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Social media gives every one of your customers a voice that can be heard across the internet, outside your control. While this can worry many companies, it is worth realising that not every comment that people make on Facebook or Twitter is going to be negative – and also that those that have suffered a bad experience can change their mind if they are treated properly.

US research found that 68% of those that posted a complaint or a negative comment on social media got a response from the retailer. Emphasising the importance of engaging with customers, 18% of those actually turned into loyal customers and bought even more. A third (33%) then posted a positive review and 34% actually deleted their original, negative comment or review.

This really demonstrates how addressing customer issues can help turn around a negative experience and create a brand advocate. The first thing you need to be doing on social media is actually engaging with customers, rather than running away from complaints or poor feedback.

So what is the best way to deal with negative feedback on social media? Here are some tips from our own experience and the blog of Aaron Lee:

1              Speed is of the essence
Customers expect a fast response, normally within an hour. This requires a comprehensive monitoring system that alerts the customer service team about comments mentioning your company or products quickly so that they can provide a fast answer and prevent the customer getting angrier.

2              Be human and be honest
Companies need to be consistent in how they respond to complaints – otherwise you risk creating inequalities between other channels such as phone or email. However agents need to respond sympathetically and honestly and apologise where necessary.

3              Don’t take it personally
When a customer complains, don’t take it personally. If they’re angry, getting angry yourself is only going to make things worse – and behaviour such as removing negative Facebook comments will enflame the situation and potentially damage your entire brand. Be polite, apologetic where necessary and use non-confrontational language.

4              Provide real answers
There is no point in responding in seconds if you don’t answer the question or issue that the customer has raised. If necessary acknowledge the complaint, show you are looking into it and then come back within a stated timeframe, rather than just issuing an empty apology. Link social media customer service to your central knowledgebase, so you can call on the widest possible range of answers to customer questions.

5              Integrate social media into customer service
Many companies still deal with social media comments separately to other customer service channels. This risks creating an expensive silo, with inconsistent answers being given to customers. Use workflow to ensure that social media is treated as one of multiple customer contact channels. You need to have the ability to share information and provide a joined up service that enables consumers to cross channels with all the details of their complaint immediately visible to the agent speaking to them.

Ignoring negative comments won’t make them go away. However deal with them well and you are essentially giving your company a second chance with a customer, enabling you to turn them into an enthusiastic brand advocate.

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Organisations across the world are now embracing social media, realising that it provides an immensely powerful, completely new customer channel. However social media has some big differences to many traditional channels – it is an open conversation that can spread news and comments incredibly quickly to a huge number of people around the world.

But who within an organisation is responsible for social media? Given the channel can be used for marketing, public relations, customer service and even sales the debate on which department should take the lead in this area is ongoing, and often heated.

In the early stages of social media it was often individuals within a company who responded to queries via social media. However while tales of CEOs sorting out customer service problems or airline pilots giving advice on where to sit on a flight for the best view are heartwarming, they obviously don’t scale cost-effectively when you are answering hundreds of tweets a day.

Marketing, and in particular PR teams, were also early adopters of social media, and while they understood the importance of communicating messages about their brand, they don’t have the training or resources to deal with customer service queries, which are best handled by agents within the contact centre.

Clearly companies need a blended approach that brings together all relevant stakeholders to best manage social media. In a way it is similar to the advent of websites – companies quickly realised that everyone needed to contribute rather than adopting a silo-based approach to the new channel. To ensure this collaboration works smoothly in the real-time world of social media the right technology is vital, in four key areas:

• Monitoring, to see what is being said about your brand on social media
• Meaning-based software to analyse comments for content and context
• Powerful workflow that can then forward the query to the best person to deal with it, whether that is customer service, marketing, sales or product management
• Analytics and reporting to ensure service levels are being met and that comments are being taken on board

In the era of social media customers don’t care who answers their query, they just want a fast, accurate response, so it is up to companies to put in place the structure to do this successfully if they want to thrive.

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Online privacy is a topic that is constantly in the news at the moment, with iPhone app makers Path and Hipster the latest companies offering apologies after it emerged that they uploaded address book information from phones to their servers without asking permission. Other brands, including Amazon-owned retailer Zappos and Sony have had to issue apologies after their sites have been hacked and customer details compromised.

