Cover Slide

Incorporating Social Media and Customer Service: How to Develop a

Strategy

VIPdesk Webinar Series April 6, 2010

Presented by:Blake Cahill: SVP of Marketing, Visible Technologies

Hosted by:Mary Naylor: CEO, VIPdesk

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About The Host

• Mary Naylor is the CEO and Co-founder of VIPdesk

• VIPdesk provides concierge-quality contact center solutions for leading global brands through our nationwide network of home-based Brand Ambassadors, Concierge, and Customer Service Representatives.

• VIPdesk provides its clients Concierge, Contact Center, and Social Media support services.

• VIPdesk is continually recognized through numerous awards, including the Inc. 500, Inc. 5000, NCBEA Business Ethics Award, Stevie Awards for Women in Business and Smart CEO Future 50.

Mary NaylorCEOVIPdesk

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About The Presenter

Blake CahillSVP of MarketingVisible Technologies

• Blake is the SVP of Marketing with Visible Technologies

• He develops and leads all of Visible Technologies’ activities/programs related to sales, business development, brand development, market positioningpress and analyst relations, lead development, and thought leadership.

• Blake is passionate about the role of social media in corporate communications and is a frequent speaker on the influence of social media.

• He is a member of WOMMA and MTIX.

About Visible Technologies

• Visible TechnologiesPowered by the industry-leading truCAST technology platform, Visible Technologies helps clients successfully monitor, analyze, and participate in social media conversations, as well as protect their reputations online

– Founded in 2005

– Headquarter in Bellevue, WA with 95+ employees

– Sample Customers: Microsoft, Xerox, Autodesk, Dr. Pepper

• Awards Won:

About VIPdesk

VIPdesk’s full suite of Brand Experience Management solutions includeVirtual Concierge and Contact Center Services, Social Media Management,Experiential Programs, IVR Services and Voice of the Customer Surveying &Analytics. Global industry leaders trust VIPdesk to enhance their brandsthrough our customer care and loyalty programs. Serving as a seamlessextension of their brands, our innovative Brand Experience ManagementSolutions deliver memorable customer experiences, business insights andactionable intelligence that generate customer advocacy and drive businessgrowth.

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Agenda

● Setting goals and objectives for your social media efforts

● Getting buy-in

● Resources required to successfully implement a social media plan

● Tools to use

● Measurement of success

● And more!

Why is Social Media Important to Customer Service Organizations?

Social Media Has Exploded

4 OUT OF 5 AMERICANS USE SOCIAL MEDIA.

Forrester, The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, 2009

of bloggers post opinions about products & brands

of consumers trust peer recommendations

of those users blog or tweet daily

CONSUMERS NOW CONTROLTHE CONVERSATION…

(In other words)

DON’T PANIC

Social Strategy Challenges & Opportunities

Social Media Challenges for Organizations

• Overwhelming amounts of data—determining what to track and analyze

• Separating insights and issues from useless data—identifying who and what matters

• Communicating with your customers in an organized, effective manner

• Coordination of ownership/participation across the organization

• ROI measurements

Marketing

Customer Service

ReputationManagement

CompetitiveIntelligence

Benefits of Driving & Engaging with Social Media

Adoption spans the enterprise from: Marketing, Operations, Sales, and Customer Support

Monitor Brand & Image

Manage Crisis Communications

Product and Services Positioning

Trend and Sentiment analysis

Identify Consumer Segmentation

Research and Innovation

Be a proactive part of the conversation Adapt to Changing Market Conditions

Tactical

Enterprise Business Intelligence Integration

Listen & Learn Engage & Respond

Strategic

Customer Relationships

Customer Support

Trade Promotion Management

Customer Promotion Management

Marketing Relationship Management

Reputation Management

By Listening and Learning any organization will more effective Engage with and Respond to customer needs. Empower customers and create loyal and satisfied customers

Developing a Customer Focused Social Media Strategy

Social Strategy Objectives

Objectives for Social programs need to be clearly outlined so that team members understand the bigger picture surrounding their individual roles.

Some common goals include:

• Changing customer service perceptions from negative to neutral or positive

• Providing ‘fence sitters’ (neutral and mixed sentiment) with technical information and guidance to promote educated purchasing decisions while increasing positive sentiment

• Driving traffic and technical discussions back to the company’s own forum and blogs

• Building relationships with key influencers (top authors)

• Building brand awareness

• Promoting special events

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Getting corporate buy-in

• It is necessary to have corporate buy-in in order for any customer-facing program to succeed

• Develop a plan and present hard data re: the benefits of social customer service to the corporate bottom line

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The Do’s and Don’ts of An Effective Social Media Strategy

Before Getting Started…Ask yourself…• What do I want to know?

– What customers think about my company, competitors, service levels, products, etc.?

– Issues or problems with my company's’ offerings?

