[SCVS Live Chat] Not your Grandpa's Customer Service

[PaulGi Lithium Alumni (Retired)]

Archive of Live Chat session - Not your Grandpa's Customer Service, with Joe Cothrel, Lithium Technologies and Taylor Allis of Teletech

[ 11/10/10 7:42 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Welcome to the chat session. I’m Haresh Kumar, Director, Product Marketing at Lithium, and I’ll be the moderator for the next half hour. Joining us for this session is Joe Cothrel and Taylor Allis. Taylor is Executive Director, Product Marketing at TeleTech and Joe is Chief Community Officer at Lithium – between them they have a wealth of knowledge on how to ways to enhance customer support that increases customer satisfaction.

[ 11/10/10 7:42 AM] Maria.Kolozina: Hello! I have a question concerning the forum moderation.Is it a good thing to use real photos of Support Staff instead of cartoon avatars in order to make it more personal?

[ 11/10/10 7:43 AM] joe.cothrel: Hi Maria!

[ 11/10/10 7:43 AM] Kevin Farr: Maria-hi this is Kevin from business online

[ 11/10/10 7:43 AM] Sel: hi

[ 11/10/10 7:43 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Welcome to the session Taylor, Joe. Great to have you here!

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] Kevin Farr: your questions is great...to answer it depends opn the goal of the community.

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] Maria.Kolozina: Hi Everyone )

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] TaylorA: Thank you

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] joe.cothrel: Thanks, Haresh - glad to be here.

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] Erin Korogodsky: hi everyone!!

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] Haresh - Lithium: @Maria - we'll kick off with some questions and get to your qs in the end

[ 11/10/10 7:44 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Okay, before we kick off here, I wanted to set some ground rules for the session. We have 30mins, for open discussion and Q&A. We will field as many questions as we can. I will prefix a topic with [QUESTION] so it’s clear when we have a new topic and I’ll remind us when we have 10 and 5 mins left in the session.Following the session, we’ll post the transcript to the Lithosphere (lithosphere.lithium.com) our online user community, and we’ll also post any unanswered questions and follow up in ther

[ 11/10/10 7:45 AM] Haresh - Lithium: I’ll start with you Joe– here’s your starter:

[ 11/10/10 7:45 AM] joe.cothrel: Shoot.

[ 11/10/10 7:45 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question] - What are the major drivers that have changed the support paradigm in the last 20 years. Can you provide us with some high level insights.

[ 11/10/10 7:46 AM] joe.cothrel: Product complexity has gone up, customer demands have gone up, direct support in the traditional way has become economically untenable,

[ 11/10/10 7:46 AM] joe.cothrel: Web self support has helped, but that's expensive too in terms developing content

[ 11/10/10 7:47 AM] joe.cothrel: companies are leveraging social for that reason

[ 11/10/10 7:47 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Thanks Joe. Great insights.

[ 11/10/10 7:47 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question - Joe] to follow up. - how support communities influence sales?

[ 11/10/10 7:48 AM] joe.cothrel: Great question. Few people realize how many forum users are shopping rather than looking for support.

[ 11/10/10 7:49 AM] joe.cothrel: They wonder "will this product work in my particular setting"

[ 11/10/10 7:49 AM] joe.cothrel: They wonder "are people happy with this product"

[ 11/10/10 7:49 AM] joe.cothrel: They are there to answer the final questions they have before they buy.

[ 11/10/10 7:50 AM] joe.cothrel: Companies like Best Buy and Barnes & Noble understand this - that's why they use our social commerce integration

[ 11/10/10 7:50 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Thats an interesting insight Joe. So customers not only get support but also personalized recommendations.

[ 11/10/10 7:50 AM] joe.cothrel: exactly

[ 11/10/10 7:51 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question - Taylor] - are there specific considerations/advantages to made for working with a BPO like Teletech

[ 11/10/10 7:51 AM] Maria.Kolozina: [QUESTION] Is it a good thing to use real photos of Support Staff instead of cartoon avatars in order to make it more personal?Lets say, it is a telecommunication company that uses the forum in order to communicate on technical issues, complaints.

[ 11/10/10 7:51 AM] TaylorA: Yes - A BPO is essentially a people and process company – to monetize social media you need people and process in addition to the technology.