Clearly this is a complex area and one where issues can hurt relationships with customers and cause a great deal of damage to an organisation’s reputation. And with the European Union planning more stringent laws that would force companies to tell customers of security breaches within 24 hours and threatening large fines, it also has the potential to become extremely expensive.

So what can companies do to manage such crises and, as much as possible, reduce their impact on customer satisfaction? Here are four key areas to focus on:

1          Communicate quickly
Customers want to know what is going on, and so fast communication is vital if personal data has been misused or hacked. Even if you have to issue an interim statement that is then updated it is important to act quickly to prevent rumours spiralling out of control. Customers are no longer willing to wait hours for a response, but want to access answers within minutes if you are to retain their trust.

2          Communicate consistently
If their online privacy is compromised, ensure that all your customers receive the same information, whatever channel they are using to communicate. Have a central knowledgebase of information that is rolled out to the web, contact centre agents and social media to make sure there are clear, consistent answers for customers across all channels.

3          Use technology to automate response
One of the major impacts of a crisis is a huge increase in questions from customers as they email or call your contact centre to find out what is going on. If this overloads your contact centre and causes delays in getting through, customer anger will only increase. Use technologies such as Web Self-service to allow them to ask their questions on the web and social media, avoiding an overload on your contact centre but still providing the information that customers need

4          Monitor social media
Most organisations now have a strategy for monitoring social media for discussions mentioning their company. Make sure this planning includes crisis management and that there is a clear structure involving both customer service and communication staff so that queries are answered quickly and information is provided proactively to prevent rumours spreading. HSBC’s slick response to a major IT outage that shut down cash machines is a great example of how best to cope with a crisis using social media.

Crises do happen, often triggered by events outside the customer service department’s control. However it is vital that customer service teams are well prepared and ready to spring into action to provide the fast, consistent information customers want – otherwise you risk losing customers and long term damage to your brand.

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There have already been a lot of predictions that 2012 will be a key year for customer service, with Forrester amongst those that see it as a major strategic priority for businesses.

News this week from Microsoft seems to back up this trend. It is partnering with a Silicon Valley company called 24/7, which specialises in using data analytics to predict what customers want. Microsoft is both investing in 24/7 and merging some of its assets into the company. The result of this should be a cloud-based software platform that allows customers to contact a company through whatever channel they choose, using speech or touch, with the software predicting what information they might need and automatically providing it. So, service is faster, more efficient and more responsive, leading to happier customers and higher retention rates.

From the outside this can look a little like science fiction, with mind reading computers providing us with answers before we’ve even thought of the question, but it isn’t as far fetched as it sounds.

Much of the technology needed is already in operation. For example, Eptica’s software is built on a self-learning, meaning-based search engine. Essentially rather than simply picking out specific words it analyses questions it is asked by looking at them in context. So it can tell the difference between cricket the insect and cricket the game by analysing the words around them. This means it is able to provide more tailored, accurate answers to customer service queries, whether asked by email, the web, social media or agents in the contact centre.

Eptica’s self-learning capability is another advanced innovation that helps customer service. As answers are selected to specific questions it automatically learns which is the best response and offers this the next time a similar query comes up. New content can be added quickly and simply slots into the system ready to be used in response to questions.

On the topic of prediction, many companies have invested heavily in analysing the customer journey, enabling them to offer a straightforward route through the buying process. This means they can offer help, such as through agent chat, at key points in the journey to ensure customers have all the information they need.

So while it is good news for the industry that Microsoft sees customer service as a growth opportunity, the even better news for consumers is that advanced meaning-based technology is already in use in organisations across the globe.

Eptica’s consolidated turnover grew by 20% to $US 9 million (£5.67m), helped by signing 26 new customers across the world. These included Debenhams, TUI UK, New Look, Direct Wines and Travel Jigsaw in the UK, helping sales in the country to increase by 17%. Sales in Asia-Pacific rose to 6% of overall turnover, helped by flagship customers such as AirAsia and retailer Auchan (China).

