The first in a series evaluating major global telecom operators' Social CRM customer experiences. This first edition evaluates AT&T. Other major operators on the slate for the future.

1. Our Series on Social CRM Case File #1: AT&T Corp. Addressing usability, economics, and channel management risks October 2011 Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

3. Working to establish industry-wide best practices for Social CRM in communicationsCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

4. 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.

5. Case File #1: AT&T Corp. Positives (+) Commitment to Social CRM Channel (+) More than 1.7 million “likes” Negatives (-) Legacy (expensive) approach (-) Basic usability issues (-) Inelegant integration to Online Self-Care (-) “Search-ability” issues (-) No governance of resellers or trademark Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

7. Has a dedicated team of agents who respond directly to customer questions and comments.Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

9. Has a healthy and active community of people talking about and interacting with company.Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

11. Headcountintensive approach to an ideal self-help channel.

12. Duplicates a problem call centers already have; staff should not be first line of defense.“Social media care is often more costly than other means.” Chris Bauccus, Director of Social Media, AT&T Source: Pipeline, April 2011 Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

14. Too many menu items with no logical or intuitive organization

15. “Discussions” – a good self-care forum – is only visible when user clicks “more” on menuCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

17. Too much screen real-estate consumed by a static graphic

18. Buried on a sub-page with no call-out in main menuCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

20. “More options” link only returns to previous page

21. Main action button takes user back to Facebook wall

22. Access to online self-care hidden “below the fold”

23. Too many clicks dissuade users from accessing tools, driving them to seek “expensive” help from reps via Wall or worse – phone!Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

25. Clicking on these links launches a separate window, forcing customers out of Facebook environment

26. No “social sign-on” option to access online care and account management; adds another barrier to careCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

28. Hundreds of search results for everything from authorized resellers to imposters and hate groups

29. Even the AT&T Social Net app page does not link back to main corporateprofileCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

31. Impostors abuse trademarks are not pursued; TM law in US is “use it or lose it”

32. Wall posts show that customers seeking AT&T Corp. are confused and seeking care from resellers and impostorsCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

33. Lessons Learned Minimize clicks. Don’t create unnecessary barriers between customers and the care they seek. Label things correctly. Label menus and buttons overtly; provide clear instructions; and organize by relevance. Stay within the environment. Use Social CRM as an easy path to existing online care, but don’t force customers to leave the intimacy of the social network. Govern the channel. Give authorized partners guidelines and tools for their social network presence. Enforce trademarks and pursue impostors. Engage Facebook, or other social networks, at a corporate level to help. At the very least, report abuses to the site owner. Make yourself easy to find. Customers may search for your brand in different ways. Make sure there are many ways to find your profile. Get the economics right. Social CRM should be a low cost way to provide high-touch care. If it costs more per interaction than a call center, something is very wrong. Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

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

35. 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.

37. Contributor to ConnectedPlanet.com

39. Ghost writer and strategist for leading BSS providers

40. Former Editor-in-Chief of Billing World MagazineCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

41. For Our Latest Surveys Please visit: www.billingviews.com Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.