What a great day. I spoke this morning at the ACCA group (Austin Contact Center Alliance) annual meeting. ACCA is one of the best-run local call center groups in the country. Jewell Parker and the board do a great job. And I don’t say that because they have asked me to speak three years in a row – but because it is true! I was honored to be on the agenda again this year.
My topic was Social Media in the Call Center (Contact Center, Interaction Center, Social Media Center – whatever you call it). The key learning that I attempted to share was that social medial is happening already for most companies. The question is how is the call center engaged in the experience. Customers are probably talking about your company on the web – blogs, Yammer, Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, and many other social places. So, if the noise is out there, my question is, “what are you doing about it?”
The most asked question for me is, “so what do we do first?” I think there are two basic first steps – #1 – listen. Then once you know what is there, you can decide if #2 – engage – is necessary.
Listening means putting processes and technology in place to listen to what people are saying. It can be as simple as checking search.twitter.com for words that fit your company. TweetDeck is also a simple and free option for tracking tweet-words or tweet-phrases. Of course there are many other types of technology to help you track and listen. If you need more details, click over to the resources page and download the Social Media Resource List from the session.
The second step is where the fun begins – ENGAGE. This is where you begin to work with your marketing team or PR team and make the call center relevant into the conversation with customers.
I look forward to sharing additional Social Media “how-to” ideas over the next weeks…
The bottom line is that we are all learning as we go – and even the experts have only being doing this for 12 to 18 months. So, jump in – listen first – and read everything you can get your hands on – to prepare you for what is coming. Social Media is our next channel – are you ready?
