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Surprisingly, Baccus adds that “social media care if often more costly than other means.” He says the channel is often a “last resort” for customers who have “fairly complex issues” that require “considerable time and effort, usually through direct messages, email or phone calls to resolve.” This phenomenon is counter-intuitive given that a primary purpose of social media care channels would seem to be to offload an increasing amount of traffic from contact centers to make it easier for customers to access self-care. Given the usability issues cited issues, one can’t help but wonder whether the current model – which requires pretty significant headcount – doesn’t merit some revision.
Increased customer loyalty should also
be a benefit of social media care.
Baccus says that is “a bit too early to
declare success with loyalty and social
media” but that “other measurements
around loyalty” show that “meeting
customer needs in a responsive and
satisfying way will improve long-term
loyalty.” He adds that “social listening”
has influenced AT&T’s marketing
messages to respond to “fans and
followers.” Further Baccus says, social
media does, in fact, provide “instant
feedback” and that AT&T is “constantly
finding ways to use it to impact
products, services, and improve our
dialog (sic) with customers.”
T-Mobile’s Wall
As of this writing, T-Mobile’s Facebook wall is awash with negative, visceral reactions to the AT&T acquisition. Examples include:
(My absolute favorite is…)
There are far more negative comments
on T-Mobile’s wall than positive
comments because of the acquisition news, though there are some very
upbeat advocates of T-Mobile’s brand, 4G marketing, and new devices.
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The tricky issue with the care team approach, however, is that it is head count intensive. |
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The
fact that many T-Mobile customers
lament that T-Mobile has “sold out” to
the “evil empire” suggest that
customers have stayed with T-Mobile
expressly because they are not
perceived as an evil empire.
There is consistent confusion, as well, over whether customers’ existing T-Mobile phones will continue to function once the acquisition closes. They will, and other customers are actually taking the time to communicate this to their peers, which means they are sticking up for T-Mobile. These kinds of fans have great value; a critical mass of such fans could be harnessed to help drive an operator’s social media goals. AT&T might consider taking stock of who these fans are, and showing them the love in exchange for their continued advocacy and loyalty.
Functionally speaking, T-Mobile hasn’t attempted to do much that is sophisticated. In contrast to AT&T, their simple approach is clean and effective. Clicking on the “support” link in the navigation menu leads the user to a page where no scrolling is necessary to access T-Mobile support, view its Twitter page, enter its customer forums, or visit its YouTube channel. Only its store locator is partially obscured below the fold. Clicking on any of these items launches a separate window or tab and opens up the appropriate page on T-Mobile’s website, or on Twitter, for example.
Like AT&T, there is no immediate way to access customer support directly from T-Mobile’s wall. It’s also a multi-click process, which immediately creates barriers for customers. The fact that T-Mobile asks the user to leave Facebook to access its support tools is, in a sense, an admission of not being able to solve the kind of presentation problem AT&T currently has. There’s also an argument to be made that someone who’s on Facebook wants to stay there, so taking them to a separate website just creates another usage barrier.
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