If you are like me and so many other people today, you’ve connected through LinkedIn, set up your profile on Facebook, Twitted your Tweets and MySpace’d your favorite music performers to view road schedules. But what business opportunities are there around Social Media, and how do you integrate it into your contact center; to be a media, marketing or contact center channel for interaction?
Social Media offers consumer and business-to-business companies the opportunity to connect and communicate every day and get involved in the lives of people that either use their products or services, or might one day. This is a body of people that want to be seen, heard and recognized that have needs, wants and desires, and are computer savvy, often with a high degree of disposable money, and time to chat, video, blog, or write articles (like this one). They are willing to spend the time to speak out, or shout out and be heard. Social media levels the playing field, as anyone can create bad press, say nasty things, but in social media everyone can jump in and create a consumer affairs disaster.
Social media can play a leading role as a direct channel to listen in, have a conversation and guide the discussion; good, bad or ugly. But having the right team, tools and timing is essential, as you have to be involved every day to listen, be present and “be in” the conversation. I believe that the contact center environment is an ideal place for this to happen. Agents can outreach and act as a “social media outpost” casting their net to capture conversations, hear, and deal with hearts, minds and problems and people that impact your business products or services. Problems are inherent, in any business and it is essential that you are diligent in addressing and resolving them. Using a contact center as a “Social Media Outpost” is a good strategy to address concerns, bad press or consumer affairs issues that can plague the best brand management strategy. Read more...