From our experience there are three trends that are driving Eptica’s success:

Greater efficiency
Companies are looking to reduce costs wherever they can without impacting the service they deliver. Eptica’s Customer Interaction Management technology helps achieve this by providing a central platform for all customer service information, delivering consistent answers across all channels. Centralised information that is easy to access shortens call times and shrinks training time for agents, and by making it available through Web Self-service companies can reduce the number of calls they need to answer. Domestic & General has seen customer call times reduce by nearly a quarter (22%) and operational costs lowered by £158,000 since implementing Eptica software in its contact centre.

Improved service
Obviously reducing costs at the expense of customer service levels is a false economy, as consumers will simply move to your competitors if they are treated badly. Customer service software that quickly delivers the right answers to customer questions, either via the web, social media or contact centre agents leads to faster resolution of queries and happier customers who are more likely to recommend you.

Multi channel
Companies need to manage even more customer channels than ever before, particularly with the rise of social media. In 2011, Eptica launched a new version of its multi channel platform, which allows customer interactions via Facebook and Twitter to be integrated and managed efficiently within an organisations existing customer service environment. And as Eptica’s software is based on a common workflow and self-learning knowledgebase it can be implemented first on one channel and then easily rolled out across other customer service channels in the future.

We expect these three key trends to continue into 2012. With Eptica expanding around the world through both direct sales and an increasing partner network we believe that this year will see similar levels of double digit growth, driven by the need for both efficiency and quality in customer service.

iPhone & Intel Mobile Device (Photo credit: Frank Gruber)

One of the key trends that is accelerating in 2012 is the use of mobile devices to research, access information and make purchases. New studies have found that more and more people now reach for their smartphone or tablet during the buying process, even if they make the final purchase through other channels.

UK figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) show that nearly half of smartphone owners use their mobile to search for product information after seeing a TV ad, while 38% turn to it when out shopping. However 80% of purchases are still via a PC, compared to 34% on a mobile. These findings back up a US survey from the Pew Research Center that found that over 50% of US shoppers used their phones for assistance when in bricks and mortar stores.

Essentially these show that mobile devices are now a vital channel for many different types of business and are a key part of the customer journey. The bad news is that a survey of marketers found that just 20% of them had a mobile-optimised site, and just 18% had an app. Given the growth in mobile devices and how easy it is for consumers to access the internet through them, companies obviously need to focus on delivering a better user experience in 2012.

Customer service has to be a central part of this. After all, there’s no point having a wonderful app if it doesn’t link into your overall customer service strategy or creates a silo of information separate from the rest of the company. While early adopters might put up with poor customer service just to be first to use the latest app or site, the mainstream simply won’t.

We’ve talked in the past about the different areas (such as consistency, integration and a single view) that companies need to focus on when they add new channels to their strategy and these apply equally to mobile devices.

But importantly companies also need to understand the effect that increasing use of mobile devices will have on other channels. Not only do customers want to use apps and websites while on the move, they now have the power to send queries by email, post to social media and call your contact centre – all from a single, easy to use device. So create a consistent experience across all channels, including mobile, if you want to retain customers and grow revenues in 2012.

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The majority of times when customers call your contact centre they are looking to get answers to their questions. Provide this information quickly, efficiently and politely and they will finish the conversation happier and better disposed towards your company. That’s the essence of good customer service – and on paper it seems relatively simple.

However ensuring your contact centre agents have fast access to the information they need to answer customer questions consistently and efficiently can be difficult. Information can be scattered across different IT systems, recorded in printed folders, scribbled on post-it notes or just stored in some agents’ heads. Centralising this knowledge and making it easy to access and update by agents is therefore critical to providing good customer service.

A great example of how knowledge management is working in practice is at Eptica customer Domestic & General. The UK’s leading warranty specialist, Domestic & General has implemented Fido, a centralised knowledge management system built on Eptica’s software across its two UK contact centres.

Domestic & General knew that ensuring agents used the new system was vital if customers were to benefit. So it gave it a high internal profile by branding the project as Fido and assigned a full time project team. This easy to remember name comes from the Latin ‘fidel’, meaning faithful. Just as man’s best friend is his dog, Fido aims to become Domestic & General’s agents’ best friend when it comes to getting the answers they need.

