The Future of Customer Service report, written by ItsOpen on behalf of first direct, has featured in an article in the FT. The piece by Paul Taylor is titled “Social CRM mirrors rise in customer power.”

See also previous posts over on the Social Media Leadership Forum, as well as the slide-deck and the full report embedded below:

• first direct collaborates with customers online
• Podcast interviews of the author Dr Andrew Currah and first direct’s Natalie Cowen
• Downloads of the report and presentation

This infographic below, the Anatomy of a Killer Facebook Ad Campaign takes you through all the steps of setting up a successful Facebook Ad Campaign. There is an element of bias here, AES Connect which created the infographic is a Facebook app developer. But, it’s still worth checking out.

The checklist at the bottom detailing all the things you need to do is handy, and the stats about Facebook and its influence on a users’ shopping habits makes for interesting reading.

The key findings of the report, written by Dr. Andrew Currah, are reproduced here, along with interviews with the author and Natalie Cowen, Head of brand and communications at first direct (see slide presentation at the bottom of post).

Podcasts

Dr Andrew Currah interview
Natalie Cowen interview

Key report findings

• The social customer expects to engage online and not sit in a call centre queue
• Social companies are empowering their staff to interact with customers online
• Social customers can help companies increase their profits

The modern social customer has little time or respect for traditional company structures and expects to interact with brands on their own terms on through their favoured platforms, according to new research published today.

According to the new report, “The Future of Customer Service”, commissioned by one of the pioneers in the social arena for financial services, first direct, and authored by social media consultancy ItsOpen, 2011 was the tipping point where social media entered the main stream. Today’s customer expects to be heard and respected by companies when they post about them online; they expect to be able to interact with companies via their smartphones and tablet computers; and most of all they expect a swift response.

In essence, the social customer expects to interact with a company through a channel he or she chooses. Successful social companies need to be able to engage in their customers’ conversations online.  The model of expecting someone to sit and listen to hold music on the phone while they wait to speak to your customer services team is starting to look outdated.

The rise of the social customer has prompted the growth of the social company – the company that listens to its customers, interacts with them and asks them to contribute to and collaborate in future developments. The pioneer social companies are already seeing that the social customer is helping them to improve the bottom line.

Arguably the pioneers of true modern day customer service following their launch 22 years ago, first direct, have started on the road to embracing the social customer.

Natalie Cowen, Head of brand and communications at first direct, said:

“We started to recognise some time ago that the tide was turning and a customer service revolution was taking place this time in social media.  Our early response was to introduce Talking Point and became the first bank to give customers their chance to say, live and unedited, how they felt about the bank.

‘This was swiftly followed with the launch of the firstdirect Lab, another first in the financial world and where crowd sourcing enables customers and prospects alike the opportunity to craft and tweak the banks products and services. More recently our launch of firstdirecthelp@twitter truly sets us on the path of customer service in the social environment.

‘Whilst it has been a long and often difficult journey to get to where we are, it’s fantastic to see the personality of first direct, and the essence of our service success, coming to life in the digital space.”

Justin Hunt, Founder of ItsOpen, said:

“This report confirms what we have been hearing anecdotally over the last few months; the days of holding for ages to talk to a call centre adviser who can’t make a decision are about to be left behind. Customers now expect to be interacting and collaborating online with the brands they choose to do business with.

“2012 looks set to be the year of the social customer. It is up to companies to catch up, engage with these valuable brand advocates and make the most of the opportunities offered by social media. Companies are finally moving on from 20th century models of customer service”

Dr Andrew Currah, the report’s author, said:

“There are some hurdles that companies need to overcome before they can start to make the most of the new breed of social customer. Company executives must embrace the potential of digital communication – social media isn’t just something their children engage with.

“When social media permeates an organisation and moves beyond the ‘silos’ that many companies put it in, it allows the social company to deliver high quality customer service and compelling products based on the insights its customers provide. Simply leaving social media to the PR or marketing department will never allow a company to engage in online customer conversations, react to issues and eventually turn customer relations channels into revenue earners in the way that the pioneer social companies already do.

“Zappos, O2 and Tesco and first direct are blazing a trail. They are companies that understand the shift that social media has brought about and have redesigned their corporate structures to allow their customers to interact and engage through the channels that suit them.”

