Customer service on social networks matters. It matters more than we realize, from being a social channel where marketing companies tried to sell something or the other. Social networks today have taken over as 'the' customer service channel for many organizations. Complaints on social networks have the power to destroy reputation in a few hours, since it’s an unregulated platform companies are at...more

1. White Paper on
SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE - THE RISE OF
THE MACHINES
By
Naval Vithalani
Zensar Consulting Team
Naval Vithalani is the Social Media, Loyalty and Mobility Lead with Zensar Technologies'
Consulting Practice. He specializes in Social CRM, Enterprise Engagement programs and
Customer engagement strategies for customers across vertical industries. Naval comes with
a vast experience in Retail and Manufacturing industries.
© Zensar Technologies 2012 www.zensar.com

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
No we aren’t talking about the new sequel of Terminator here.
Customer service on social networks matters. It matters more than we realize, from
being a social channel where marketing companies tried to sell something or the
other. Social networks today have taken over as 'the' customer service channel for
many organizations.
Complaints on social networks have the power to destroy reputation in a few hours, since it’s an
unregulated platform companies are at the risk of being viciously attacked for various reasons.
Remember the guy whose guitar was broken by United Airlines baggage handlers.
While a few years ago, companies had immense power to influence any negative comments, it’s not
that guitars weren't broken by baggage handlers prior to the UA incident. It never came out. Social
networks are the great levellers that have brought the might organizations and average Joe to a level
playing field.
People turn to social networks when they don't find a
resolution on the traditional channels. Companies are
powerless once the negative comments start making the
rounds.
An isolated post by one individual on social networks has
the potential to become an avalanche. It only takes a few
re-tweets / reposts to create a storm for any brand or
company.
What’s more, comments are not posted in your space, but all over Twitter. Not having an account
and not being involved means you're going to hit the iceberg soon.
THE CHANGING SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE LANDSCAPE
Customer service has undergone has seen a paradigm shift in the past 2 decades. From being a cell
in the basement of the organization that dealt with isolated incidents (sometimes harshly) to having
a dedicated contact centre to now social customer service.
One of the biggest drawbacks of having an IVR based contact centre was that people dropped off –
they got tired of waiting to speak to someone and went away. Another twist was when costs went
up, people were slowly replaced by automated IVR and customers’ biggest complaint was they
couldn’t talk to a human.
All this changed with the Social Networks taking the central stage in people’ lives. Now people could
praise or blast a brand in the un-regulated arena. Some companies found it difficult to cope with
while others have adapted.
© Zensar Technologies 2012 www.zensar.com

3. By moving Customer Service to social networks, it not only helps provide a resolution to the
customers’ problem but also portrays an image of responsibility for the organization. Social
customer service also helps in creating an army of fans in the virtual world who will defend the
brand.
While companies saved money by moving a lot of customer service focus away from an IVR based
contact centre to the social networks it still costs money.
The cost of servicing has gone down, but if someone looked into all the queries raised on various
companies channels. You’ll find that most of them have a common resolution. Talking about money,
so while servicing a call costs the company say $10, the same query can be serviced on social
networks at say $5.
But if you look at the number of times the query is repeated, it’s probably an unnecessary cost for
the company. This is where our thought process kicks in.
WHAT NEXT?
Imagine posting on Twitter complaining about some issue and getting a response from the customer
service desk within minutes. Super agents with
a wide variety of skills monitoring the social
networks and jumping in to help customers
when they are seen or heard complaining. This
works, it’s the most efficient form of social
customer service and it works.
Such prompt services requires a 24/7 team,
investment on their training, a 24/7 support
system etc. So while the progress of recent
years has completely changed the way we did
business, it’s the new way of managing
customer service that will change the entire business landscape.
In order for customers to self-serve from the website, companies invested millions in building the
knowledge base and putting it online. And although the intent was if you don’t’ find an answer there
call us, companies are usually overwhelmed with calls. Similar behaviour is being witnessed on the
Social Networks.
What if we could learn from the past and program the future?
In the not so distant future, customers will log their queries on various social networks and get
instantaneous resolutions. The turnaround time will be a few seconds or minutes at max.
Imagine a world where Social customer service can provide 24/7 support and in turn learns from
every query and every resolution a self-learning mechanism.
© Zensar Technologies 2012 www.zensar.com

4. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF AUTOBOTS
A subset of the social performance software, Autobots will be similar to text based chat bots but
with intelligent. Using Artificial Intelligence, the Autobots can be programmed to run Customer
Service on Facebook and Twitter.
Based on the past data and the clever use to AI, Autobots will replicate human behaviour in the
social channel. Content publishing and Content optimization has already been automated, look at
hootsuite or social flow. Automation of customer service is not far behind.
Brands that have more conversations on the social networks will have to adopt a channel that is
more responsive, quick and increased customer satisfaction all this while reducing costs.
The way it will work is depicted in the diagram below:
Fig 1. The Rise of the Machines
With every query that is raised across the social networks, the knowledge base is enriched by
creating a self-learning system. Based on the self-learning algorithms, Autobots will be able to
provide better and more relevant replies to satisfy customer queries.
Another aspect of the automation is, not only will the customer queries be satisfied by the Autobots
but with the use of analytics companies will be able to – understand what the customer wants and
also predict when they want thus increasing the customer satisfaction.
The entire customer centric ecosystem is integrated to provide that experience - CRM and case
management systems. Social connectors are used to automatically pull customer posts and to push
resolutions on social networks.
© Zensar Technologies 2012 www.zensar.com

5. Social Customer Service is not very different from the traditional channels, but it’s a more
transparent channel for the rest of the world to see.
By an effective use of the knowledge base and automation, customers will get the ‘Provable Wow
Effect’ that companies strive to deliver.
Automation is a way of providing the ‘Wow Effect’ but not the only solution, the world is still
governed by human emotion. The only benefit is the lowering the various costs.
For more information on how Social Customer Service can be automated for your organization
please get in touch with the author.
ZENSAR TECHNOLOGIES
Zensar Technologies is among the top 20 software services providers from India. Zensar's industry
expertise spans across Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Banking Financial Services and Insurance.
Zensar has more than 7000 associates with sales and operations presence across USA, UK, Europe,
Middle East, South Africa, Singapore, China, Australia and Japan. The Company delivers
comprehensive services in mission-critical applications, enterprise applications, e-business, BPO and
Knowledge Services. The Company has developed tools and methodologies, including the
proprietary Solution BluePrint (SBP), which enables its clients with innovative business solutions and
a rapid 'go-to market' capability. The Company supports Fortune 500 clients with software business
solutions that help them compete in the digital economy.
For more information write into Marcom@zensar.com
© Zensar Technologies 2012 www.zensar.com