Integrating Social Media with Traditional Support

by: Brooks Webb

I recently engaged a friend in Twitter regarding a frustrating customer experience he had. He simply asked, “Is it okay to be moved from one channel to another?” My initial thought was yes, that is perfectly fine. That is not uncommon depending on the complexity of the issue. He then went on to explain that thecustomer support team moved his interaction from phone to chat (I’m still trying to figure this one out) and they had provided conflicting information between those channels. It became evident to me that there was a communications breakdown between the support teams responsible for those channels.

It should be noted that in most organizations, social media is the responsibility of the marketing department. As customers engage via social, they may likely interact with someone other than a customer support representative. This alone could lead to anxiety for customers if they are not given swift and accurate assistance. This is the heart of the matter; customers are looking for accurate and timely resolutions. When engaging in multi-channel customer support, it is imperative that there is communication between those channels. This is most important via social media.

Regardless of who has ownership, social media should be treated in the same manner as traditional customer service channels. If the customer service team does not have ownership of social media, it is necessary to ensure they are involved at some level when support issues arise. This could be as simple as having a point of contact in the call center to refer to. Ideally, the support staff could create and maintain ownership of their own social handles.

In this case, it would be wise to familiarize your customer base with the various social media accounts the company has and what their purposes are. This will help prevent the corporate site from being inundated with support issues. Furthermore, the marketing space, which is the public face of the organization, will not be overrun with support inquiries.

In addition, social media case logging should be handled in the same manner as phone, email, and chat. Why should this occur? To allow agents in those traditional channels to cross check the customer interactions. In the example of my friend, the agents in chat and phone could have logged their respective interactions. By checking the client’s history, the recent activity and resolution would have been immediately known. 

The key is to have proper channels of communication, as well as proper case handling. Without those, you're going to struggle, not only with chat, email, and phone channels, but with social as well.

Brooks Webb is the Manager of the Premier Support team at iContact, where his team handles all second level support inquiries, including Billing Support, Level 2 Technical Support, and Support for all Top Level Managed Accounts. Follow Brooks on Twitter @WBrooksWebb