What is social Customer Service? Learn how RIM tapped social media to: • Expand reach • Gather feedback and learn from social customers • Educate BlackBerry users • Increase engagement with the brand and with their fellow social customers • Empower BlackBerry brand evangelists to support each other • Economically scale an unassisted support channel • Increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and sales revenue
2. Today’s Speakers Joe Cothrel Chief Community Officer Lithium @cothrel Michelle Kostya Social Support Program Manager Research in Motion @michellekostya #lithcast
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4. Social Customer Service Ecosystem Web Site Ratings & Reviews Forums Blogs Ideation Knowledge Base Q&A #lithcast Forums Blogs and more and more 95% peer / 5% direct 5% peer / 95% direct 50% peer / 50% direct
13. Today users rely on social media for research on brand support … Source: Society for New Communications 91% Users say they use some sort of social media at least sometimes to research customer service experiences 85% Ranking of how valuable blogs and discussion forums are as sources of information on a brand’s customer care experiences 63% Ranking of how valuable social media sites are as sources of information on a brand’s customer care experiences
14. … And share experiences 47% Share positive brand experiences online 40% Have criticized a brand on a blog or social network 86% Of Millennials will share their brand preference online Source: StrategyOne/Edelman Survey #lithcast
15. “ Customer service should not be viewed as a cost but as a powerful marketing tool” Source: Zappos #lithcast
16. Social media diminishes our differences Customers don’t care what department you are from #lithcast
19. They were reaching out in different ways 96% of Millennials have joined a social network.* *Source: Customer Experience for the Millennial Generation <1% 25% of Millennials call customer service when seeking support on a product issue.** of respondents who complain via Facebook or Twitter expect a reply within 60 minutes .*** **Source: StrategyOne/Edelman Survey ***Source: Lightspeed Research
20. These customers were talking about BlackBerry On Facebook On Twitter On Forums #lithcast
42. By the numbers 460,000+ followers on @BlackBerryHelp 3 Community Managers 18 full-time dedicated employees 340,000+ Support community members 145,000+ followers on @AyudaBlackBerry 2 Industry awards Shorty and Lithy 3800+ followers on @BlackBerryBantu
44. About Lithium #lithcast The Lithium Social Customer Suite helps great companies turn social customer passion into marketing, product development, and customer service assets. The Lithium Social Customer Suite offers complete social monitoring, a comprehensive community platform, and actionable analytics across millions of blogs, forums, and social networking sites. For market leaders such as Best Buy, AT&T, Research In Motion Limited (RIM), Univision, and PayPal, Lithium is the leading provider of social customer solutions that deliver real business results. www.lithium.com .
45. About Lithium www.lithium.com . Deep Engagement Great experiences for your most passionate contributors—your superfans . Social Science Rich data for analysis, benchmarking, and optimizing your social investments. Driving real business outcomes. Social Success
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Notas del editor
Becky - Introduction
Before we get into what we do at RIM in social media, we need to go back and look at how things worked before social media.
Michelle The old way: Before the social web. We didn’t talk that much. We didn’t really need to because…
Michelle When we think of customer service we often think of someone on the phone This is a typical image of a guy or gal on the phone – the person you reach after you press 10 buttons, or even worse voice recognition program that doesn’t have a clue what you are looking for. And then end up being placed on hold four times… But today, customer service isn’t only about this guy on the phone. Today – thanks to the internet there has been a transformational in what we expect from companies as far as customer service is concerned and the methods in how a company can provide service.
Becky Marketing was a one way message that customers and potential customers could receive, but couldn’t respond. Marketing is no longer just about delivering messages but about open expression between customers and employees
And now we have the social web which gives people a whole bunch of tools that allow them to “have their say” Raise of hands for people that have used one of these tools as a customer of a company to have their say, or interact with a company. (I ask this because a lot of time, when we are trying to “sell” why this is important, the first challenge is getting people to understand that customers actually do use these tools to talk about companies.” Michelle: Customers expect 2 –way conversations in social Media. The key being – Social! Traditional interuption and broadcast methods won’t always work online. A recent Cone inc. research study indicates that 85% of social media users believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. Who better to engage with the customers than customer service departments- who have been doing this for years…
Social Platforms Are Becoming More Powerful With social media now becoming the mainstay in people’s lives, it is important for companies to understand the motivations and expectations of their customers. While only a small proportion of people currently use social media channels to complain, the impact can be greater with more people witnessing the exchange .” - Ralph Risk, Marketing Director, LightSpeed
Consumers are becoming more aware of the power of their complaints 68% of US consumers said they’d had unsatisfactory service interactions in the past 12 months. 16% of these consumers vented through social channels.
