An Explosion in Customer Engagement through Social Media need not cause a Headache
As customer engagement through social media becomes the norm in customer service, logistical issues of handling volumes of conversations can become a challenge. This is especially true if it builds quickly. The immediacy of social media and the customer service expectations of many markets create a demand for ‘instant response’ as the required standard of customer engagement. This applies to small businesses as well as large.
Just how do you manage the pressure of large volumes of social interaction?
Customer Engagement Case Study
A good case-study of how to do it well for a large corporate was 1&1 Internet, a well-known German ISP. Working with Hootsuite (who wrote the study) they used social media to increase positive customer engagement and sentiment by 20%. At the same time they boosted social media conversations around their brand by 35%, in just under a year.
The way they achieved this was in the company’s commitment to integrating teams from different departments. They even drafted staff from different countries into a loosely-formed centralised organisation. All for the purposes of engaging with customers.
1&1 Internet undertook a gradual, phased roll-out across all relevant departments, Marketing and HR to Customer Service and Product Management. They kept control via their central management team throughout. Consequently it’s a fascinating study of breaking down the organisational silos to achieve a common goal of better customer service and a truly excellent way of embedding CRM into their organisation.
“By increasing customer engagement on social media, 1&1 Internet was able to create positive conversations with customers. Also solve potential issues in real time and improve customer service and satisfaction in an active and measurable way.”
Of course, by doing this 1&1 have also managed to improve customer engagement without need for much additional cost. The exercise enhanced staff morale and generated a strong team ethos within the company, too.
Finally, check out the full customer engagement through social media case study, courtesy of Hootsuite.
This is an updated version of a post that first appeared on the Coyne Sales and Marketing site in November, 2016.
