Monday, May 07, 2012
The successful integration of social media with a company's infrastructure and operations is a critical factor in determining that organization's success or failure. Many companies have acknowledged this fact, and are responding accordingly. Social customer relationship management (CRM) is a rapidly growing industry. Gartner estimates that the global social CRM software market will reach $2 billion this year.
One of the areas in which social media has had and will continue to have the biggest impact is in the contact center. Customers increasingly demand the option of communicating with customer support, sales and other departments via Facebook and Twitter, leading many companies to strive to incorporate these channels into their contact center.
However, as Don Keane recently argued in Business 2 Community, companies should not attempt to adopt social media-based customer support in lieu of other channels. Rather, they should work to incorporate social media, IVR, email and the telephone into contact centers, training their agents to handle all forms of contact with customers. Doing so can significantly improve a company's overall quality of service, increasing customer loyalty and creating brand advocates.
