In this post, I want to discuss how Social Networking technology and Social Media tools are transforming customer support function. For many decades, marketers have been providing service to their customers over phone, and over email/chat after spread of internet. Both, phone and email/chat are private and one-to-one in nature. For any support, customers have to call a phone number (normally a 1-800 toll-free number here in the US) and wait for a Customer Support agent to answer the phone and resolve any issues or provide any necessary help. During the whole support process, marketers are in total control of the interaction to the extent that agents use “scripts” or pre-defined workflow during most customer support calls. This also highlights the fact that customer support personnel are just working as “agents” and are not really empowered to solve customers’ problem and have to adhere to their scripts during the call. How many times have we heard the phrase “sorry, my system won’t allow me to do that” in response to a request during a support call.

I am happy to note that thanks to rapid expansion of reach and effectiveness of Social Media channels, this is about to change. Social Media have empowered customers like never before as they can express their opinions/feelings about brands on Social Media channels, including commenting about poor customer service or wait times for some one to answer customer service calls. Marketers have no control over what customers are saying about their brands or poor service. Given this scenario, best strategy for a business is to engage customers on Social Media channels if customers prefer that option, especially when wait time for phone, email or web based support is too long for the customers.

As more and more customers air their grievances on social media channels, it is important for marketers to engage them and not wait for them to call customer support phone numbers. Social Networking technology provides great tools for “engaging” customers. Unlike traditional media channels, Social media communication is not only two-way, one-to-one, but customer is an active participant and “owns” the conversation.

Moreover, conversations over Social Media channels are public – visible to all. And customers and potential customers are discussing about products and brands on Social Media channels, including poor customer support whether the marketer is participating in the discussion or not. This is why it is utmost important for marketer to have a Social CRM strategy and invest in Social Media tools for effectively engaging customers and prospects. Gone are the days of “scripted” customer support calls.

Level of customer engagement will determine mind-share and market-share for a brand. Those marketers who effectively engage their customers and prospects will emerge as winners and those who are not good in customer engagement will lose market share.

What do you think? Is it time for Customer Support to move over and Customer Engagement to take its place? Please do share your thoughts on the implications for business.

Negative publicity on Social Media channels like Twitter or Facebook, whether spontaneous or organized, is like “Oil Spill”. Looking at the potential for harm to brand image or reputation, one hopes it never happens and prevention is the best strategy. And if there is a brand crisis on Social Media channels, it is best contained as early as possible just like the infamous “Oil Spill”. Two famous case studies of Social Media brand crisis that come to mind are United Breaks Guitars and Nestlé. In both cases, company’s response was little slow and situation quickly turned ugly. This underscores the importance Social CRM.

Social CRM is defined as the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. It is important for a company or brand manager to engage customers and prospects on Social Media and build trust in the brand or company BEFORE any Social Media Brand crisis, as it will not only help in preventing a crisis in the first place but even if there is a crisis, company will have “trusted” and “recognized” representation on Social Media channels for communicating company’s side of the story, possibly preventing a “blow out”.

It is also very important to have a Social Media Crisis Management Plan. It should clearly highlight roles and responsibilities, procedure and protocols to be followed in the event of a brand crisis. Because the first step in solving any crisis is to identify and respond to it, and respond FAST when it comes to Social Media.

So here is a question for you. Will you wait for a Social Media “Oil Slick” before adopting Social CRM? And Do you have a Social Media Crisis Management Plan for your organization? If there is a crisis, will you handle it effectively or be caught napping and search for excuses? The choice is yours!

Panelist include:

• Jamie Daves, Venture Partner at City Light Capital
• Tom Arrix, Vice President of Sales at Facebook
• Peter Land, Senior Vice President of PepsiCo
• Joe Marchese, Co-founder and President of SocialVibe
• Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder of Meebo

Some key points of discussion are:

1. Pepsico marketing in Social Media
2. New Era in Media Advertising
3. Advertisers utilizing Facebook user experience
4. Monetization models and revenue streams
5. Monetization from communities, not brands
6. Evolution of Social game experience
7. User experience: International Vs. Domestic

What is the secret of Dell’s Social Media Success? Watch this excellent interview with Richard Binhammer, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs at Dell to know more about Dell’s Social Media strategy:

But objective of this post is not to discuss about Tiger Woods as a person. What I want to highlight is how the Tiger Woods “brand” crisis has played out in “social media” and its impact. Tiger Woods’ story has dominated Social Media right from the moment news broke about his car accident. Most of us learnt about this accident and much more from Social Media and this has generated a lot of negative publicity for Tiger Woods brand in Social and Mainstream Media. So much so that sponsors who once lined up at Tiger Woods’ door are fleeing en masse (see Woods Gone From Accenture Web Site; P&G Pulling Ads and Gillette limits Tiger Woods’ role in marketing programs). The speed with which information has spread is astounding and Twitter beat established news outlets such as CNN in breaking the news.

Few other examples that come to mind while talking about Social Media brand crisis are United Airlines, Domino’s Pizza and Taco Bell.

United Airlines broke a guitar. This led to brand trashing on Social Media and the Youtube video titled United Breaks Guitars has registered more than 6.5 Million views. It is estimated that this cost the company $180 million in company valuation. (see COI: Cost of Inaction United Breaks Guitars)

In another incident of Social Media brand crisis, two employees of Domino’s Pizza filmed themselves breaking the hygiene standards in one of Domino’s Pizza store kitchen.The video was posted on YouTube and received more than one million views before it was pulled down. (see Viral Brand Crisis and Strategy). This incident received a lot of negative publicity in Mainstream and Social Media.

Taco Bell experienced Social Media brand crisis when a video of rats running around a Taco Bell’s store in New York was posted on YouTube and became an instant hit on the internet. This incident too received wide local, national and international media coverage.

All the above incidents of brand crisis underscores the importance of having a Social Media Crisis Management Plan. It should clearly highlight roles and responsibilities, procedure and protocols to be followed in the event of a brand crisis. Because the first step in solving any crisis is to identify and respond to it, and respond FAST when it comes to Social Media.

So here is a question for you. Do you have a Social Media Crisis Management Plan for your organization? If there is a crisis, will you handle it effectively or be caught napping and search for excuses? The Choice is yours!

Some of the key takeaways are:

• Consumers mention 56 brands in conversation  a week

• 1 in 3 people come to a brand through recommendation

• Customers referred by loyal customers have 37%  higher retention rate

• Social Media is not an advertising platform, but a value delivery platform

• Social Media allows us to market with people, instead of at them