customer service

I've blogged before about the importance of realism in social media - the fundamental requirement to define your audience and aim for multi-channel benefits that can be measured at board level. To move towards this goal, take inspiration from entrepreneurs.

When combining channels including broadcast advertising, SEO, PR and social, brand owners face challenges in terms of preparation and control. With these on the whiteboard for the year ahead, I took notes from Ian Monk, founder of Bathrooms.com whose company recently launched a combined digital drive, following venture capital investment in excess of £10m.

Fashion conscious consumers know what they want, when they want it, be it high street or haute couture. Social Media has facilitated fashionista's with a hub for conversations now its up to the brand to listen. The question is who to listen to? Who has real influence?

Is it the obvious: editors, fashion bloggers and trendsetters or are there different tribes? Can new influence tools like PeerIndex, Klout or KRED unlock these groups or is it a case of knowing ‘who to know’?

As Facebook heads towards a record stock flotation that could value the company at £63 billion (and Mark Zuckerberg at £17.8 billion), we have to ask what role we, the users, play in its success.

The website relies on adverts to generate profit. Those can be directed either to an external website or to a branded Fan Page. Marketers realised early on that directing their ads to a Fan Page rather than a standard ‘Dot Com’, not only meant a better response (the site shared information about other friends who endorse the action), but also introduced the potential to grow massive marketing databases to which they could direct promotional messages at no further cost.

We’ve all swallowed the pill and a quick glance at your new timeline profile will show how many Fan Pages you have now ‘liked’- far more than you’d imagine, it’s not uncommon for single profiles to join hundreds a year.

Chinwag Live returns to London on Wed 5 Oct, 2011 with an evening session that explores what happens When Customer Service Goes Social, sponsored by Conversocial.

The impact of social media is having an increasing impact on the way organisations market themselves and interact with their customers. Conversations previously confined to phone or letter are now taking place publicly on Facebook, twitter and other social media channels.

Taking place right in the middle of National Customer Service Week our expert panel will look into the profound impact social media is having on how corporates interact with their existing and prospective customers. 

The past weekend showed that many consumers these days have the expectation that if brands are on Facebook they’re offering customer service 24/7.

Some brands are actively scared about using their social channels to provide customer services, but they don’t realise the opportunity they’re missing.

In general the thinking goes something like this:

• If we let people leave negative remarks, then they will put off other potential customers.
• It’s impossible to solve every problem through social channels – so why try?
• If someone has to answer all the queries, that will mean having to hire more staff.

Let’s look at each of these in detail.