In this episode I'm glad to interview Danielle Sheerin, UK social customer service expert. Link to article –>http://bit.ly/1Q0EeV3

Highlights of this podcast:
00:21 Intro and welcoming Danielle.
A1 00:49 Danielle explains her activity as social customer service consultant at her company BrightCultures.com
A2 02:29 She fell in love with customer service helping financial services companies (banks and insurance companies) which needed to restructure their relationships with their customers. The magic formula is helping customers making their life easier'
A3 04:37 If a customer sends a query or complaint with Tweet, the Company has to deal with it and reply in a timely manner. But that's not so simple since large organizations back-end processes are complex (workflows, governance, escalation procedures) and social conversations...are public!
A3 09:45 Yes I do. SCS is where your customers are. They're online and constantly talking about your brand, so you have to be present and proactive. Social Customer Service is not a cost, it's an investment for the future of your business.
A4 14:59 As for the Social Customer Service Summit 2015, Danielle liked that the whole event was focused on SCS and that there was rich mix of different industries bringing they own experience and case studies.
A5 16:47 Self-service is a great because it reduces costs and can make customer's life easier. At the same time it has to be used wisely because customers still need a human touch for many interactions. Danielle quotes an example concerning how hotels can use self-service in a good or in a bad way.
A6 21:49 Brands know that there are risks dealing online with customers but are not necessarily totally aware of the exact risks they might face. Danielle developed a crisis assessment model based on three factors: 1. reach (how many people are talking about the issue/how are they influential), 2. impact (how seriously the issue is affecting people/how many people have been affected), 3. depth (is your brand's fault?/how can the crisis can develop?). The combined mix of the above three factors help brand detect a potential crisis from a simple issue that can be handled by the PR dept. Danielle outlined the importance of having strong internal SLAs and adequate staff training in order to be fully ready in case of crisis.
A7 30:35 Danielle suggests the following 8-step process for those brands who wish to integrate social channels within their customer service:
First know what you want to achieve – define your scs vision and goals – this is your strategy and its essential for guiding activity
Check this with stakeholders – do they share the ambition? If so, are they willing to support it? You may well need them for budget and resource but you will also need internal change to make your scs work – they will need to be onside if you are going to deliver this!
Next design your customer journeys – work out how a query will be responded to on social? What queries will there be? How can you provide the most efficient/effective response? How will you triage queries
Using that as a base you can now work out the structure of the service. Where will you take your scs agents from? Will they be ringfenced? How many will you need? What will need to be escalated? Ask yourself, is your structure the right one for the customer and not just your internal silos?
What tools are you going to need to deliver this? Do they support your workflow? How do they tie up with your other tools, CRM etc?
You’ll also need to identify and select your agents? What skills do you need and how can you test for these? Train your agents and get them ready for live responses!
You also need to consider how are you going to monitor and measure your activity? What metrics will you need and what KPIs? How often will you review insights and what will you do to improve the service? What other teams need to see this information?
Finally, once you are up and running go back to your strategy – what is next for your scs – what was your vision. Maybe you want to extend the service to offer proactive servicing, create a single customer view, build an advocate program or design a fluid omnichannel experience – whatever your original vision was – don’t lose it. SCS is just the first step to transforming your wider digital customer experience!
A8 39:19 In UK an increasing number of brands are embracing Social Customer Service. The banking sector is doing quite well and insurance as well; Danielle quotes the example of Direct Line UK which was awarded for their customer service on Twitter. Other industries are doing pretty well such as O2 (telco) has empowered their agents to deal with customers in a very efficient and effective way.
A9 46:09 Danielle is pretty active on line: enjoy her articles on her business blog BrightCultures.com, or just get in touch with her on LinkedIn, or Twitter.
46:57 Wrap up, thanks and greetings
Link to article –> http://bit.ly/1Q0EeV3