ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘social-media’ CATEGORY

Is social media being woefully underused in our industry, or is it a saturated mass communication tool that lacks the nuance required for effective customer interactions that drive service excellence amongst field service companies? Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News writes... 

Social media has perhaps had a more significant impact on human society than any other technology in our history. It has evolved rapidly from sharing pictures of cute cats to becoming an integral; some may even say insidious aspect of twenty-first-century living.

Rightly or wrongly, almost every aspect of our lives is touched by some form of social media. Regardless of whether you wish we had all just quit at the cat videos or if you've developed turbo-speed thumbs as a Facebook superuser, there is no denying the prevalence of social media.

And yes, social media advertising and PR are now a standard part of any communications strategy. We can confidently say that field service companies are all using social media.

The question is, can we, or indeed, should we be using it more?

In a recent session online discussion group hosted by Field Service News, Drs Severina Cartwright and Chris Raddats of University gave an excellent presentation based on a paper the two had co-authored with Dr Hongfei Liu of Southampton University. The paper outlined the strategic use of social media within business to business marketing.

In her presentation, Dr Cartwright outlined the findings of the paper, which was a review of the current academic literature, and she outlined three key areas that are prevalent in terms of how business-to-business organizations are leveraging social media.

These were:

Social Media as a sales facilitation tool:

• Moving away from the dyadic face-to-face relationships
• Introducing the early processes of a sale before a salesperson even initiates contact
• The emerging phenomena of social selling

Social media as an integrated communication tool:

• Creation of timely and valuable content
• The creation of both corporate and personal personas
• Influencing customers' reactions and engagement via the linguistic style of corporate content

Social media as an employee engagement tool:

• Empowering and driving employee citizenship and allowing them to develop a personal brand in line with the parameters of the corporate guidelines
• Positioning the organization and the employees as thought leaders

 

Dr Cartwright's presentation gave those in attendance an excellent viewpoint into the broad trends of social media use amongst business-to-business focused organizations, which offered plenty of food for thought for those on the session and led me to the question – are we underestimating the power of social media within the field service sector?

For example, would social media prove to be an effective tool for fault reporting or even triage, particularly as we continue to see the demographic shift within the workplace as millennials replace baby boomers and more modern forms of interaction become the preference?

To dig a little deeper into this hypothesis, we spoke to Katharina Streater, Senior Product Marketing Manager, ServiceMax.

When it comes to triage, however, Streater believes that social media doesn't offer enough depth of insight to provide meaningful value.

"While social media serves as a powerful tool to generate brand awareness and connect companies directly with their users, I don't believe it is an appropriate tool for service triage at B2Bs who manage a large installed base," Streater explains.

"Therefore, I don't think field service organizations are underestimating social media; rather, they are choosing to leverage it only in the places that drive value.

"For asset-centric service organizations, a support case requires more than a brief rundown of the problem by a user whose social media profile is not associated with their business, or even their full name. To properly handle a case, the agent needs to authenticate the user, identify the asset that needs service and the company they're associated with. Then they need to find the correct information on the customer contracts and the service level agreements before tackling the issue."

 

"Using social channels for support requires several manual steps until a case is resolved, and most often ends with taking the service request offline—often because it contains details that are proprietary or are a matter of data privacy..."

- Katharina Streater, Senior Product Marketing Manager, ServiceMax

 

These are all, of course, highly valid points that would suggest that the power of social media is an ill-fit with triage. However, perhaps the most critical issue of adopting such an approach wouldn't necessarily be in the triage, but in providing step-by-step issue resolution and giving the customer the clear understanding that their issue is being taken seriously and there is someone at the other end that is taking personal responsibility to ensure resolution – something that can be diluted by both social media and even many support ticket solutions if poorly implemented.

As Streater adds, "Social media is focused on communication, not providing a 360-degree view into a customer's SLA and asset data–information necessary to resolve a case.

"Using social channels for support requires several manual steps until a case is resolved, and most often ends with taking the service request offline—often because it contains details that are proprietary or are a matter of data privacy.

"What's more, communicating the wrong entitlement coverage puts service organizations at risk of revenue leakage."

This doesn't mean that social media doesn't have its place amongst the tools deployed by field service companies. As per Dr Cartwright's presentation, the role of social media in terms of employee engagement can be a significant positive.

 

"Our customers do see the value in connecting directly with end customers on social media, keeping an eye on customer sentiment, and responding when necessary..."

