Jacada Blog

Are you listening to me?

Much has been written about how agents communicate with customers over the phone and how the social customer is changing the game in terms of customer engagement.

But before we even begin to engage the customer, the agent must listen, process, and react (or not react at all) to the customer's pain or issue. As a customer, how many times have you thought, or even said, "you are not listening to my problem or issue." To address these matters, let's break down the art of listening into its two most basic forms: active and passive...

Read the rest of the article here (written by Brian Jameson and posted on Customer Management IQ).  Also, check out this Jacada webcast focused on how social meda and location-based services have changed the rules of customer engagement.  As always, you can find many other resources and articles at Jacada.com too.

Lifetime Value of the Customer In a Social World

Putting a value on what a customer brings to a company's bottom line over the lifetime of the relationship is pretty cut and dry, historically speaking. Add up all the stuff they bought, subtract out the cost of servicing them (phone calls, emails, chats, site visits, etc.) and you have a pretty fair measure of what a customer adds to the corporate coffers. And the more data you have on customers gives you an opportunity to categorize customers into segments, where customers that spend a lot with us, get the best service we can provide – with more options to choose from, because we want them to remain customers for as long as possible. Other customer segments, not spending as much as our a-list customers, will be provided less costly means of support in order to maximize the financial value they bring to the bottom line.

Now the "less valuable" customer segments can increase their value to companies if they buy more of what they currently purchase, buy more expensive products, and/or buy more complimentary products.  By taking these actions a customer can improve their value to the company and earn the right to have better service, because they're adding more financial value. Or they can buy access to better service, which also adds financial value.

The LVC metric is an important metric with respect to understanding what a customer (or potential customer) will directly add to the bottom line.  And the direct value added to the bottom line is what keeps us in business.  But as it stands the LVC is a financial measure – and while financial value is critical in measuring customer value, it is not the only value customers can bring to a company that can have serious impact. A customer's influence on social networks, and their activeness engaging others over social channels on behalf of (or against) your company can seriously impact a company's well being – far beyond their specific LVC metric score. 

Lifetime Influence of the Customer and Lifetime Activity of the Customer will play an ever increasing role in measuring the full impact a customer will have on our bottom lines. The more influential a customer is when talking about our products, services, competitors or the industry overall, the greater the impact they have on the company. And as companies look to build customer support communities in hopes of leveraging their knowledge to resolve tier one issues/challenges (freeing up reps to handle more important issues while lowering service costs), customers who actively provide valuable information and insight to the community should have that activity included in how we value them.

The financial aspects of valuing the customer will always be critically important.  But having an understanding of social influence and activity – and putting a proper valuation on both – has to be on the corporate radar. It will take time and observation to understand influence, activity, and how each add value.  We'll need to know how influence and activity levels should factor into what customer segment a customer should be placed in. We'll also have to figure out how influence and activity impact each other to tell the story of customer valuation in the Social Age.  

Additionally, we'll also have to facilitate the customer's desire to create value via social channels and interactions, by offering them additional avenues to collaborate with us.  But one thing is sure – social values are, and will continue to have, serious impact on the bottom line.  Customers have always wanted to be valued beyond the financial transaction.  Their actions online are proving this out. So it's important to start factoring these actions into the equation of how to value them.

Brent Leary - Co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award.  He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, and on the advisory board of the University of Toronto's newly created CRM Center of Excellence. He's been quoted in several national business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Entrepreneur magazine. Leary writes the Social CRM column for Inc.com, and blogs at BrentLeary.com. You can reach him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

Note: Brent Leary has been retained by Jacada to participate in the Customer Service 2.0: Access the Experts speakers series. The opinions shared herein reflect the views of the author, and not necessarily Jacada or its employees.

The Customer Service Paradox: Companies vs. Customer...Guess Who's Right

I was recently at a CRM industry conference where a prominent CEO said that the overwhelming question he is hearing from customers and prospects alike is how can they keep their customers.  At this same event, a great panel of customer service executives was asked if there were any specific things that keep them up at night – without hesitation all five panelists said social media.  

