Conclusion
As consumers increasingly turn to social channels to seek information and advice and to express opinions, there is no question that organizations must engage with those channels to deliver appropriate customer care and ensure positive experiences. As the epicenter of multichannel customer engagement, the contact center is a key strategic focal point for customer engagement via social channels. Enablement of the social contact center requires the organization to be able to
1. Listen and respond
2. Be where your customers are
3. Build and leverage community
Lessons learned from these early forays into social engagement have us taught that it cannot be an ancillary “bolted-on” customer process. With hindsight, we now know definitively that to reap the full benefits of social engagement, organizations must skip over these failed Band-Aid approaches and set their sights on a mature engagement model. This mature model is characterized by a unified customer engagement platform that infuses and seamlessly manages customer interaction across all channels, including social channels. It is also characterized by a corporate culture of transparency in which social media is an organizationwide imperative and employees at all levels are empowered.
The resultant benefits include greater cost savings from operational efficiencies, improved customer satisfaction and retention rates, and revenue increased through greater cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.