Idea Gathering: Customer Experience News: Let's Get Social

image source Microsoft Dynamics Community via Business2Community

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit provides both B2B and B2C case studies and translating these innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the conference. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate this translation and were one of our most highly rated features last year.

Here on the blog we're doing a regular series of idea gathering wrap ups, pulling together some of our favorite stories on customer experience, customer experience design, and overall customer-centricity.

When discussing holistic customer experience, you can't ignore the power of social media in today's world. A recent American Express study found that "The 2012 American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer also found that consumers who have used social media for service wield the greatest amount of influence. They tell significantly more people about their service experiences, and say they’d spend 21% more with companies who deliver great service – compared to 13% on average."

But it's not just because you fear a consumer badmouthing your company that you need to get social. As marketing consultant and trainer J-P De Clerck recently wrote on conversionation.net "Customer experiences are about touchpoints and touchpoints are by definition social. Guess what is a key focus in 2012? Indeed, social."

Business2Community illustrated the importance of Social CRM Apps this week with the above image and by saying: "If conversation between a sales rep and his or her client has moved to the world of social media, the sales rep must be equipped with the proper technology to best interact with and understand the customer."

Former Total Customer Experience Leader's speaker Becky Carrol wrote about the topic on her blog earlier this year, citing Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker as an inspiration and saying "Social media, by contrast, provides not only the opportunity for an instant response but also for a personal response."

So what can we take away? Don't go social because you fear the customer response, go social because it is a way to make a personal connection with today's connected customer. For social CRM, it may be a way to close the sale or keep a customer loyal. For a contact center it may be the way to turn an unhappy customer into an evangelist or a VOC text analytics program could use social to measure sentiment. Are you social? How? Share with us in the comments!

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