The reason these two things caught my attention is because the answer to the question the CEO kept hearing probably has a lot to do with the thing keeping the panel of customer service executives up at night.  Social channels and how customers are using them to communicate continues to offer both an opportunity to keep them on board longer, and a challenge to be able to effectively engage them with.

While many companies view social media and networks as the domain of marketing and public relations, the biggest impact may be in creating better experiences for customers looking for information sharing and best practices, as well as for service requests and problem resolution.  Social customers today are also looking for a proactive, collaborative engagement with companies – as equals.  They believe they have more to offer to the relationship than just the financial transaction, and want to feel like they are contributing to making the product/service the best it can be. This can transform the vendor/customer relationship – based solely on the transaction – into a partnership where both sides view each other as advocates with mutual trust and respect for each other that goes beyond the transaction.

But the challenge lies with companies who need to view customer service through the eyes of today's socially-empowered customers.  This is why a recent Network Solutions/University of Maryland study caught my attention.  According to the study, small businesses feel that customer service is one of their main competitive strengths in a very challenging business climate.  Ironically, another recent study from American Express found two-thirds of consumers surveyed feel companies aren't doing enough to earn their business – with 28% saying they think companies are actually paying less attention to providing good service.

So, while companies may believe customer service is a competitive advantage, what the customer says and feels is of utmost important, because they will act on those feelings.  Not only will their actions consist of potentially walking away, but also telling everybody within tweeting distance why they are doing so.  And by the time they are done blogging and sharing their story with friends on Facebook, everyone will know what they think of your company and the way they feel they've been treated.

Therein lies the challenge for companies looking to hold onto customers today.  Not only have the means for communicating with customer changed – and continue to do so – the expectations for interacting with customers have also changed.  Yes it's still critically important to be responsive to customer needs to resolve their problems as quickly as possible. But now customers want options that allow them to have a better experience for problem resolution.  Additionally, they want proactive, collaborative opportunities that go beyond the traditional role of customer service.  

The new demands being placed on companies today by customers leveraging social tools and mobile technology is just at its infancy.  It does pose serious challenges to those responsible for creating and extending customer relationships.  But it also offers a great opportunity for those companies who are up for the challenge, as they can create loyal, vocal, long-lasting company advocates...also known as social customers.

Brent Leary - Co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award.  He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, and on the advisory board of the University of Toronto's newly created CRM Center of Excellence. He's been quoted in several national business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Entrepreneur magazine.  Leary writes the Social CRM column for Inc.com, and blogs at BrentLeary.com.  You can reach him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

Note: Brent Leary has been retained by Jacada to participate in the Customer Service 2.0: Access the Experts speakers series. The opinions shared herein reflect the views of the author, and not necessarily Jacada or its employees.

Using Social Channels to Show Customers You Care

When it comes to social media and customer service, many are familiar with the stories from Zappos, Comcast and a few other high profile companies.  I recently had an opportunity to speak with Drugstore.com’s Director of Customer Care Lisa Larson. With Drugstore.com being an online retailer since 1998, and Lisa being there from the beginning, their story has valuable perspectives and insights that companies looking to engage customers via social channels can learn a great deal from.  Especially Lisa's thoughts on using social networks, not only to get a better understanding of your customers, but also to allow them to get a better understanding of who you are.

Below are a few highlights of the conversation around how social media is impacting customers, customer service, Drugstore.com as a company, and Lisa's role as director of customer care.

Brent Leary:   How are social media tools helping you today? 

Lisa Larson:  They allow us to get out there.  Right now, we are out there in social media, in two areas with marketing.  That's drugstore.com and beauty.com.  But we are also out there on Twitter within Customer Care; we have Beauty Advisor and Directors Desk.  So we go out there and we talk to our customers and the social tools help us manage those contacts.  

BL:  Was that a big transitional change, being able to start communicating with customers, or have them communicate with you over social channels, as opposed to the more traditional channels? 

