TM Forum ‘Vibe’: Amdocs taps social for customer care

NICE, France – So you’re a mobile operator and something happens to your service performance and suddenly there’s an explosion on Facebook discussing this topic. What do you do?
Are you aware of the discussion; do you respond to the discussion; does it even matter if you do or don’t respond? What if customers are asking for your help?
Amdocs has a strong view on this topic and today released research profiling the thoughts of both sides of this discussion.

Amdocs said it surveyed 100 service providers and over 4,000 consumers worldwide on their views of customer care integrated with social media and came away with some very interesting findings.
Beginning with the service provider views, they found that three-fourths of online social media posts for customer service assistance go un-responded to, and for those that are responded to only 24% happen within 30 minutes. On the positive side, almost 90% of the service providers questioned felt the use of social media for customer care is relevant to their business.
So the question is why doesn’t it happen? The main challenges seem to be around the ability to identify who the user is (over 90%) and not having the ability to then link and save this interaction within the service provider systems (almost 70%).
It’s clear that consumer interest in using social channels to reach customer care support is growing. About half of those surveyed want to and have tried to use social media to contact service for customer care issues. These users are willing to share who their identity is in order to receive support, but with the expectation of a reply within 30 minutes. Of those surveyed, about half would then be interested in receiving personalized ads for services from their provider.
Specific results varied based on geography, indicating that some market education was still required as these options become available.
How might the two sides of this equation come to alignment? Amdocs believes their Social Care solution is the answer, as the company claims it can enable the service provider to filter through the online “noise” and determine which messages require a customer care response. Next, the customer can be identified and the exchange linked and stored in their system records, with a faster and reportedly more cost effective resolution to customer issues.
The ultimate goals of using social media in customer care scenarios would be an increase to customer satisfaction and decrease in call volume requiring a customer care individual.
The aspects of this study are very interesting and I agree that this trend will only increase. Personally I can say I’ve had good and bad experiences when trying to gain customer support via social media. Retail and hospitality seem to be ahead of the curve in understanding the proper way to do this. Hopefully service providers will follow their lead.
The Amdocs’ research should open some doors for more service providers to consider the use of social media in customer care situations. I know that I for one would use it.