This is a topic I’ve wanted to write about for some time, and the stars have finally lined up. Actually, as my research unfolded, I have enough for at least three articles, so this post will just focus on a few key themes that hopefully will seed questions around how you’re thinking about social media.

I’d like to start at the beginning and talk a bit about why social media is finding its way into the contact center environment. There is a valuable opportunity here if managed effectively, but without the right understanding and context, social media can become a costly, counter-productive distraction. My intent here is to provide the kind of guidance to ensure the latter doesn’t happen to you.

By now, most contact centers have been touched by social media, and some have developed sophisticated skills and processes to integrate it within their overall workflow. Before continuing, let’s be sure we’re talking the same language. By most accounts, social media refers to Web-based applications that serve as forums for people to share all kinds of information quickly and on a large scale. To varying degrees they have both public and private channels, and being free to join, their ranks can easily swell well into the millions. Twitter and Facebook are the household names, but new communities are forming all the time, and it’s very common for people to be active with many of them.

So, why should contact centers pay attention? Actually, they should be paying very close attention. Everything moves faster on the Web, and social media is unprecedented in its ability to quickly share information, influence opinions and organize action for both positive and negative situations.  We all know how the Internet democratizes information, but social media takes this a step further by being an enabler for self-organizing communities to behave as they see fit.
Is this starting to sound more relevant for contact centers now? In the customer satisfaction realm, it’s well understood that customers don’t talk about the 99 times out of 100 that you met their needs; only that 1 other time when something went wrong. Bad news always travels faster than good news, and social media seems tailor-made for unhappy customers. So, without even knowing it, companies may already be behind the proverbial eight ball.

If you’re still wondering about this, just think about why the call center is now the contact center. Social media is a byproduct of a much bigger trend – one that largely explains the need for multichannel strategies (as explored in a previous column). Before the advent of IP communications – VoIP in particular – legacy telecom was the prime channel for communicating with customers. Now, of course, we’re in a multichannel world that has shifted from being telecom-centric to being Web-centric. Not only has much of the communication migrated away from the telephone, but both customers and agents routinely use multiple modes, often concurrently.

Social media has now become another one of these modes, but there’s much more at stake here compared to other Web-based modes such as text or IM. The rapid adoption of social media is a manifestation of a more profound trend related to how the Internet has achieved a level of legitimacy and trust that is on par with other forms of mass media. In many ways the Web is like the agora of ancient Greece, a common space owned by the people where all are welcome to share ideas and do business.  As such, social media goes well beyond being just another channel for customers to communicate with agents.

Businesses need to understand that by the time a tweet or a Facebook comment has made its way to the contact center, that customer may very well have formed strong opinions about both your company and your products via Web-based sources, most of which are completely outside of your control. Social media users tend to be tech savvy, and rely on the Web as a primary tool to do their research. They may often start by visiting your website, but after a few search queries, they’re just a mouse click away from customer chat forums, magazine articles, third party rating sites, etc. This typifies the emerging top end of the customer spectrum – the prosumer – and while they’re a small component of your overall base, prosumers could easily be better informed than your agents.

Chances are that contact center inquiries coming directly from social media channels will be from this type of tech-savvy customer. Not only will be they be well prepared coming in, but also in how they respond after the inquiry. By its nature, social media invites dialog, especially when you have something to vent about.  There certainly are strategies to prepare contact centers here, but that is only part of the story.

Social media inquiries can also make their way to the contact center via indirect means, and this requires a different approach – otherwise, agents will not be able to distinguish them from everyday inquiries, which may be far less informed or socially engaged. The most common example would be inquiries resulting from outbound marketing programs. In responding to these, some customers may also decide this is a good opportunity to raise an issue or ask a technical question – at which point the inquiry can be routed from the marketing team to the contact center.

Even with this brief example, I’m sure you can see how social media can take many forms and find many paths into the contact center. This really is just the starting point however, as every touch point along the chain of customer interaction requires careful consideration when social media is involved. There are implications for agents, supervisors, executives, technology solutions, and of course the customers. Until you’ve thought all of these angles through, you won’t be able to make social media work in your favor. There is a very real danger of losing control over your customer relationships - and even your brand – by underestimating social media, and if you don’t want that to happen, then stick with me for the next few articles.