• Who needs to know?– Executive team, service and support staff, managers, sales and

marketing department?

• What do I want to do with this info?– Improve my offerings, stay competitive, retain customers?

• Where are my relevant consumers online?– yelp, citysearch, community forums, twitter, review sites?

• What are the right topics to monitor?– What key words or phrases should you be monitoring?

• What tools should I use?– What’s available to monitor and measure social media?

Begin with a Framework

Measure EngageLearnListen

Listen to find the rightconversations, sites and online communities

Learn from the wisdom of the crowd about customer perceptions and experiences with your products and services and competitors’

Measure the impact on your brand and benchmark against your competitors to improve your business

Engage with consumers and key influencers to change negative perception and build brand loyalty

Repeat!1 2 3 4 5

DON’T MARKETYOUR MESSAGE…CREATESOCIALEXPERIENCES

SOCIAL CONVERSATIONSMUST BE ALL-INCLUSIVE

SOCIAL CONVERSATIONSMUST BE VIBRANT

SOCIAL CONVERSATIONSMUST BE AUTHENTIC

SOCIAL CONVERSATIONSMUST BE TRANSPARENT

Scaling the Program

•Involvement for engagement will depend on the type: marketing, crisis management, customer service, tech support

•Full time engagers should be able to respond to approximately 20 – 60 threads per day

•Most companies will start with 1 – 3 part time, and ramp up to 2 – 3 full time engagers or more, depending on volume and complexity of content

Scaling Social Programs

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Listen

Learn

Indirect Engagement

Direct Outreach

Program Development

Pilot & Listen

Strategy based on solid understanding of Influencer needs

Engagement Strategy Expansion

Defining Components

• Actionable Content

• It’s important to identify for engaging team members what content is considered to be actionable, or engagement-worthy, content. Examples of commonly flagged content appropriate for engagement include:

• Posts with positive, neutral, or mixed sentiment

• Posts written within the past 5 days, or still have active comments

• Posts where users are asking questions and requesting more information

• Posts that contain inaccurate information about your brand or product

• Blacklisted Content

• Sometimes users will need to refrain from responding to particular types of content or sites where corporations are strictly prohibited from participation without paid subscription. Examples of commonly blacklisted content include:

• Posts that are flaming, raging, or use excessive profanity

• Posts that are older than 5 days, or no longer have active comments

• Posts on sites ‘X’, ‘Y’, and ‘Z’ which prohibit corporate participation

• Pricing Discussions

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Five Tips for Success

• Build strategy with scalability in mind

• Monitoring should answer business questions

• Execute ‘disciplined participation’

• Measure and modify

• Strategy + people + technology + services

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Be Where Customers Are

• Don’t just participate where your CEO thinks you should be

• Identify where your customers are and develop a presence where they can easily communicate with you

• Determining the forums in which to participate should be an early part of your research and planning

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How to Measure Success

• Conversation volume

• Conversation Sentiment

How big is the space?

How much is

relevant?

What is the overall sentiment

?

How well are my engagements

doing?

Who’s important?

What sites are they on?

What’s the overall topic breakdown?

• Author Influence

• Relevance

Determine Success Metrics Early – Where’s the ROI?

Success Metrics - Sentiment Analysis

Tracking changes in sentiment of conversations overtime (in conjunction with actions taken by marketers or organizations to move this indicator) is a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) that most best-in-class organizations have adopted.

Note: Our client data suggests that typically, less than 25% of statements made about any given topic within the social media space contain sentiment.

Case Study: DIRECTV

Listen Act Learn Adapt[ to immediate needs ] [ to change best practices ]

Listen Again [ for impact ]

Our Loyal Customer

Case Study #2You Do Not Control The Message

Listen Act Learn Adapt

Acting on LA LA over 30 days

Listen Act Learn Adapt

Listen closely.Act on what you hear.

Learn what is important.Adapt Business Practices.

=Loyal Customers

+Relevant Products & Services

Questions

Thank You…

Blake CahillSVP of Marketing, Visible Technologiesblake@visibletechnologies.comOn twitter at: @bcahillwww.visibletechnologies.com

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Upcoming VIPdesk Webinars

• April 27: Learn how to improve your customer experience via a home-based team

• May 11: Social Media: How it Fits Into Your Customer Marketing and Retention Strategy

• May 25: Virtual Customer Care and the Financial Services Industry

For more information or to register for the VIPdesk Webinar series, visit

www.vipdesk.com.

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Connect With Us Online

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Blog: http://blog.vipdesk.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/vipdesk

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YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/vipdesk

Via RSS: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/23095083.rss

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Thank you!

Mary NaylorCEO

mnaylor@vipdesk.comwww.twitter.com/vipdesk

www.vipdesk.com(703) 837-3501

Blake CahillSVP of Marketing

blake@visibletechnologies.comwww.twitter.com/bcahill

www.visibletechnologies.com