Over the last two or three years, social media has been a confusing space for most communications companies but also a space that represents a huge opportunity for them. All of the most popular companies have their LinkedIn sites, their Facebook pages and their Twitter accounts that they use in a variety of different ways. But when you ask an SVP or VP of Strategic IT in a communications company how they are using technology to take advantage of the social space, there is usually a deer in headlights blank stare that shortly follows the question. The reality is that there are so many different ways to use social media today for a company that it has become a challenge for IT groups to get their arms around how they harness technology intelligently to enable the business user groups. It is a bit of the wild west right now in companies and with that confusion and chaos, comes opportunity. The challenge becomes where do you focus that opportunity.
What I am hearing right now is that IT groups are just trying to get their arms around the blocking and tackling bits of social media and lay the foundation for the future. This is incredibly complex for them as they have various groups of business users that are looking at different ideas to leverage social media. Marketing wants to use social media to raise awareness and promote conversations. Customer service wants to use social media to find ways to identify issues with customers and provide solutions to problems. Product teams want to use social media for input into new products or services. And from what I am hearing, executives are trying to figure out a way to promote the use of social media without really understanding it themselves. So, IT execs end up working tirelessly to satisfy the needs of the business while at the same time making sure that the technology fits their roadmap for the future.
So, with that all being said, where does this impact customer service and how are companies starting to use social media in communication companies? Most are starting with basic building blocks that just get them listening as best they can and responding to customers as if social is just another channel of communication for dealing with issues. Comcast does this today, DirecTV does this today, Cox does this and many others. They monitor the conversation and respond to people to make sure their issues are resolved. As they start to grow that part of their communication with customers, there will be a natural extension from the call center business to ensure that these communications are handled in a way that is consistent with the rest of the channels. I am sure many vendors are already addressing this need and we will see more and more products in the near future to help que and order the responses to social media.
Once you have the basics in place, then I think the most interesting thing I am hearing lately is that many companies are searching for a way to help bring the social world into their business. Because social media is changing the way that companies communicate and interact with the customer, companies need to become more of a social organization or social company. That means they need to change the way their processes work, change the way they engage, change the way they escalate and change the SLA's that they manage to for customer issue resolution. The social world is forcing this change and companies are thinking about how they address this with technology. They need to start thinking about how they address the social customer but how they do it within the context of a process so that it becomes integrated tightly into what the core direction of the company is and not just a side project that creates more chaos.
So to wrap up this post for now, social media is being discussed and argued about almost daily at most communications companies. Where I am seeing most companies focus right now is on getting the basics down first and then building their capabilities out from there. Addressing the needs of the social customer is important and integral to companies succeeding going forward. But only if companies integrate it in a way that allows them to become a social business while at the same time putting process around the space to ensure the company is meeting the needs of the customer and not merely encouraging chaos.
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