ROI of Social Media in Customer Service

Forrester’s Natalie Petouhoff spoke at the Social Media Club of Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and she discussed the importance of using social media in customer service communities.  Using social media is more than implementing the tools, it’s “building a community that  interacts with each other on an ongoing basis.“   Natalie noted that a ‘perfect storm’ exists today with the collision of increasing customer dissatisfaction with companies wanting to do more with customer service and the growing use and influence of social media tools.

Here are the 2 most important things you need to know about what she discussed:

• Social media activities have a big impact on customer service
• The conservative ROI on customer service communities  is 100% with a payback of less than 12 months

She also shared some of the revenue improvements and cost savings that are direct benefits of customer service communities:

Revenue Improvements	Cost Savings
Increase lifetime customer value Increase product ideation Increase lead conversion rates	Reduce calls Reduce emails Increase agent productivity Increase FCR (first call resolution) Reduce SEO costs

Finally, she talked about how companies need to track a customer’s social value along with their lifetime value.  Customer advocates need to be recognized, acknowledged and thanked.  Even customers who are saying negative things about your brand or product can be turned by acknowledging their concerns and reaching out to them.

You can access Natalie’s complete presentation from this link (requires free registration) – www.forrester.com/socialmediaclubla.  Natalie is also available on Twitter at @drnatalie.

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