Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Industry experts widely agree that social media will play a significant role in the future of call centers. An increasing number of consumers, particularly young people, expect retailers to offer social media-based customer support, according to a recent TNS study, and there is little sign of this trend abating.
Because social media customer service differs significantly from more familiar channels, it requires new service agent tactics. As Frost & Sullivan recently highlighted, there are several challenges inherent in the form, such as anonymity cloaking consumers and security concerns. Additionally, because most conversations are available to the public, contact center agents must adopt different tones and approaches when responding to consumers.
For these reasons, Frost & Sullivan advises contact centers to create a single department to handle all customer engagement strategies.
This recommendation echoes a recent Interactive Intelligence Group report on social media in the contact center. They ultimately supported a strategy in which the marketing department, which presumably has more social media experience, works closely with customer support staff to improve a company's overall handling of social media interaction.
