August 4th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Everyone knows the trouble caused by telephone or cable companies. Either you wait half a lifetime on hold on diverse telephone hotlines, be hopping mad about voice-operated service menus (Advice: Just start to sing and you will immediately be able to speak with a human conversational partner) or you wait far too long. Sometimes you also wait in vain for the technicians to arrive in order for them to clear your way into multi media communication at the long awaited date of your account activation. All too often, the telecommunication companies give their customers reason for not making too friendly statements about their offers and customer service. Not only German but also American customers could write a book about these problems. However, in case of the USA, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. What it is, exactly, that a telecommunication company understands by innovative complaint management, a posting by Michael Arrington illustrated earlier this year. The CEO of Techcrunch was astonished at the fast reply he received from the Comcast customer service after he had made some rather harsh statements about the communication giant on twitter. Indeed, Arrington does not seem to be the only one profiting from this social media complaint management. Social media monitoring has become an integral part of the CRM of Comcast. At this, Comcast does not only observe discussions about their products on the internet but also participates actively in these discussions. According to the responsible departments at Comcast, they actively contacted 1000 users during the last 5 months and tried to eliminate the cause of the complaints as fast as possible. An adequate example is depicted in a current NYT article. In his weblog, a student from Washington complains about the commercials shown in the program guide of Comcast cable’s program. 4 hours later he received an e-mail from Comcast which confirmed that his feedback would be considered when designing future services. This type of CRM solely has advantages for the company. The cable giant is thus able to react directly to criticism and, consequently, potential crises or reputation damages can be nipped in the bud. It is obvious that this social media strategy does not solely have advantages for the CRM. Certainly, such strategies have special relevance for the company communication and marketing departments. The market penetration of the internet of about 80% in the USA impressively emphasizes the relevance of this kind of strategy. Therefore, the steps taken by Comcast to observe and interact in user generated communication channels appear to be extremely logical. Comcast surely is far from being the only company which uses monitoring in the field of CRM. Comcast is one step ahead, though. For the cable giant, listening to customer dialogues on the internet is just one side of the coin. The other is the direct approach of critical aspects by CRM managers. Concerning the advantages of this dialogue, the responsible CRM manager of Comcast states:
“When you’re having a two-way conversation, you really get to clear the air,”
This step taken by Comcast will prove successful in future. After all, the use of online communication channels is no longer a temporary phenomenon. On the contrary, these channels increasingly become an integral part of the communication between consumers, clients and companies. With regard to this CRM strategy, Brian Solis says:
Conversations are taking place with or without you online each and every day. Now for the first time, companies have a direct connection to those public voices that are challenging your messages and mission to shape perception and/or learn from the experience to fix the very things that fueled the conversation in the first place. If you don’t respond, someone else will, most likely in the form of competition seizing the opportunity to convert your dispirited customers into new prospects.
Whether you want to believe it or not: In Germany there is also an increasing number of discussions about products, brands and services within user generated media. Observing the current growth rate one can state that it will not take long until the internet use in Germany will rise from 60% to 80%. The increasing success of online communities, weblogs and social networks in Germany is yet another indicator for the fact that the social media have become an integral and company relevant institution of communication in Germany, too. Gone are the days for providers in B2C when such social media strategies could be financed from fossil budgets. Thus, it is time for every company to get prepared for a direct dialogue with its customers within the social media.