Importantly, the report also highlights the ways that newly social companies are reaping the financial benefits:

• Customers who are ‘served’ online are far less likely to make use of expensive telephone-based customer service channels.
• Companies that have opened up fully to social media have made customer data available to all relevant internal agents – making the resolution of customer enquiries less labour intensive and increasing opportunities for cross selling.
• By fostering their own online communities, companies are able to encourage their customers to resolve each other’s queries – eventually allowing the forward thinking company to reduce its own customer service presence.
• first direct collaborates with customers online
• Podcast interviews of the author Dr Andrew Currah and first direct’s Natalie Cowen
• Downloads of the report and presentation

Every time Facebook launches a new feature, layout or look, a group of users voice a negative opinion about it. Inevitable really, not everyone likes change. The level of anger is quite surprisingly though, considering it’s a free service that people don’t have to use. But it does go to prove how ingrained the social network is in our day-to-day lives.

This time, users have complained about the news ticker on the right, Top Stories section at the top and profiles being replaced by Timelines. The move to the new layout was announced months ago, and Facebook has taken longer to implement it across the board than it usually does – possibly because the team were aware of a slight backlash.

Not all the users who are discontented with the new look are adopting the all talk no action option. A group of users have got together to create a Chrome extension that promises to take Facebook users back to the good old days before news tickers and the Facebook feed order.

Facebook Classic is free to use and easy to install. You can find it in the Chrome Web Store.

A new video from Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning shows exactly what they’ve got planned for the short-term and long-term future. By the looks of things, touch screen technology could change everything from our choice of wardrobe and drive to work, to education in schools and augmented reality.

It’s a fascinating watch. Take a look.

The theme for the panel discussion was ‘Social Media and Its Discontents’ and was designed to take a closer look at some of the key developments that are looking to shape the insurance industry over the near future.

The session considered the fact that the evolution of social networks has presented organisations with a potential ally. When carefully considered, social media strategies can provide a host of rewards in brand management, reputation and customer engagement.

However as social media networks have also demonstrated an anarchic ability to spread ruin, revolution and redress, the panel was asked if the risks and opportunities created from social media can ever be managed.

The session was moderated by Tom Standage, Digital Editor, The Economist. Also on the panel were: Amanda MacKenzie, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Aviva; and Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer for RSA.

It was a lively discussion and Tom, Amanda and Pete had some fascinating views. The key points Justin made were that he feels social media presents an opportunity for the insurance industry to reinvent itself and restore trust in its services. Social media is rapidly becoming social production and in a networked economy, the real value is enabling customers to collaborate with you in creating, distributing, marketing and supporting your products.

Justin also pointed out that the arrival of so-called digital natives within the workplace will have a profound impact on the structures of insurance companies and how they communicate. Young people – who are highly tech literate – entering the workplace will expect and demand different methods of communications using social networking tools. This further presents an opportunity for the insurance industry to reinvent itself and use these tools to tap into the insights and information of their employees.

The Met Office is one of Britain’s oldest and most highly regarded brands, enjoying public trust at levels around 80%. Traditionally most of its conversations have been one-way, mediated through other channels. Now for the first time it can communicate directly with the public, via a highly active presence on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook that reaches more than 75,000 people each month.

Contacts are overseen by the communications team based in the press office, which works closely with forecasters to ensure that appropriate messages are sent out. Before taking the plunge, the team first spent a year working with consultancy It’s Open and the Social Media Leadership Forum to help it understand the environment. “We wanted to watch and learn for a while, to see how it might to apply to us,” says head of communications Dee Cotgrove. “You can’t just copy other people; you have to see how it’s relevant to what you’re doing.”

Then in 2010 the team started getting involved in online conversations, entering comment threads on web forums to correct perceptions where necessary. This in turn helped it to adjust its own messaging, making it a two-way process. “Sometimes the public attaches the wrong idea to our weather warnings, and social media has helped people understand what they mean and what they don’t mean,” Dee says. The Met Office also started a Twitter feed, with weather warnings directed at particular parts of the country. Initially this was on weekdays only, occasionally extending to weekends in the case of major weather events. In the third year the project went fully operational, with customer contact advisors handling tweets on a daily 24-hour basis.

The catalyst was the eruption of the Iceland volcano Grimsvotn in May 2011, which threatened to repeat the travel chaos of a similar incident the previous year. “We were still providing updates at the end of that week and we felt we couldn’t just stop the conversation,” explains Dee. The @Metoffice channel now has over 60,000 followers, who are encouraged to keep in touch by tweets such as, “I’m Dan, and I’ll be here all night for your weather questions”. Our advisors were already experienced in talking with the public, but were given extra training for contacts involving social media. The press office still oversees the messaging to ensure the nuance is right, and it provides guidance in the case of high profile events such as this winter’s snowfall.

