Social Media – Are You Ready?
What a great day. I spoke this morning at the ACCA group (Austin Contact Center Alliance) annual meeting. ACCA is one of the best-run local call center groups in the country. Jewell Parker and the board do a great job. And I don’t say that because they have asked me to speak three years in a row – but because it is true! I was honored to be on the agenda again this year.
My topic was Social Media in the Call Center (Contact Center, Interaction Center, Social Media Center – whatever you call it). The key learning that I attempted to share was that social medial is happening already for most companies. The question is how is the call center engaged in the experience. Customers are probably talking about your company on the web – blogs, Yammer, Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, and many other social places. So, if the noise is out there, my question is, “what are you doing about it?”
The most asked question for me is, “so what do we do first?” I think there are two basic first steps – #1 – listen. Then once you know what is there, you can decide if #2 – engage – is necessary.
Listening means putting processes and technology in place to listen to what people are saying. It can be as simple as checking search.twitter.com for words that fit your company. TweetDeck is also a simple and free option for tracking tweet-words or tweet-phrases. Of course there are many other types of technology to help you track and listen. If you need more details, click over to the resources page and download the Social Media Resource List from the session.
The second step is where the fun begins – ENGAGE. This is where you begin to work with your marketing team or PR team and make the call center relevant into the conversation with customers.
I look forward to sharing additional Social Media “how-to” ideas over the next weeks…
The bottom line is that we are all learning as we go – and even the experts have only been doing this for 12 to 18 months. So, jump in – listen first – and read everything you can get your hands on – to prepare you for what is coming. Social Media is our next channel – are you ready?
Priorities Are Sometimes Like Frogs
Have you looked up lately and wondered how the heck it got to be September? Seriously?
So why am I in the contemplative mood? Because I just realized it has been more than 60 days since I last posted to the blog. It does no seem that long, but there it is in black and white – more than 60 days.
So it reminded me of how hard it is to stay on task. I know that blogging is good for my business. I know that it is a natural extension of the writing and training that I do. I know that it is therapeutic for my soul – but somehow I have not placed it high enough on my list to actually get it done.
Question – how many things are on your list that just the same? What do you wish you had done last month (or over the summer) that you did not do? Now the tough question – what are you doing to make it a priority for this month or this week?
Here is my suggestion and what I have learned about myself. I just need to “eat the frog” first every day. Brian Tracey has a cool little book called “Eat That Frog” (see the video here: http://www.eatthatfrogmovie.com/). He makes the point that if you do the tough things first, or the most important things first – if you eat the frog first every day – then the rest of the stuff will seem easy. So that is the plan – I hereby declare that I will write the blog at least three times a week. That should be just about enough frog for one week.
I am speaking about Social Media tomorrow at the Austin Contact Center Alliance national conference – so I realize that if I am going to speak about it, I need to spend some time doing it more often – so posting more Tweets and LinkedIn updates are also on the list.
So, what is your frog – and what is your plan to eat it first?
Bob Furniss
As founder and President of Touchpoint Associates, Inc., Bob Furniss has more than 25 years of experience in the customer service field - assisting organizations to increase productivity and profits by bringing out the best in their people. He has shared his experience in the areas of leadership and service with some of the top companies in America - companies like FedEx, Corporate Express, DePaul University, Delta Airlines, Hanley Wood and more.
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