The phenomenon of social networks is proving not only to be one of the fastest growing media, but also one of the greatest impact is having on companies and many organizations at the moment. Consumers use them to share our opinions about products and services, positive and negative experiences, and much more. This digital word of mouth has become a key factor in many purchasing decisions, complementing and in many cases replacing traditional modes. Some studies, such as that published by McKinsey, have come to calculate that this “social” element is present in 20% and 50% of all the purchasing decisions we make. Other reports, such as the recently published “The Great Male Survey”, reduce those figures to 5%, that are not negligible either. Today it is quite common to find specialized websites such as 11870.com or travel and, to name a few, where recommendations are essential when deciding what to do and what to buy, what hotel to reserve, where to eat, etc.
Only 6 months ago, Facebook already had almost 14 million users, which meant being the 4th European country and the 14th in the world in terms of users, with a growth of 4 million since July 2010. Twitter for its part, At the beginning of 2011, the networks flood us with more than a billion messages daily. More than 20% of these messages are related to products and services. We are thus, more and more, with a greater mass of information generated by consumers that influences purchasing decisions and brands. Marketing departments have long since stopped controlling their brands, now it is consumers who really have the power in their hands.
And this can pose a real threat to organizations and companies that have spent years building their brands and their reputation. For a “customer-centric” company, capturing and analyzing this new “social” voice of its clients is critical. But differentiating the grain from the chaff, the noise of authentic information, can become quite difficult. And it is still more complicated in networks that it is practically impossible to control. And to make it even more complex, it turns out that our competitors and our customers have access to the same data and the same information as we do, because networks are public by nature.
In this race to understand the voice of the client, to identify its content, some organizations have to face daily huge amounts of information that come directly from the client, and do so in the most varied ways: recorded voice calls, emails, chats , direct comments via satisfaction surveys, various questionnaires, etc. In our help we can count on voice and data analysis technology and, thanks to it, be able to work with most of the unstructured data sources. An organization can extract knowledge from the data it has obtained thanks to its contact center, a true “hub”, a valuable information hub, and turn it into intelligence that can be used in the business.
The analysis of this available information allows companies to take a proactive approach to the knowledge of their clients, taking a step forward from what is happening? Why is it happening? Organizations can thus anticipate and take, from now on, a whole series of decisions related to their business, from making the necessary adjustments in products, services and processes, identifying and responding to emerging trends and capitalizing on the opportunities before they become available. step towards social networks. And in the same way that companies analyzed their structured data, many of them present in their CRMs, now they can face all the “unstructured” information they have, be it voice, video or text, thus exploiting a Valuable source of knowledge and customer intelligence.
An authentic 360º vision
The days in which customers interacted with companies organized internally in silos have already gone down in history. Always remember at all times that the data obtained through CRM systems must be fully integrated with the contact centers in order to have an authentic global vision of the client. Combining social networks with the interactions we have with our client can become a powerful tool for the development and launch of new products and services by our companies and organizations. This information can be compared with the anticipated trends that emerge in the social sphere and thus identify possible conflicts and outcomes. In situations like these, latent trends in internal data,
In addition, we can incorporate all the above comments of customers obtained through satisfaction surveys and other mechanisms, “feedback” that can be both positive and negative. Many customers come to contact centers when they have a problem or want to complain about a product or service. When this occurs, knowledge of the client’s motivations, the so-called “customer intelligence”, can help the company to deal with the problems before they become public domain. The client’s behavior indicators can have a great impact thanks to their ability to predict and identify trends before they spread across the network. These tools analyze each word and phrase in each and every conversation, and automatically alert of any change in certain types of terms, and how quickly they increase or decrease, indicating a potential change or a new trend in consumer behavior. With the data obtained thanks to these tools, organizations are better prepared to anticipate potential problems and, needless to remember, avoid disasters in customer service before they spread across the Web.
Losing new opportunities?
Similarly, behavioral indicators can help companies to discover trends that show that things are being done as they should in the company or department. This type of positive information also serves to identify new business opportunities, align marketing efforts to complement and satisfy the preferences expressed by our customers, and also have an important knowledge of compliance with the objectives and performance of the different departments of the company. company. Regardless of whether the client’s comments are positive or negative, these interactions are full of information and knowledge that companies can put to work if they gather, analyze and then make decisions proactively.
Not long ago, a contact center of a large insurance company, specializing in car insurance, began receiving calls in which the word “junk” appeared frequently in conversations with agents, especially after weekends and bridges The opportunity arose to make a commercial campaign linked to the Government’s “Renove” plans, which represented an important source of new income for the insurer. It is not something that happens every day, but when something happens, no company can afford to miss the opportunity.
Distinguishing straw from grain
Analyzing the information of social networks allows us to know what is public, while internal interactions help us to distinguish the anecdotal and the particular from the generalized problems. Analyzing internal interactions with our customers, such as phone calls and emails, organizations can determine the magnitude, key elements and levels of frustration associated with each of the problems. Take, for example, a company that receives a significant number of calls on an issue in which the level of frustrations and emotions present are high. We are clearly faced with the symptoms of a major problem. On the other hand, if a particular topic is mentioned in social networks, but does not appear in internal interactions,
The key to be able to take advantage of all the power available in the customer’s intelligence in social networks and its combination with the company’s internal channels, such as the contact center, is to have a comprehensive social media strategy. Contrary to the majority belief, the integral strategy of social networks starts already in the same contact center, the place where we must first try to resolve customer complaints and problems before they make the leap and spread through social networks .
More than ever it is important that companies are able to listen carefully to all those issues that reach the contact center or move through social networks and, analyzing and identifying changes in the needs, habits and levels of customer satisfaction , can make decisions quickly. In order to achieve excellence, customer service and contact center operations services must be perfectly integrated and equipped with tools that allow for the sharing of the knowledge of their clients and any other issue vital to the business of the company. Today, much of that knowledge is still stored in silos and diverse systems within companies. Marketing, sales, operations and administration departments, they have parts of a total knowledge, and together they must provide information about what is working and what is not working, what are the key problems and how to deal with them, regardless of the channels through which the information is reaching us. Effective internal processes, aided by the right tools and all framed in a business culture focused on the client, put us on the right track to convert all available information into a real gold mine, provide us with new ways of identifying needs and wishes of customers, a more effective multi-channel customer service, and a more powerful online presence in social media. what are the key problems and how to deal with them, regardless of the channels through which the information is reaching us. Effective internal processes, aided by the right tools and all framed in a business culture focused on the client, put us on the right track to convert all available information into a real gold mine, provide us with new ways of identifying needs and wishes of customers, a more effective multi-channel customer service, and a more powerful online presence in social media. what are the key problems and how to deal with them, regardless of the channels through which the information is reaching us. Effective internal processes, aided by the right tools and all framed in a business culture focused on the client, put us on the right track to convert all available information into a real gold mine, provide us with new ways of identifying needs and wishes of customers, a more effective multi-channel customer service, and a more powerful online presence in social media.