This document discusses social media and its applications for customer service. It begins by defining social media and exploring its various uses, including informing customers, seeking help, inviting participation, celebrating customers, researching insights, and monitoring intelligence. It then examines ways social media can be used, such as sharing information, blogging, complaining, getting help, connecting to communities, and advertising. Finally, it proposes a social media maturity model to help organizations benchmark their social media capabilities and determine areas for improvement. The model evaluates factors such as employee competence, content management, cultural integration, community management, policies/procedures, metrics, technology architecture, tools, connectivity, vision/strategy, leadership, and governance.

1. Social Media and Customer Service
A discussion
July 2012
Paul Scott paul.scott@merchants.co.uk

2. Content
• What is Social Media?
• What are its applications?
• What’s relevant to our clients?
• A Social Media Maturity Model
• Metrics
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3. Context: Social media is opening up new
and exciting customer contact channels
The purpose being to:
• Understand how mature your organisation is
in social media
• What Merchants can be doing to ensure we
are seen as part of the solution rather than
part of the problem
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4. One definition of social media…
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5. …here’s one view of what’s out there
social brand engagement search and browsing
social data
business software
social networks
commerce platforms social ad network
social advertising platforms
analytics
social media platforms
community platforms
blogging platforms
social advertising
social referral
social shopping
applications
streaming platforms
social scoring
mobile apps
gaming
content content
sharing curator
url shorteners social intelligence photo sharing
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6. How can we use social media platforms?
Inform Seek help Invite to Celebrate or
with insight in return for… participate in … acknowledge
Push
Interact
Pull
Research Alert Monitor for Gather content
with insight with context intelligence for re-use
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7. Ways of using Social Media
Social is finding
new and innovative
applications, daily
Keeping pace with this
ever-evolving media
requires dedicated focus
In the customer
management domain,
Social social media is being
media applied to everything
from peer-to-peer help
to sales and even
retention activity
There is a plethora
of tools available
to help organisations
harness the random
and often confusing
nature of this media
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8. Ways of using Social Media
Share Social is finding
information new and innovative
Game Complain applications, daily
Keeping pace with this
ever-evolving media
requires dedicated focus
Blog Get help In the customer
management domain,
Social social media is being
media applied to everything
from peer-to-peer help
Connect to
Shop to sales and even
communities
retention activity
There is a plethora
of tools available
Advertise Learn to help organisations
harness the random
Research
and often confusing
nature of this media
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9. Applications in Contact Centres
We’re focused
on a few of these
areas initially
Social which tend to be
directly associated
media with contact centres
and customer
management
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10. Applications in Contact Centres
Share
information
Game Complain
We’re focused
Blog Get help on a few of these
areas initially
Social which tend to be
directly associated
media with contact centres
Connect to and customer
Shop
communities management
Advertise Learn
Research
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11. Strategic intent
A Maturity Model for Social Media
Merchants uses
Innovate
Customer interaction evolving with a maturity model
customer demand in real time to determine where
an organisation is
from a capability
SM part of multi-channel perspective
Drive
strategy with ROI and integral to We have adapted
Customer Experience Management Creating
new customer
our own CCDM
management for this purpose,
Contribute
platforms as this models
Planned engagement, resourced without customer management
monitored and managed
Part of organisational in the contact centre
multi-channel boundaries domain
contact centre Resources
drawn from
This helps organisations
Engage
Traffic captured, platform
Understand and
which includes combined internal benchmark themselves,
put into context prioritised and
responded to external and external identifies quick wins and
Constrain corporate in contact centre delivery sources delivery teams areas for improvement
and individual
engagement Listening Reporting Our maturity model helps
Contain
and building in place client on their journey
Ad-hoc SM maps to combine digital
response and voice channels
Reactive Basic Coordinated Integrated Optimised
to deliver an exceptional
customer experience
Operational capability
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12. Business
Technology
Customer Employees Organisation

13. Social Media Maturity Model | 1 of 2
Basic Coordinated Integrated Optimised
Listening, some presence but no Participating monitoring and Sharing across channels and Delivering measurable
coordinated response responding with governance in platforms, selling serving and economic value and recognised
place innovating as socially significant
Employee
Social media Have a Facebook page for Community based engagement, Part of a corporate specialist team, Strategic role to drive customer
Competence personal use. Not encouraged to where themes and special called on to proactively engage on loyalty or CLV
use Social media in a work context interests drive engagement topics
Content Push content only on a wide Marketing or CS managing Pull activity to support outbound Push and Pull activity integrated to
Management variety of topics centrally activity multiple sources internally and
externally
Cultural A few early adopters and Centralised specialist team Integrated to other customer Enterprise-wide all employees
integration evangelists management teams empowered to contribute
Organisation
Community No formal management, left to Proactive and explicit by a central Integrated across the Enterprise, Forms part of the Customer and
management individuals to self manage or local resource delivering Social Customer Care Staff Engagement Strategy
managing Peer to Peer
Policies and No formal policies in place Documented but not enforced- Fully documented and adopted to Policies enable development and
Procedures restrictive facilitate social media usage adoption of social media
Metrics and Not measured, but statistics Ad-hoc project based Centralised measures using web Enterprise-wide measures and
Measures produced ad hoc measurement tools metrics which form part of daily
Customer Interaction Management
reports
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14. Social Media Maturity Model | 2 of 2
Basic Coordinated Integrated Optimised
Listening, some presence but no Participating monitoring and Sharing across channels and Delivering measurable
coordinated response responding with governance in platforms, selling serving and economic value and recognised
place innovating as socially significant
Technology
Architecture Open source, not using corporate Enterprise tools in isolated areas Enterprise platform integrated to Strategic, on demand, customer
standards cloud services centric, Cloud or SaaS-based
Tools Self service, internet, outside Standard, IT approved list of best Apps and Services relevant to Inside the firewall, Enterprise
firewall in class products evolving needs developed
Connected- Standalone Low-level ad hoc Multi-channel connectivity Internal and external channels fully
ness integrated
Business
Vision & None, low awareness and not Departmental or central team Business Unit or division Social media seen as a strategic
Strategy seen as a strategic imperative define CS or marketing objectives incorporate social media into imperative, delivering tangible
business strategy returns
Leadership Bottom-up a few enthusiasts Functionally-led with proactive CMO or CSD lead and visibly lead CEO seen as social media leader
and development social media strategy in your industry
Commitment
Governance No formal governance, but Marketing or CS publish guidelines Part of overall customer Self governing as whole Enterprise
employees operate under but not rigorously enforced management and communications understands the value, do’s and
corporate communications rules governance process don’ts
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15. Customer management social media maturity
Basic Coordinated Integrated Optimised
Listening, some presence but no Participating monitoring and Sharing across channels and Delivering measurable
coordinated response responding with governance in platforms, selling serving and economic value and recognised
place innovating as socially significant
Metrics
# followers and friends # links visited # registrations/referrals # converted leads
# posts and tweets # enquiries/responses # leads/prospects # customers retained
# policy violations # downloads % reach (share of voices) £ of customers won
# issues/problems £ costs saved
# mentions/re-tweets
# comments
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