Fido replaced Domestic & General’s old knowledge sharing processes, many of which were paper-based. Now agents access up to the minute, accurate answers by typing questions into the web-based system, which provides consistent and fast responses to every enquiry. Its introduction has been very popular, with the system now receiving an average of 50,000 hits per month, and each agent, in Domestic & General’s customer service department, using the system on average 300 times each month.

The results so far have been impressive. Since Fido went live, customer call times have been reduced by nearly a quarter (22%) and operational costs have been lowered by £158,000. Furthermore, first contact resolution rates have increased, hold times halved and the time taken to train new agents has decreased by 20%.

And as a demonstration of the success of the project, Domestic & General has been shortlisted in the Best Use of Technology in Customer Service category at the 2012 Financial Sector Technology Awards.

To find out more about Domestic & General’s success simply click here.

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When it comes to customer service and social media it is very easy to focus on the potential issues it causes for brands. Aggrieved customers can now complain quickly and vociferously to the entire world if they have a bad experience, with tweets or Facebook posts going viral in a matter of minutes. However there is another side to social customer service, where companies are using these channels to communicate with their clients, keeping them informed and deepening the relationship.

This works particularly well in fast-paced sectors such as the travel industry. Airlines and airports are therefore increasingly adopting channels such as Twitter or Facebook to update passengers and provide both personal and general customer service. A recent survey by Eptica partner, AirGate Solutions, found that by the end of Q3 2011 over 400 airports from across the world were using Twitter and/or Facebook, with 224 having active Twitter feeds. You can read more of AirGate’s research here.

Other surveys have found that 198 airlines are now using Twitter, with the number of outgoing tweets growing by 38% over the last six months. Over 1.2 million tweets were exchanged between airlines and their customers between June and November 2011.

So what are airlines and airports using Twitter for? From our own experience, particularly working with AirAsia, we’ve identified five key areas:

1)    Advising of delays
Airlines are at the mercy of outside factors such as the weather and strikes, so providing updates on potential delays or cancellations gives real-time information to allow passengers to change travel plans.

2)    Crisis management
The Icelandic ash cloud of 2010 demonstrated how quickly disruption can spread, stranding passengers far from home. While social media can’t solve these problems, it can provide updates to ensure passengers are kept informed, both by airlines and airports. It should be noted, that Twitter became the prime source of news for airports during the ash cloud crisis.

3)    One to one customer service
Active monitoring of Twitter means that if passengers tweet with a particular problem, customer service staff can respond quickly and aim to provide a solution. What is key here is to integrate social media customer service with existing resources, sharing knowledge to ensure that there is a joined-up, consistent approach across channels. Gatwick Airport is a good example of the use of social media for customer service.

4)    Special offers
Rewarding loyalty is the perfect way to build long term customer relationships. The real-time nature of social media makes it simple and quick to publish new offers to a large audience, such as via an airline’s Facebook page, ensuring they are snapped up by customers.

5)    Marketing
Reacting to what your competitors are doing is a key part of being a successful airline. However the cost and time needed to build new websites or microsites can hold airlines back from quickly creating reactive marketing campaigns. By pointing people towards your Facebook pages as a landing page you can launch campaigns within hours (rather than days), providing the information needed to turn browsers into buyers.

Eptica customer AirAsia is the perfect example of an airline that has embraced social media for customer service – and is reaping the benefits in terms of improved sales, reduced costs and industry awards.

To learn more about AirAsia’s joined up, multi-channel approach sign up for the joint Eptica/AirGate Solutions webinar on 16^th February, which will provide an in-depth case study of the airline’s customer service across the mobile, web, and social media channels. Simply click here to find out more and book your place.

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Despite the increased focus on customer service, it is actually getting worse in the UK. That’s the depressing headline of a new survey, which found that two thirds (66%) of UK homeowners think customer service has either stayed the same or deteriorated over the last three years. 1,400 people were surveyed, with only 25% seeing an improvement in standards.

According to the YouGov survey carried out for Cognito the most common reason for poor service was impolite or unfriendly staff, a factor cited by nearly half (49%) of respondents.  And while there was an improvement over Christmas with 44% rating customer service as good, the issue of impolite staff still remained a key service bugbear.