Dee distinguishes between two elements in the Met Office’s use of social media. On the rational side, the medium can help it reach more people more quickly and improve the quality of the information. But there is also an emotional element, she says, in helping connect with audiences. “For the Met Office as a brand it’s important that people trust our warnings, as it means they are more likely to heed what we say,” she says. “It’s fantastic to see people taking action on the basis of our warnings, as they did before Christmas in Scotland when schools were shut following our gale forecasts, and again in February when Heathrow cancelled some flights in advance of heavy snow.”

“Social media is more intimate and two-way than traditional media,” she continues. “We can appeal to new audiences and interest groups, like the annual Glastonbury festival, for example, and connect to what’s important for them. That gives them more of a sense of association and affiliation. It also means that other brands or individuals can endorse what we say.”

Social media was part of an integrated campaign last August in which the Met Office celebrated 150 years of forecasting. Elements included a timeline of its activities and progress over the years, and a competition for users to send in photographs demonstrating the indominatable British spirit in combating the weather

The organisation is active on YouTube, for instance posting weather warning podcasts by the chief forecaster. There can also be found educational clips about the science behind the weather, such as the natural forces that cause thunderstorms. Clips can be freely syndicated to other web outlets, and in some cases organisations can be given special content, as happens with the NHS for cold weather alerts.

Now into its second year, the Met Office’s venture is clearly a success,reaching over 100,000 people every month. It would be overstating things to say that social media has transformed its relationship with the public, as this was already strong. But, Dee says, it has certainly provided added depth and clarity, which will help to ensure that the level of public trust remains high.

We believe that the Social Media Leadership Forum gives our clients unrivalled access to peer-to-peer business knowledge; that this helps them develop their own thinking as well as foster a sense of confidence in the process of introducing major technological and organisational change.

The Social Media Leadership Forum is bringing together leading organisations and thinkers that have an interest in engaging with their stakeholders through social media – from pioneering early adopters of social media to those just beginning to develop their social media strategies.

Our objective is to provide a stimulating open environment for members to share their knowledge and experience, learn from other leading industry players, and network to help each other successfully customise social media strategies and policies for the long term success of the organisations they serve.

Events have included presentations by social media pioneers and leaders Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Yammer, to name a few, as well as talks by the BBC, The Economist, The Finacial Time and all our member organisations.

Many companies – and Sodexo is no exception – have been slow to see and harness the benefits of Twitter and Facebook to talk to and with customers.

Social media is all about instant two-way dialogue and, in a large corporation, rapidly changing longstanding ways of communicating doesn’t happen overnight.

That is beginning to change within Sodexo though and the pace of change will increase, because the business is now committed to using these interactive tools to engage better with students.

Sodexo Education is in the vanguard. Students are the e-generation. Computer literate and smartphone savvy, they use social media to communicate daily.

It is so important in their lives now that a recent survey by Dream Systems Media found 56 per cent of college students said if they were offered a job by a company that banned social media use, they’d turn it down!

If that’s how they talk to each other, it is not surprising that Sodexo wants to talk the same language.

Marketing Director Claire Morris said: “A lot of our sites are now using Twitter to communicate with customers: telling them what is on the menu, running competitions and asking for feedback.”

For example, Sodexo’s Twitter account has created a great buzz amongst Southampton Solent University (SSU) students. Offers and prize draws, as well as information, are being tweeted by Sodexo’s team at the university, where Sodexo has a contract to manage catering and hospitality services.

“It is driving engagement with the students, generating topics for communication and getting a buzz going,” said Claire.

Sodexo has a website, linked to the SSU intranet, in which students use a Quick Response (QR) code to go directly to a microsite called theunity, where they can get details of menus, opening hours, special offers and other information on catering.

Claire added: “It is important that we use the means of communications that this generation of students is using.

“We decided at the end of last year that we would not run any more satisfaction surveys using paper but all electronic, so that they can be completed using iPads, websites or QR.”

Lars Kavli, a social media consultant with It’s Open, has been working with Phil Hooper, Corporate Affairs Director and Sodexo’s UK and Ireland Marketing team, to see how social media can benefit communication in various sectors, starting with universities.

