A usability-focused review of Vodafone UK's Facebook customer care presence. Second in BillingViews' series on Social CRM in the communications industry.

1. Our Series on Social CRM
Case File #2: Vodafone UK
Enthusiastic, but in need of organization.
October 2011
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

2. About Our Social CRM Series
• Examines how Communications
Operators engage customers on
Facebook
• Focuses on overall approach and
usability issues
• Identifies positives and negatives
• Provides a checklist of practical
improvements
• Working to establish industry-wide
best practices for Social CRM in
communications
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

3. FAQ
Why Facebook?
• Because it is currently the most popular, consumer-facing social
networking community in the world.
Why not Twitter?
• Well, we may get there. We’re starting with Facebook.
What’s your purpose?
• Social Networks are evolving and may become superb, low cost channels
for customer engagement. We want to facilitate a dialogue about what is
and isn’t working.
Isn’t this just fluffy, pop culture stuff?
• It can be, but we aim to apply proven principles – channel management,
user interface design, common sense – to call out useful lessons learned.
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

4. Case File #2: Vodafone UK
Positives
(+) Active, personal responses to
customers
(+) More than 288k “Likes”
(1.5% of customers)
(+) Easy to find via search and to
Negatives
discern from false positives
(-) Basic usability issues
(-) Hit-or-miss follow-ups
(-) Inelegant integration to
Online Self-Care
(-) Inconsistent linkage from
website to Facebook care
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5. Vodafone UK Positives
(+) Active, personal responses
to customers
 Dedicated Web Relations team
responds rapidly to customers
 Provides patient, personal
replies to complaints and
questions
 Presents relevant links within
direct responses to customers
to help resolve issues
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

6. Vodafone UK Positives
(+) More than 288k “Likes”
 Roughly 1.5% of customer base has
decided to “Like” Vodafone UK; means
they receive the operator’s posts in their
Facebook newsfeeds
 Active community engages with
operator to offer praise, participate in
polls and promos, seek help and
support, and – of course- to complain
 Vodafone makes a sincere effort to
interact positively with all customers,
but polices offensive comments and
explains when they’ve done so
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7. Vodafone UK Positives
(+) Easy to find via search and to
discern from false positives
 Vodafone UK main page is first
search response and easy to identify
 No impostor profiles confusing
customers seeking help
 Sure, you see the inevitable hate
groups, but it’s easy to discern them
from the real thing
 Some trademark abuse in play, but
relatively limited in scope
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8. Vodafone UK Negatives
(-) Basic Usability Issues
- Customer Services labeled clearly, but only
appears below the “more” fold
- Discussions make for a useful care forum,
but not clearly labeled as such and also
appearing only below the “more” fold
- Navigation to page takes users direct to
Vodafone Music, not to main Wall or Care
- Far too many menu items with no intuitive
organizational structure or cohesive purpose
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9. Vodafone UK Negatives
(-) Hit-or-Miss Follow Ups
- Agents provide customers with
links to online email form and asks
them to enter code of “WRT135”
- Customers don’t always get it right
and requests get lost in the ether
(see right)
- Not a seamless approach to driving
online care
- Economics are off; Relies too much
on staff assistance
- Not a consistent way to resolve
problems and drive customer
satisfaction
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10. Vodafone UK Negatives
(-) Inelegant integration to online
self-care
- Screen real-estate in Customer
Services section not optimized
(clickable options go far below
what’s shown to the right)
- All links open new browser window,
forcing customer out of Facebook
environment
- Second link – to “Troubleshooting”
– a broken link
- No use of “social sign-on” option to
create seamless e-care access
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

11. Vodafone UK Negatives
(-) Inconsistent linkage from
website to Facebook care
- Link to Facebook presence
buried at bottom of eForum
page
- eForum page is 3 clicks and a
few scrolls away from
homepage
- Other Facebook icon links
trigger a ‘share this page’
option and don’t link to
Facebook profile
- Facebook and Twitter aren’t
included in Contact Us menus
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12. Lessons Learned
• Land customers in the right place. Sending all customers to a non-essential
page (like Music, for example) creates barriers to help and care.
• Keep menus simple. Too many menu items with no coherent organizational
flow defies basic usability rules; creates user confusion and frustration.
• Position links correctly, and test them. Hiding links to care options “below
the fold” is a barrier to channel use; broken links are an absolute no-no.
• Optimize screen real-estate: Facebook design and presentation options can
be inflexible, but users should not have to scroll to find useful links.
• Stay within the environment. Use Social CRM as an easy path to existing
online care; but don’t force customers to leave the social network.
• Use social sign-on. At the least, give customers the option of having single
(or social) sign-on between social network and online care tools.
• Link back to social network. Make customers aware that Social CRM is an
option on main website and link back to social CRM consistently and clearly.
• Get the economics right. Too much assistance-based help with non-
integrated processes and tools hurt the cost equation for the operator.
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

13. Coming Soon in Our Social CRM Series
• Verizon Communications
• Telefonica
• Deutsche Telekom
• America Movil
• NTT DoCoMo
• France Telecom
• Telenor
• And many more…
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

14. What is BillingViews?
BillingViews is the global
home for billing and CRM
expertise and intelligence
in the communications
and media industries.
www.billingviews.com
Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

15. Who Produces BillingViews?
Alex Leslie Ed Finegold
• Globally recognized billing and • Globally published BSS/OSS
payments expert expert
• Contributor to • Ghost writer and strategist for
ConnectedPlanet.com leading BSS providers
• Former Founder of the Global • Former Editor-in-Chief of
Billing Association Billing World Magazine
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