Before we get into what we do at RIM in social media, we need to go back and look at how things worked before social media.
Consider the background of RIM and BlackBerry. Our first 20 years or so were primarily dedicated to our Enterprise customer and as such RIM Customer Support Operations (CSO) grew up supporting Enterprise customer in a people-based support model Enterprise growth was steady and incremental and of course so did the requirement for customer support However…. The introduction of consumer smartphones in 2006 disrupted our traditional support model, and our focus on “Enterprise” We soon realized the customer demographic was different in many ways: No IT admin to refer to, so our customers were going online to look for tips/tricks etc. Costs of supporting these people sky-rockets (for us and carrier) if these customers can’t get help online. Issue complexity was low (customers want to know the basics, tips/tricks and how-to) , With leaps in growth in this market the volume onset was rapid And- of course with the increase in volume – comes increased costs.
Millenials are 18-29 year-olds, the ‘digital native’ generation, who have grown up with technology and integrated it into their daily lives and interactions. They don’t want to have to wait on hold to interact with your business …
becky
Engage with potentially millions of people What if people say negative things about brand How do you scale?
We aren’t Dell Or Zappos We knew that we would need to be prepared as we didn’t currently have the organizational flexibility to adjust to the fast paced social environment. Charlene Li Sandbox – clearly defined boundaries, rules (no throwing sand) Guidelines Process People and their role Framework for prioritizing work Treating each customer with the best possible service and support (like Zappos) is ideal –but not realistic. Companies are ill-equipped to support millions of customers in real time on the social web. They must have prioritization programs in place to handle the high risk/opportunity accounts quickly. - Jeremiah Owyang, Analyst
Becky Learn to use BB: Reduce churn of Blackberry products Decrease support costs for carriers and BlackBerry Recognized the digital native generation which grew up with tech had integrated it into their daily lives. They didn’t want to sit on hold. “Customer Experience for the millenial generation” showed that this generation would first look for Online Support and Email support- less than 1% would call customer service…
A focus on sales alone is a focus on a short-term sale rather than a long-term relationship Michelle – From a support perspective we were charged with: - Reduction in support costs without affecting Customer Sat Decreasing churn – a new smartphone owner who doesn’t quickly master the device often gets frustrated – and ends up returning it if they can’t find help they need…where they expect to find it. Understand support issues direct from the customer To do this we recognized that our customers want a variety of ways to get content and different modes of “self service” Support Forums - Peer to peer support forums. Customer ask questions, # Accepted Solutions Growth of Community Engagement (posts/thread, # of unanswered threads, kudos)
Advocates: People who love BlackBerry, but may have more limited influence (vs. Influencers, who have significant social capital and reach). - Power fans/Super users : A member of a BlackBerry fan page who proactively helps answer other community members’ queries on BlackBerry device usage, to the best of their knowledge, is known as a BlackBerry power fan - Super fans: People who declare their love for BlackBerry across owned social platforms (i.e. Liking things, making a comments, engaging in polls, etc.) Loyalists: BlackBerry fans who have been brand loyal for a number of years Difference between Influencer & Advocate: Influencer relationships are built upon incentives vs. an advocate who doesn’t need/want incentives Even if the reach of one influencer is wider than one advocate, the collective reach of all your advocates as compared to the reach of influencers, show that the advocates’ reach is much wider. Advocates are much easier to approach
Michelle – From a support perspective we were charged with: - Reduction in support costs without affecting Customer Sat Decreasing churn – a new smartphone owner who doesn’t quickly master the device often gets frustrated – and ends up returning it if they can’t find help they need…where they expect to find it. Understand support issues direct from the customer To do this we recognized that our customers want a variety of ways to get content and different modes of “self service” Support Forums - Peer to peer support forums. Customer ask questions, @BlackBerryHelp YouTube Support videos
Ability to identify growing issues much more quickly through conversation analysis: growth in volume and SOV, change in sentiment, etc. When we encountered two different technical issues recently, we were able to identify which support channel the conversation started in, which third parties amplified the relevant messages and how we needed to optimize our monitoring moving forward to be able to react nimbly to future events.