LL:  It was. It really was.  It's different.  You have to learn how to do it.  You start out rough.  I think most people probably do.  Not many people are doing this yet. They are trying to learn how to talk to their customers.  You are trying to learn if it should be personal or really professional.  I think there are different areas.  With our marketing and promotion, we have fun and customers get to know us as a store.  

But when you are sitting down and you are talking to someone within our Customer Care, its personal. You are talking to me and I am there to solve your problems and you will get to know who I am, or you will get to know who the beauty advisor is, because we are there to serve you.  Just like you walk into the corner store and you are talking to the person at the front desk, it's the same thing.  That is what social media is, it's the communication and we think that's important.  We want people to know us. 

BL:   So they can actually contact you on Twitter? 

LL:   They can contact me on Twitter.  They can contact my team on Twitter and we'll be there to talk to them.  We make sure that we actually use our escalation team or a team lead to talk back, because you cannot take things back.  There is one shot.  If you say the wrong thing or you create the wrong impression, it could be a bad brand experience and that's one thing we want to be cautious of.  We are learning.  We have put together processes.  We are building on those and the guidelines on how to speak to our customers in this arena. 

BL:  Are your reps really interested with being able to serve the customers in all these different formats and actually meet the customer where they are now? 

LL:  Absolutely. 

BL:  So they are reaching out to them on Twitter?  How is that impacting the way that they go about serving their customers? 

LL:  First of all, they love this.  The team that's on Twitter, they are out there in public, that's really cool to a CSR, for them to be seen and get to know the customers. That's something that is important to them.  For them, they see this as a win and its fun.  CSRs like to do different things, they want to try new forums, they like to chat, they want to do email and phone.  Social media is very different and new and for them to be a part of this program is very big and fun. 

BL:  Just to give us a sense, how many reps do you have? 

LL:  Overall we have over 150 CSRs, plus a management team. 

BL:  A certain number of them are interacting or all of them?  What percentage of them are actually out there? 

LL:  Within social media, just a small percentage of my escalation team.  I have got a team of ten right now that are trained and being trained.   We look at every social media site, every two to four hours, depending on the time. We have a schedule.  If there's an issue that is a Customer Care issue and they can quickly and easily respond to, they do.  

If it's a situation where they are not sure how to handle, they actually bring it forward and we have a social media team that includes marketing, legal, myself and HR.  There are some issues you want to be very cautious about.  

BL:  Does this social interaction translate to better relationships with your customers, now that they are getting a sense for knowing who you are?  Does it make it a more valuable interaction between customers and agents? 

LL:  It does.  They start caring for you.  Sometimes when you are online, or just on the phone or email, people almost forget that you are human.  When you put a face out there, or you put people out there and they get to know who you are, they treat you differently.  Our goal is to serve them and to solve their problems, and do it well.  I think I hear that and see it and know it.  Social media is a big part of that.  They can come and see who we are.  We fix their problem, they see us not only fixing their problems, but fixing everyone else's.  That means something to them.  You do it well, honestly, and openly, and you are going to create relationships.  They are going to like you for that.  It’s when you don't do it that way or when you ignore them - or you don't resolve their problem – that is when they won't trust you. 

That's a goal, to build trust because we want to fix every problem out there.  We want to do it well. We want to do it right. 

Brent Leary - Co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award.  He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, and on the advisory board of the University of Toronto's newly created CRM Center of Excellence. He's been quoted in several national business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Entrepreneur magazine.  Leary writes the Social CRM column for Inc.com, and blogs at BrentLeary.com.  You can reach him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

Note: Brent Leary has been retained by Jacada to participate in the Customer Service 2.0: Access the Experts speakers series. The opinions shared herein reflect the views of the author, and not necessarily Jacada or its employees.

4 Keys to Successfully Serving Customers with Social Tools and Strategies

TheSocialCustomer.com, in partnership with the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP), recently published the findings of a recent survey of customer service professionals on how their organizations are engaging customers on social networks – from a service and support perspective. The detailed results of The Social Customer Engagement Index can be downloaded for free (with registration) by using this link. 

