There are many ways that consumers can engage digitally with organisations when they need help. In fact, a recent study of more than 24 000 consumers across South Africa and 11 other countries, sponsored by Verint in collaboration with Opinium Research, shows that two-thirds of respondents feel customer service online and via mobile devices needs to be faster and more intuitive. They often quickly reach a digital tipping point when they resort to picking up the phone to deal with a request.
“While many organisations have embraced social media as a marketing and promotion channel, customers are increasingly using it to request service as well. These latest advancements to Verint Social Engagement are designed to help organisations coordinate and meet disparate social engagement needs and support the end-to-end management of customer care requirements,” says Nancy Treaster, senior vice-president and GM: strategic operations at Verint.
An end to social media frustration
According to Treaster the latest enhancements to Verint Social Engagement can help bring an end to the frustration, providing a platform for fast, personal social media interactions that are more than transactions. These interactions are full-fledged conversations that satisfy customer needs in digital mode. “Organisations can leverage the solution to deploy social engagement channels as part of a single vendor, omnichannel customer engagement strategy, manage the end-to-end social customer service journey and help exceed heightened social service expectations, especially among Millennials and other savvy digital customers,” says Treaster.
She adds that the enhancements also accelerate routing, prioritisation, allocations and escalation of issues raised on social media and collect, analyse and report on insights from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, online forums and messaging services, including Messenger. This helps to take advantage of the vast customer service opportunities presented by social media today. “Unlike other social media monitoring products, Verint Social Engagement helps organisations do much more than monitor. Through the integration between our Social Engagement and Engagement Management solutions, businesses can rapidly escalate and respond to both simple and complex issues raised on today’s social media channels.”
Fast, convenient response
Verint Social Engagement helps organisations deliver customer service at the speed consumers expect from social media. Where customers may be willing to wait 24 hours for an email reply, they tend to expect a response within an hour or less on social media. For customer service agents, technology integration adds value, providing previous customer contact history across all channels–not only social–to help build context and improve the effectiveness of agents’ responses.
The solution also supports social engagement best practices. It covers a wide range of recommendations, from skills required for hiring, to the importance of in-channel replies, and blending social channels with email or web chat.
“Based on the results from our recent Digital Tipping Point study, many consumers prefer interacting via social media channels, especially for simple requests,” adds Treaster. “However, we also know that consumers resort to the telephone when they can’t get the answers they need online. Our solutions help ensure that customers get the service they expect regardless of their choice of channel, and equip employees with the insights they need to effectively serve customers.”