He said: “Technical innovation has brought about cultural change in which media users and practitioners have started to expect different interactions from media. They expect two-way interaction and some way of making their voices heard.”

Today, he says, one per cent of communicators create new content, nine per cent interact with that content, by responding to it or passing it on, while 90 per cent observe that content, so may also be influenced by it. “This is the ripple effect that is happening and while some companies have looked on this as a big threat, it is actually a huge opportunity to hold a very different relationship with service users or customers.”

Companies like Sodexo are now embracing social media and beginning to move away from the traditional corporate, reactive and defensive style of communication.

“We have seen at SSU you can have a very different kind of dialogue with your service users,” said Lars.

After researching how universities around the world are using social media, Twitter, because it is newsorientated, was found to be the best way to get the information directly to someone you are not familiar with.

“Your voice has to be authentic because you cannot manage an experience someone has of your services, if what you are saying bears no relation to what is actually happening,” said Lars.

“You can use video and photography too but the important thing is to tell it like it is.

“In the early stages, one of the challenges is to help Sodexo feel like they are not opening a can of worms, to let everyone have their say and comment on different
issues. But that is going to happen anyway, so it is better to be proactive to benefit the wider protection of the company.”

Claire’s colleagues in the USA say Facebook is becoming ‘old hat’ with students there, because everyone, including their parents, are using it. “For us, instant, short, effective communication with Twitter is much better.”

Lars said: “The litmus test for all media is ‘is it still useful and does it provide benefits to users?’ If the answer is yes, it will remain alive. Students are fickle and so big trends tend to work for three or four years.”

He added: “Facebook requires much more content and is a good tool for reflecting who you are and how you want to be perceived, but Twitter is better for quick communications. It is becoming the default media because it is like texting to a wider public.”

SSU’s retail development manager Marc Jaytin took to the use of Twitter fast. “He had some training but he’s a natural. He understands the messages that
work and the interactions you need,” said Lars.

Sodexo is also using LinkedIn, the professional network for job hunters, to cut its recruitment costs and find the right people.

The move into social media is not an exact science.

“It is a learning curve but you just have to start using it and learn from experience,” said Lars.

Written by Bob Roxburgh

Up until Twitter became mainstream, brands didn’t have to worry too much about a mass backlash – unless it made it to the papers. Now, more and more brands are slipping up when it comes to underestimating the amount of power the Twitter community has.

Already this year, a number of brands have slipped up.

H&M

H&M followed in the footsteps of others, like Paperchase, who have been accused of using designs from up and coming artists without their permission. This time designer Tori LaConsay has pointed out some striking similarities between her work and the designs on several of their home accessories.

Initially, H&M released the following statement:

“We employ an independent team of over 100 designers. We can assure you that this design has not been influenced by your work and that no copyright has been infringed.”

But after a Twitter campaign, complete with hashtag, and promotion by Regretsy, the high street store has apologised on their Facebook page to those that ‘think we have copied”.

LA Fitness

Next up to feel the wrath of the Twitter community was LA Fitness. This time, it concerned a couple who were unable to continue their 24-month gym contract as she was pregnant, he had been made redundant, and they both had to move 12 miles away without a car to commute.

LA Fitness apparently refused to let them out of the contract. It was only after several hours of pressure from Twitter users that they gave in and allowed the couple to close their contract. Sadly, this was too late for LA Fitness, whose reputation has taken a serious beating.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s attempted a Twitter campaign this week to encourage users to tweet positive messages about the brand, using the hashtag #McDStories

Sadly for them, the stories ended up being a little more like this:

#McDStories Take a McDonalds fry, let it sit for 6 months. It will not deteriorate or spoil like a normal potato. It will remain how it was

Once the hashtag was out there, McDonald’s lost all control of it. Bit of a hard lesson, and one they probably could have learnt before – it’s hardly the first time this has happened.

Claire’s Accessories vs. Tatty Devine

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a small brand highlight a very similar product that a bigger brand has released a similar version of. But Claire’s Accessories’ biggest failing was their social media approach during the crisis. The company deleted any negative post on their Facebook wall and barely mentioned the claims by Tatty Devine on their  Facebook or  Twitter pages. Sometimes, no news can be as damaging as bad news.

So, despite brands being on Twitter for a couple of years now, it’s clear some still don’t realise just how much say a Twitter community has.