By
Layne Holley
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Date Published: June 02, 2011 - Last Updated August 22, 2018
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Comments
Next week we're going to hear from some call centers that have a steady grip on operationalizing social media in the contact center (and there'll be more on that at ACCE. This week, though, I want us to look at what social media can contribute as a voice of the customer tool -- and some of the best instances to react to that voice.
Listen
What you want to do, before you do anything else, and regularly when you've launched your social media program.
There are some very good tools out there now that allow you to listen to, or track, aggregated social media instances of your company and its customer service. They range from freeware to integrated technology and cloud solutions that come in a variety of pricing packages, depending on features.
The most common -- and quite valuable -- feature in the listening tools is sentiment scoring. You can know who said good things, and identify quickly someone who might've said something negative. I say "might've said something negative" because accuracy isn't 100%. The better tools out there will let you tweak the ears so that you can increase accuracy in sentiment scoring. And they'll all tell you when and where a customer has mentioned your organization.
Act
Experts recommend that you not jump all over every instance of your company being mentioned on social sites or community forums, especially the negative instances. You don't want to aggravate a flamer. But, there are some good instances, whether your social media program is large or small, when you can jump in, such as when a comment really requires guidance to information, say, a phone number or an FAQ page that would offer a solution to the issue that caused the complaint in the comment.
I'd like to know where your organization is in the use of social media in the contact center. What tools are you using? How are you managing social media as a support channel? What results have you had (or do you expect)? Tell me here and share it with the ICMI Community.