 

Such use wouldn't necessarily need to be on an external social media platform either, instantly thoughts go to the use of internal systems to help drive knowledge bases for engineers and technicians. The same gamification aspects common across social media (such as badges, for example) can be used to drive additions to a knowledge base from a pool of end-users. Similarly, upvoting and downvoting can drive the best solutions within the knowledge base to the top of a search - assisting in the surfacing and identification of the best potential resolution to any specific issue.

In terms of customer interaction, social media can play a considerable part in measuring broader customer sentiment analysis.

Indeed, in a recent study by Field Service News Research that focused on technology and customer satisfaction, we saw that those companies who monitored more sophisticated metrics such as social media and sentiment analysis were more than two times as likely to state that they believed their CSAT metrics offered a highly accurate reflection of their customer service standards.

This is something Streater also sees within the ServiceMax customer base.

"Our customers do see the value in connecting directly with end customers on social media, keeping an eye on customer sentiment, and responding when necessary," she comments.

However, the removal of the dyadic relationship that Dr Cartwright reflects is a trend within the use of social media as a sales-facilitation tool, is the exact aspect we want to avoid in the role of service triage and continuing resolution.

"Instead of relying on social media for service triage," Streater explains, "our customers prefer to manage and control the process end-to-end from a secure, compliant app or portal experience. As opposed to social media, these tools give customers full visibility into their assets and service history and allow them to connect directly with a support agent who has all the information on hand to resolve the case."

Social media is indeed a powerful and prevalent tool. There is undoubtedly more we can do with it as an industry; however, as with every technology, it is essential to understand its limitations and strengths to use it appropriately.

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Further Reading:

• Read more from Academia @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/the-view-from-academia
• Read more from Field Service News Research @ https://research.fieldservicenews.com/
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about ServiceMax on Field Service News @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=servicemax
• Find out more about ServiceMax @ https://www.servicemax.com/uk
• Follow ServiceMax on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/ServiceMax

Social media is no longer a simple channel for marketing your products and services it is now very much a recognised and legitmate communication channel for businesses to connect with their customers. John Cameron, General Manager of Trimble Field Service Management explores how and why field service companies should be using social media as part of their customer service strategies...

Over the past few years, the rise of social media platforms has provided consumers with more power than ever and many now take to the mass audiences of Facebook and Twitter to share their opinions on a company’s product or customer service performance. Indeed, the Institute of Customer Service report that there are 38 million active social media profiles in the UK and 1 in 5 social media users have admitted to using a social media channel to communicate with or comment on an organisation.

The increase in online communication has helped to fuel a rise in expectations for service excellence, with consumers increasingly expecting their field service provider to listen to and engage with them immediately over social media or risk damaging their brand reputation.

 

For organisations operating a field service operation, customer service is widely recognised as being the number one business priority with a proven link between customer satisfaction, retention and profitability. In order to meet customer expectations, the need for businesses to include social media as part of their customer service strategies is therefore becoming increasingly essential. Organisations are justified in approaching their social media strategy with some caution, however. Numerous high-profile cases have shown that the public nature of social media can bring risks to corporate reputation, if not managed appropriately and consistently as part of a coherent communications strategy.

The strategic importance of social media

A study recently commissioned by Trimble found that 51% of field service organisations think social media is an effective tool for helping them to manage customer relationships. However, its function is still misunderstood by a number of field service organisations whilst others aren’t as convinced of the potential upside of an online communications program.

The study revealed that 28% of organisations did not know if social media could be an effective tool for helping them to manage customer relationships whilst 21% regarded it to be ineffective. A major reason behind the conflict in opinion lies in how exactly field service organisations leverage social media as part of an online customer service strategy, as there are more effective ways than others to use it for business success.

Using social media for success

The Institute of Customer Service confirms that social media presents a great opportunity for organisations to listen to and engage with their customers on a one-to-one level, but organisations must ensure that they can manage and measure customer interactions seamlessly across a multitude of channels, as customers now expect to be able to communicate with field service organisations through a variety of social media sites of their choosing.

Whilst some organisations are doing a good job at leveraging social media; others are underestimating it and applying the old school approach of ‘marketing at’ customers instead of engaging in conversations that will enhance relationships with them. In order to influence how an organisation is seen by its customers in the social sphere, it must participate in conversations.

Leveraging customer feedback via social media is also key to a successful online customer service strategy. The Trimble study revealed that 42% of field service organisations use the feedback they receive on social media to improve operations and customer service strategies. An Aberdeen Group report similarly found that 56% of top performing field service organisations are more likely to proactively capture feedback from customers regarding their performance as compared to peers. However, the research also found that nearly 15% of field service organisations don’t know what percentage of requests originate in the social sphere as they aren’t monitoring or engaging in support conversations on social media.

