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What are the challenges to outsourcing social media customer service?
What are some of the things a company needs to consider when thinking about outsourcing their social media customer service? Can you outsource the entire end-to-end experience? Can you really teach an outsourcer to understand how you would treat your customers, your tone of voice etc?
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8 Answers
I think in order to outsource your social media customer service effectively you have to back it up with content marketing and use social media sites as additional hubs to share content that you have created on your site. The core goal is to get folks back to your site to get into your sales funnel.
Also getting your current customers to share their experience using your service on such sites will serve as a seed to prompt others to start engaging with you and asking questions.
You will need to set up a guideline / framework for how outsourcers engage with your customer and/or prospects on social media. It is meant to serve as a guide for them to follow and then they can add their own personality as well to make it interesting.
Finally I think it should be disclosed on Social Media when it's not you who is doing the engagement so that it's authentic. Zappos for instance makes use of several different customer reps on social media sites and they disclose when someone else takes over the shift. Your fans and followers on social media sites will understand that you run a business and do have to delegate tasks to others.
That said when your personal attention is needed you need to get involved.
If you need to brainstorm on your strategy for outsourcing your social media marketing to get folks to know, like, trust and eventually buy from you, schedule a Free 15mins consultation session with me by sending me an email oenaohwo@hireyourvirtualassistant.com
I can't imagine risking my business to customer service reps that aren't completely savvy to the business. This is your frontline!
There is too much at stake if you re-direct a customer to your website when they have expressed a customer service issue. If the customer goes to your website via search or their own initiative, it is completely different than being redirected to the website when they have a customer service issue and are seeking answers to a problem or need. Cold!
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There is a trend in the better businesses that have product educated and knowledgeable customer service reps (e.g., Nordstoms, Zappos, Brooks Running Shoes) that can answer and provide helpful suggestion re any product or service question related to a customers needs and wants. This has incredible value!
How often have you landed on a website to be overwhelmed with information overload and decided you'll try later when time allows. What percentage of the time do you actually go back to that website. Most likely a purchase will be made elsewhere that offered the most convenience or help.
Granted, the social media responder does not have to be the frontline responder, and is useful to field general issues, but by no means should they be a problem solver unless they are a "real company person." You can't silo departments when it comes to taking care of customers - you will always lose.
Customer loyalty is guaranteed if the customer service issue is handled via the fewest possible hands - and the most product and company mission knowledgeable staff. Guy is 100% right - the company service policy and tone must be consistent and infallible. This may be more of a self serve world via technology, but time crunched and alienated customers virtually drool over a hand-held customer experience that saves them both time and frustration.
Great question, Guy!
My first question would be: why do you want to outsource such a core competence of a company? I think an external company will never be able to live and experience one true company spirit. Especially with Social Media it is vital that a company should manage everything by themself (enabling and motivating the employees to participate an interact with customers on Social Media platforms). If you don't have the time to do it yourself, then you should probably consider only a minimal engagement in Social Media
I think the biggest challenge when considering outsourcing any part of your organization is the due dilligence of the company you're outsourcing to. Their investment in the outcome is not necessarily the same as yours!
My experience, as a customer, with outsourced customer service has not been good and I hear so many people say the same thing. Inevitably I avoid buying anything from companies that have given a bad customer experience.
So for me, the biggest challenge for anyone thinking about outsourcing (for cost reasons) this vital service is how do you ensure the service is good.
I recommend that all C-level executives in an organization call up their outsourced customer service and compare notes. They should continue to do this regularly until the service improves.
Sincerely, 'My name is Peggy'
While I wouldn't go so far to say that this would NEVER work - and there are certainly many highly competent outsourced customer service providers - generally speaking outsourcing in this area is risky and should be handled VERY delicately.
Customers have turned to the social channel because of their frustration with traditional channels of interaction and because they are looking for human response - if not from the company, at least from other customers. Is that something you really want to hand off to a third party?
Outsourcing can be done for parts of your social media efforts - for instance first-response in high-volume service environments - but I really don't believe it's a good idea to look for an outsourcer to provide 'end-to-end' service. As Anna says - this is your front line!
I think that you can outsource some work related to social media marketing, and if you want to outsource 100% - make sure that you impart to your outsourced provider your brand message so they can clearly spread the word about your brand on the Social Web. Sometimes, you may need to outsource to a marketing technologist who knows the latest trends and tools of the trade to help your internal team capitalize on it and make it work for your brand. Outsourcing is all about getting access to specialized skills that are not available within your company/organization. That's my take on the subject.
Once the company you are outsourcing to understands what exactly you want to achieve from social media and what your company stands for, then outsourcing your social media to a specialist company can only be a positive move. But in fairness, of course I'm going to say that as it's what I do. For more help, I've linked a whitepaper and webinar below which you may find really interesting and should help you a lot. If you have any more questions feel free to contact me.
http://www.siliconcloud.com/contact/
http://www.siliconcloud.com/10-tips-on-monitoring-social-media/
http://www.siliconcloud.com/building-a-social-media-strategy/
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