[ 11/10/10 7:51 AM] TaylorA: BPOs are also global and multi-lingual – so companies can scale their Social CRM efforts.

[ 11/10/10 7:52 AM] TaylorA: Some BPO are also excellent at Systems Integration – you can connect social platforms with other systems like knowledge bases, CRM systems, back office systems, etc.

[ 11/10/10 7:52 AM] TaylorA: @Maria - I think Avatars do show a level of personalization and personality

[ 11/10/10 7:54 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Thanks Taylor. Economies of scale can certainly help reduce costs for companies

[ 11/10/10 7:54 AM] joe.cothrel: Only caveat on that, Maria - I think we want to be respectful of the privacy of support staff, who have one of the toughest jobs in the world

[ 11/10/10 7:55 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question-Joe] Given all the online options to support, why do you think support communities are finding success and are there any specific industries that these communities apply to

[ 11/10/10 7:55 AM] joe.cothrel: So I think we'd want to make sure we consider personal preference in that

[ 11/10/10 7:55 AM] joe.cothrel: Good question, Haresh.

[ 11/10/10 7:55 AM] joe.cothrel: Obviously it started in high tech, then moved to telecom

[ 11/10/10 7:56 AM] joe.cothrel: Becoming more and more common in retail

[ 11/10/10 7:56 AM] joe.cothrel: Customers like Caterpillar are taking into heavy industrial, Pitney into office equipment

[ 11/10/10 7:57 AM] joe.cothrel: And really, if we extend it, it applies to any industry who sells a product that inspires how-to questions

[ 11/10/10 7:57 AM] joe.cothrel: In a funny way, Sephora is as much a support community as HP's community is -- except the questions are about cosmetics rather than printers!

[ 11/10/10 7:58 AM] joe.cothrel: I often say, the most powerful two words in social are "how to"

[ 11/10/10 7:59 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Great examples Joe. So social support can come in any flavor and its really about peers helping each other cause we trust each other more than anything else.

[ 11/10/10 7:59 AM] TaylorA: Haresh - We are also seeing the Auto industry pick up - great to share user experiences with their cars

[ 11/10/10 7:59 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question - Taylor] - Looking at support holistically, when in the support lifecycle do you recommend enterprises should start evaluating social support.

[ 11/10/10 8:00 AM] TaylorA: At every stage really. If you think about social – it’s ubiquitous and should be so in the entire support cycle. Consumers share their experiences online now at every stage of the customer support lifecycle.

[ 11/10/10 8:00 AM] Kevin Farr: Exactly-the conection we share through common interest helps us trust the information we get in the community.

[ 11/10/10 8:00 AM] TaylorA: Social has really shinned when people have not been able to get support from traditional channels – an outlet if you will.

[ 11/10/10 8:00 AM] TaylorA: But today, companies should look at it at every stage – after acquisition, during use, during issues, etc.

[ 11/10/10 8:01 AM] TaylorA: By interacting with a consumer at the right stage – you can lower your cost to retain, acquire and grow customers.

[ 11/10/10 8:01 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Thanks Taylor. So social becomes the core of support and you recommend starting as early as possible

[ 11/10/10 8:02 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question-Joe] How are social channels like twitter and facebook changing customer support requirements and how should companies respond to it/scale.

[ 11/10/10 8:02 AM] Kevin Farr: @Taylor-great point; there are so many touch points with the customer and the more you are engaged the more you keep their attention and develop lasting relationships and culitvate loyalty and impact purchase intent.

[ 11/10/10 8:03 AM] joe.cothrel: Well both Facebook and Twitter originally added cost to support, rather than helping manage it

[ 11/10/10 8:03 AM] TaylorA: Yes - Social CRM should be added to every stage of your customer support operations. Some processes can be additive, some process have to be rewritten.

[ 11/10/10 8:04 AM] joe.cothrel: On twitter, companies created whole teams to monitor complaints

[ 11/10/10 8:04 AM] Kevin Farr: @ Joe do you attribute that cost to learning curves and lack oof knowledge in how to leverage a free tool?