According to Forrester Research, over 83% of purchase decisions today are influenced by word-of-mouth. That means traditional &quot;top-down&quot; approaches to marketing their wares through advertising are simply not enough. Marketers today have no choice but to be concerned with creating an entire brand experience that delights their customers. NPS shows you if you're doing that. Counting tweets doesn't.
Before we get into what we do at RIM in social media, we need to go back and look at how things worked before social media.
Make sure you are always listening, responding, creating value for your customers and really helping. Work with full and real-time information, get everyone on the same page internally, share information, and most importantly, strive to become customer-centric in social and traditional channels. Don’t forget those traditional channels — 800 numbers, e-mails and online chat are just as important. You need to be where the customer is, whether they are calling or tweeting, or both. The benefits of service vigilance in social media are tremendous, and not taking an active role can destroy your brand. Embrace social service, because it’s not going anywhere any time soon. http://mashable.com/2010/11/03/improve-social-customer-service/
Analogy: conversation at a dinner party (rules of engagement) – you wouldn’t speak 7 times in 2 minutes, so don’t tweet 7 times in 2 minutes (don’t brag, etc.) Learn before you start engaging Listen to the conversation first Learn about the influencer – what they are saying and how they are saying it Helps you use appropriate tone for engaging with the influencer when the time is right Know when to engage and when not to engage You don’t have to take part in all the conversations, just the relevant ones Sometimes it won’t be appropriate to get involved at all If you see no value in engaging with a particular influencer at that time, then don’t Don’t sell Instead of pushing your own agenda, expand conversations beyond your specific products, brands, or messages Build a relationship with them before discussing anything too commercial Know the difference between affecting the conversation and controlling the conversation Be realistic about the results you want to achieve While engaging influencers will go some way in affecting the perception of your brand and products, you cannot entire control the outcome of your efforts Source: Fresh Networks http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/11/five-things-to-consider-when-engaging-social-media-influencers-onlineMichelle community building building a successful online community requires the company to: Listen Give members a voice Gather insight and use feedback Listening requires acknowledgement and not always solutions – I hear you… Speak Create a connection Be human Offer value to the community Consistently have a presence in the community Periods in which RIM did not participate resulted in a slowing of community growth and community depth We restrained ourselves from answering questions so as to allow experts (Super Users) to emerge We participated in the community “just enough”. We engaged with members without taking over the community. We recognized that we had to “give to get” so we found ways to participate and engage with members without taking over every thread. We wanted the community members to build out the community, and for member experts to become apparent. Engage community members and encourage participation • Personalize interactions while reinforcing corporate priorities • Act transparently • Engage respectfully • Act as a real-time first line of defense for online issues Engage Give members a reason to visit Generate word of mouth We thanked community members for their positive contributions Embrace Allow community to contribute Create direct channels / VIP access for key members We funneled customer concerns internally We also listened to their concerns by ensuring it got to the right people… New product launch Into product marketing, development We refrained from getting defensive when a member was unhappy; we do not delete or censor
Contests WES Beta Opportunities =positive feedback = engagement = word of mouth
• Structure social media across silos • Integrate and share intelligence across the enterprise • Plan communications across functions • Bring diverse departments together for planning • Identify potential sources of crises • Plan ahead • Monitor continuously for emerging issues • Practice through crisis simulations We have never lost sight that we are rooted in being a support channel for our customers. Increase our engagement with our customers and leverage the knowledge and passion our evangelists Provide customers with education Satisfaction leads to loyalty and future sales
Positive feedback from our customers from all avenues we participate on Whether we have helped them change their ringtone – or gave them inside info they are appreciative of the connection to BB Alert system has given us a new way to reach out to our customers – Facebook example