With findings such as these it is easy to blame customer service agents for simply being rude or unhelpful. However there are a number of factors, such as lack of training, access to information and time pressures that affect how agents perform that need to be taken into account.

From our experience at Eptica here are five areas where companies can help reduce the pressure on customer service agents and consequently improve results:

1)    Introduce self-service
Many contact centres simply cannot cope with the volume of calls they receive. This means that agents have to rush through calls ready to answer the next one. Make it simple for customers to find answers to basic questions online or through Facebook using self-service systems to deflect calls and allow agents to focus on answering more complex queries.

2)    Centralise knowledge
To provide a consistent, high quality service, you want all your agents to be delivering the same information to customers. So look at implementing a centralised system that manages the knowledge within your contact centre and makes it easy for agents to access information from their computers. This delivers improved first call resolution as agents have the facts at their fingertips rather than having to pass callers onto other departments.

3)    Increase training
In tough economic times it is easy to trim training budgets. In fact, successful companies actually increase the focus on training to ensure that all agents are able to act as brand ambassadors, not just when it comes to providing answers, but in terms of style and general helpfulness over the phone.

4)    Focus on the right metrics
Contact centres produce a huge number of reports and metrics, from average length of call to waiting time. While these can be important, companies need to focus on the right metrics that accurately reflect the customer experience they are aiming to provide. So look at independent research to find how customers view your service and overall brand, rather than simply measuring how many calls each agent handles per hour.

5)    Empower your agents
For many brands the main customer experience touchpoint is your contact centre. So make sure you truly value and invest in your customer service and the agents that provide it. They have a unique position, talking to customers every day, so give them the opportunity to provide their feedback into both the information they deliver and the systems behind the contact centre – this not only improves the process but generates ownership and enthusiasm amongst the entire customer service workforce.

No one wants to receive impolite or unfriendly customer service, but to be fair, most agents don’t want to provide poor service either. Time to reduce the pressure on your agents and give them the tools and training to deliver the improved standards that your customers are demanding.

In this tough climate, AirAsia is the perfect example of a company that is growing fast by understanding and responding to customer needs. By deploying Eptica Self-service as a centralised online hub, Asia’s leading low cost airline is now providing fast, consistent customer service across the web, Facebook and mobile channels, 24 hours a day. Over one million enquiries per month are now being managed through the AskAirAsia system, with its success being recognised by a string of awards.

The latest of these is the Customer Lover award at the inaugural WITovation awards. Organised by Singapore-based content and community platform Web In Travel (WIT), the prestigious awards aim to highlight companies that have made a difference in their chosen field.

The judges commended AirAsia on its reach and pedigree when it came to truly loving its customers, commenting: “AirAsia’s approach is very user-friendly and appeals to a wider market with varied demographics. The use of a named avatar within AskAirAsia gives the service a personality and creates an online rapport with the user. This service exceeds customer expectations regarding budget airlines where cheap equates minimal service.”

As well as traditional channels such as the web, AirAsia has invested heavily in new areas such as Facebook and mobile for customer service. For example, its iPhone app, which gives users an optimised experience when asking customer service questions via their phones, has proved incredibly popular.  It has generated 2 million downloads, making it the No 1 selling app in the iPhone App store for Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

What is critical for consistency of answers is that all these channels share the same knowledgebase. So whether you ask a question through the web, Facebook or mobile you receive the same answer, through the channel of your choice. This obviously reduces the risk of separate silos of information being created and brings down cost. In fact, by using Eptica AirAsia has been able to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in contact centre costs, despite dramatically increasing user numbers.

As AirAsia Regional Head of Customer Experience and Technology, Zaman Ahmad said, “We are very happy and proud to win the WITovation ‘Customer Lover’ award from Web In Travel. We’d like to thank WIT for recognizing our efforts in providing guests with state-of-the-art but uncomplicated solutions platform, in the form of AskAirAsia. We are always on the move to introduce innovative methods to enhance our guests’ experience and ready to invest more in technology in order to adapt to their needs.”

The combination of this focus on the customer and simplicity is enabling AirAsia to continue its rapid growth – to experience its customer service for yourself simply visit airasia.com/ask