social media is proving to be one of the driving forces behind this change. GARTNER recently reported that by 2020 customers will manage about 85% of their customer service issues without talking to a human. This means the social media platforms that are used in customer service today, will continue to grow as the preference for resolving customer issues in the years ahead.
So what does this mean for the call center? The call center of the future will need to be increasingly more customer-centric via social media. For example, making sure the customer is happy with their assistance and ensuring they get prompt attention and feedback on all their issues. How do you ensure this happens? Well, let’s take a look at a couple of ways to ensure exceptional customer service as you build a socially enabled call center.
- Hire customer-centric people: Anyone can be trained to answer questions and solve problems, but there are some people who have a knack for “keeping their cool” in the midst of a difficult conversation and knowing how to diffuse an irritated customer’s emotions. People with this strength should be placed on the “front-line”, so to speak, of the customer service arsenal. Hiring agents who know how to ask the right questions, offering understanding and reassurance that the customer’s issue will be resolved is the first step in building exceptional customer service that sets your brand apart from your competitor’s.
- Increase your response time across channels: Social media today has made everything immediate. One negative interaction with a company and the word can be out on Facebook and Twitter in a nano-second. How quickly your team responds to these interactions will make or break your business. A Socially enabled call center will be monitoring these channels continuously and respond accordingly to resolve the issue. The more agile your call center is across social media channels, the better.
So there are two factors for developing a socially enabled call center. More tips will follow on my next blog; I hope you’ll come back.
This blog was written by Etech’s Jim Iyoob, Chief Customer Officer. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at [email protected].