Of the 118 customer service professionals taking the survey, 61% said efforts so far have had a positive impact, 36% said no noticeable impact has taken place, and only 3% said a negative impact has been felt. Analyzing the survey reveals a few factors that may help those involved in engaging customers on social networks improve their chances to positively impact customers, and their corporate initiatives for supporting them. 

Management Buy-In Makes a Difference

While understanding customer expectations with social engagement was one of the top challenges facing those surveyed, it was a challenge across the board. Determining ROI and defining key performance indicators also were common challenges to all. But having management buy-in for social initiatives seemed to be key to seeing positive impact being made. While 31% of all respondents cited management buy-in as a major challenge to their initiatives, only 12% of respondents seeing a very positive impact cited management buy-in as a challenge. This compares to 45% of those seeing no noticeable impact with social engagement, citing management buy-in as an issue.

Integrating Social Channels with Traditional Service Processes Pays Off

While 31% of all respondents said their companies have fully integrated social interactions into their customer support processes, the number spikes up to 40% for those who say their company has seen a positive impact from social engagement. That number jumps up to 48% for those seeing very positive results from social engagement. Conversely, only 19% of those seeing no noticeable impact from social engagement say their company has fully integrated it into their customer support processes.

A closer look finds that 24% of employees from large enterprises (over 1,000 employees) said their companies have already fully integrated social media/networks into their customer service processes. This compares with 43% of the small business respondents (under 50 employees) who say they've already integrated "social" into customer service processes. That's a sizeable difference which may be due to more complex processes and integration needs for the large enterprises, or possibly points to a difference in defining what "fully integrated" means to large and small organizations.

One Employee Can Make A Big Difference

The vast majority of respondents (79%) said that less that between 0-5 customer service professionals engage customers on social channels – 62% of which said 1-5 customer service employees. But where 17% of all respondents said they actually have zero customer service employees engaged, only 4% of those that answered "Very Positive" or "Positive" to the impact of social networks said they have no customer service professionals engaged. Contrast this to the number of respondents saying their company has seen no noticeable impact – 31% - and you see the importance of having a customer service professional (as opposed to marketing or PR) to engage customers.

One other point on this topic was included in the whitepaper. Ginger Conlon, Executive Director of 1to1 Media, identified that companies are in the process of integrating social channels into traditional service. This transition had led some companies to attempt to hire non-traditional service people to man social networks. One high-profile case was Pizza Hut’s hiring of interns to monitor customer requests on social networks. 

Hiring interns to handle the load is not a long-term solution. Incorporating experienced customer service professionals into the social strategy pays off for both the company, and the customer.

Facebook and Twitter Usage Makes a Difference As Well

Some very interesting insights came from looking at respondent answers to using specific social networks for customer engagement. While Facebook was most cited be those surveyed for customer engagement, both Facebook and Twitter ranked neck and neck for effective engagement overall. But, when looking at those who saw a very positive impact, 72% saw Twitter as being very effective - where 16% only saw Facebook that way. However when looking at those who saw "just" a positive impact, 57% of respondents said Facebook was very effective, where 40% said Twitter. 

While it seems odd to see the kind of variance between the "Very Positive" and "Positive" respondents when it comes to which social networks are more effective, the data shows that smaller organizations seem to be more comfortable describing their companies’ results with social as being very positive, where larger companies tend to stay with positive as their choice. This may explain why Twitter seems to be the choice of smaller organizations, while Facebook tends to be favored by larger companies.

Twenty-eight percent of those seeing a very positive impact (and 30% of those seeing a positive impact) cited using both Facebook and Twitter to engage customers. Those numbers compare to 17% of all respondents who use them both, but even more telling is that only 12% of those seeing no noticeable impact engages customer on both of the popular sites.

Brent Leary - Co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award. He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, and on the advisory board of the University of Toronto's newly created CRM Center of Excellence. He's been quoted in several national business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Entrepreneur magazine. Leary writes the Social CRM column for Inc.com, and blogs at BrentLeary.com. You can reach him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

Note: Brent Leary has been retained by Jacada to participate in the Customer Service 2.0: Access the Experts speakers series. The opinions shared herein reflect the views of the author, and not necessarily Jacada or its employees.