Social Media Moving into Call Center Turf

According to a study from Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX), social media is an emerging channel for consumers seeking customer-care assistance and an opportunity for service providers to improve the customer experience and reduce call center costs. By linking customers' social media identities to their profiles stored in the customer relationship management (CRM) system, and using big data analytics techniques to identify important social media shouts, Amdocs says, service providers can pre-empt calls or resolve the issue before the call reaches the call center.

Among other findings:

• 68% of service providers believe their customers take to social media such as Twitter or Facebook because they are unable to reach a care agent on the phone. The reality though, is that 50% of consumers surveyed said they prefer using social media to reach their service provider rather than call the contact center.
• 50% of customers have tried to communicate with their service provider for customer service on social media, yet 75% of those never received a response or resolution, leaving a frustrated 80% of those citing that they have no choice but to call the call center.
• 52% of consumers expect a response within 30 minutes of their social media contact, but only 24% of service providers say they respond within that timeframe.
• 64% of customers say they would be willing to share their social identity with their service provider in return for better service, and 48% would like to receive relevant, personalized offers from their service provider via social media.
• 93% of service providers state that they cannot identify customers from their social media profiles, and 64% of service providers do not store social media interactions in their customer relationship management (CRM) database.