[ 11/10/10 8:04 AM] joe.cothrel: On Facebook, customers began to use walls to ask for support

[ 11/10/10 8:04 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [TIME CHECK] we have 10 mins left on the clock.

[ 11/10/10 8:05 AM] joe.cothrel: Kevin, in both cases I think it was a learning curve, but also a lack of tools in those platforms

[ 11/10/10 8:05 AM] TaylorA: But from a support perspective - that 20 person Twitter team could have deflected thousands of calls which cost more.

[ 11/10/10 8:05 AM] joe.cothrel: There is a support impact through reuse Taylor, that's for sure

[ 11/10/10 8:06 AM] joe.cothrel: but not as much bene as you get when customers are helping customers, like we enable though our integrations

[ 11/10/10 8:06 AM] TaylorA: Yes - that drives CSAT, NPS - customer loyalty

[ 11/10/10 8:06 AM] joe.cothrel: On Lenovo, the wall doesn't have a complaints because you have a support tab that syncs with the community - customers helping customers

[ 11/10/10 8:06 AM] joe.cothrel: right, it's a broader set of ROI

[ 11/10/10 8:07 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Thats a great point Joe. And that brings me to the next question.

[ 11/10/10 8:08 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question-Taylor] What are the tertiary benefits of online social support and how can enterprises extend those to other support channels.

[ 11/10/10 8:08 AM] TaylorA: Haresh - The largest benefit support organizations look at is call deflection – but there are much greater benefits.

[ 11/10/10 8:08 AM] TaylorA: One – you can reach a LOT more customers – in different regions and languages – drive NPS & CSAT.

[ 11/10/10 8:09 AM] TaylorA: Two – you can improve issue resolution – sometimes before they even contact your company.

[ 11/10/10 8:09 AM] TaylorA: Three – You can take insight and knowledge gleamed from social interactions and serve that information up in a call center, over a self-help website, to click-to-chat associates, etc.

[ 11/10/10 8:10 AM] TaylorA: You can also capture leads and solve problems online which leads to revenue generation.

[ 11/10/10 8:10 AM] joe.cothrel: All excellent points, Taylor - re one, people often understimate that - it's the "reach" piece

[ 11/10/10 8:11 AM] Haresh - Lithium: Those are great points. So crowd sourcing support = great assets that can be used for education and training

[ 11/10/10 8:11 AM] TaylorA: Yes - We have also had success with contact center agents using social media to share knowledge and gleam more intel on customers to support them better.

[ 11/10/10 8:11 AM] joe.cothrel: Customers expect that too - an agent cannot *not* know about an important issue in the forums

[ 11/10/10 8:12 AM] Haresh - Lithium: {TIME CHECK] 5 mins. We have time for the last couple of questions.

[ 11/10/10 8:13 AM] TaylorA: Yes – but for service operators they do need to change their mindset. They worry about average handle times, etc. – and if integrating social media will throw off their traditional performance metrics.

[ 11/10/10 8:13 AM] TaylorA: But done right – it can move the right metrics.

[ 11/10/10 8:14 AM] Haresh - Lithium: [Question-Taylor]-Talking about ROI and metrics. Support for a lot of companies means cost center. How should enterprises evaluate ROI from social support communities in reference to other support channels. Essentially, what are some of the measures of success.

[ 11/10/10 8:16 AM] TaylorA: Issue resolution is a big one – but not only online, in your call center and over voice and chat channels if you integrate knowledge from social crm to empower contact center agents.

[ 11/10/10 8:16 AM] TaylorA: Through loyalty programs and creating customer advocates – you can promote your brand and drive revenue.

[ 11/10/10 8:17 AM] TaylorA: Customers need to tie their Social CRM programs to their traditional CRM apps so they can measure ROI as well – and show the value to the company.

[ 11/10/10 8:17 AM] Haresh - Lithium: That’s time folks. Thanks to everyone for their questions. Thank you to Taylor Allis and Joe Cothrel for their insights, anecdotes and expertise.[INFO] The transcript of this event will be available in the Social CRM Virtual Summit board of Lithosphere

[ 11/10/10 8:18 AM] Haresh - Lithium: See you all a little later today.

[ 11/10/10 8:18 AM] TaylorA: Great - thanks!