CONSULTING
CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TECHNOLOGY - YOU CAN WIN ONLINE
DO WE REALLY NEED A SOCIAL
MEDIA CUSTOMER SERVICE
STRATEGY?
Just ask United Airlines

THE STORY
• United Broke Dave Carrols – Taylor Guitar
• He told 3 Employees – no one helped
• Put in complain to United two days Later
• Was past the 24 hours complain window
THE FALL OUT
• Dave Wrote a song and posted it to Youtube
• A week later he hit 150,000 views ( united called him
back  )
• He Refused
to take a $3,500 pay out
• Over following months Dave's video hit 12,500,000 views
• Dave did 200 TV, Radio and News Paper Interviews.
• Taylor Guitars ( who he referenced in the song) Gives
free guitar and gets 500,000 views.
Online Customer Service
• Providing great online customer service is
critical
• Whether you're prepared or not - customers expect
a quick response after online communicating
• Sharing great content is only half the battle on
social media
• You also need to engage your customers online
• Ask yourself - Are you set up to handle customer
service through social media?
Customer Service Online Strategy
1. Develop a online Customer Service Tone
2. Use the Right Tools
3. Reach out directly to online complainers.
4. Be Timely - A delayed response can create a social
media fiasco ( Set expectation )
5. The right staff handling social media
6. Prevent most online complaints in the first place.
Develop a online Customer Service Tone
Globe and Mail Rule
Never
Make excuses
Blame the customer
Show frustration
Always
Answer every question
Use positive language
Show with images
Use the Right Tools
• Facebook – Twitter – Istagram – Trip Advisor
•
Zendesk - Zendesk offers the benefit of
integrating Facebook and Twitter comments and
messages, making it easy for your team to reply.
• Hootsuite is specifically designed for managing
replies to social media posts.
• Hootsuite is ideal when you have multiple people
responding to comments on social media. It
allows you to assign tasks to others and see
who's replied to each post.
Reach out to Complainers!
• Your First Feeling – To be Defensive
• First action - A thoughtful and positive response
- Tell customer that you will make this right
- Give customer option to take conversation
offline
• Offer Phone and Email
• Second Action – Propose solution
- Offer full compensation ( if complaint is
valid )
• Third Action -
Ask comment to be removed
Be Timely!
•
The magnitude of a company’s social media
embarrassment is proportional to how delayed its
online response
• “Wifi doesn’t work at hotel #fail”
•
An event in the online world gathers social steam
with such speed that your delay can become more of
a problem than the initial incident
• “OMG! Wifi still broke and no one got back to
me #DoubleFail”
•
Even an 4 hours lag in responding can be
catastrophic
Have Dedicated Staff to respond
• Social media responsiveness is customer
service, plain and simple
• It follows all the same principals of
customer service
• Have only your best manage your social
media
• Ensure dedicated personnel know expectation
• Out source to specialized company
Keep Bad Review offline
Offer your customers many ways to provide feedback
must be easy
must be instant
must be able to respond
Staff are your number one way to stop bad
reviews
Technologies include
BamText
Comment Cards
Surveys
24/7 Website Chat
24/7 Customer service number
Are we ready for Online Service?
Workshop 5