 

By not capturing customer feedback, organisations are missing out on the chance to obtain data on the volume, key topics or general sentiment of the content generated by their customers, which could then be leveraged internally to improve relationships with them through enhancing product quality and developing new offerings to meet their needs and expectations.

Social media and the new skills age

The landscape of customer service has shifted in recent years from a transactional economy to a relationship economy where value lies in one-to-one interactions. According to Jo Causon, chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service, “A ‘personalised service for many’ and a dialogue approach, as opposed to the traditional monologue, is now desired. This power shift has come about, partly due to customers wanting to be more engaged in the customer experience but also because of technology and the rise of social media.”

Indeed, the open platform for communication that social media provides has empowered consumers more than they have ever been to share their customer experience with a field service provider. We are ultimately living in an age where customer service is incredibly important and there has been a big shift within the industry of employing service technicians based on their people skills, over their technical skills.

 

Trimble’s survey found that 35% of field service organisations believe social media use amongst consumers has influenced the need to train, or hire, field technicians with the desirable attributes to deliver a service which meets customers’ expectations.

Demand for staff who have desirable attitudes and attributes for customer service will therefore increase. In particular, there will be a stronger focus on the importance of being empathetic and emotionally intelligent alongside being methodical and patient to deal with the wide variety of customer service relationships and interactions.

For more key findings, expert third party opinion and real-life business experiences on how field service organisations are leveraging social media as part of their customer service strategies download our latest report here: http://ow.ly/TcCO9

 

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Has the social world changed service delivery? Or is field service still all about a schedule, a technician, a truck, and a tool box?Aly Pinder of Aberdeen asks...

The short answer is both are correct. Field service is still all about getting a service person to solve a customer problem. Granted, sometimes this can be done remotely, without a technician at all. But for the most part, technicians still help resolve issues.

However, social is beginning to play a larger role in the execution of service. Social collaborative tools often have the perception of being a consumer medium which has little to no value in business. Much of this perception is driven by our knowledge of social coming from the games we play on our personal mobile devices or by seeing young adults wasting their day away on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. This mindset is slowly changing, and the top performers are leading the way. Aberdeen’s Social Field Service: Collaboration on the Fly (March 2015) report highlights that half of the Best-in-Class provide technicians with access to social media and collaborative tools; as compared to only 35% of peers. These top performers aren’t necessarily given technicians Facebook apps on their work phones, but they are empowering technicians with the ability to access information and communication tools to deliver faster resolution or collaborate with peers.

The future of field service demands that technicians have real-time access to data to ensure they are able to resolve issues on extremely complex equipment. Challenges like a retiring workforce, more aggressive competition, and increased customer expectations mean technicians and service teams don’t have an unlimited amount of time to find the answers to service issues. For this reason, the use of social has the opportunity to connect technicians with the intelligence to solve these problems in real-time. In order to achieve these types of gains, a few trends below should be adopted -

Do not miss out on hearing the voice of the customer.

If you haven’t heard about the empowered customer, then you haven’t been listening. Customers today have more influence and information than ever before. Consequently, it is imperative that service organisations listen to their customers, whether through channels like surveys or through social. But more importantly, organisations need to turn the voice of the customer into new products and services based on this intelligence. Just listening is a starting point, but action to improve is the true test of successful interaction between customers and the service organisation.

Escape the costs and loss of productivity incurred from all-day training sessions for the field team.

Service doesn’t stop. Equipment, parts, and machines fail. And these assets don’t care that a service organisation has scheduled an all-day off-site meeting to train the service team on the latest service techniques. Social tools allow a service organisation the ability to share best practices and new techniques via a mobile device so technicians don’t need to leave the field. This dynamic learning model also means that procedural changes can be communicated in real-time and not at one-off meetings.

Avoid the tendency to neglect investment in technology infrastructure.

Technology tools are changing all the time. The days of paper work orders and receipts are coming to an end. Unfortunately, as seen in Aberdeen’s recent State of Service Management 2015: Connect to Your Customers research (March 2015), nearly half of organisations (40%) still find that they are challenged by insufficient technology infrastructure. Despite this lack of investment for many organisations, the technology available for businesses is immense. The next generation of tools has been able to turn the volume of data flowing into the business into intelligence. For this reason, organisations need to evaluate, identify, and invest in technology tools which connect service to improved resolution.

Don’t wall off the field team from your customer.

Technicians have a strong partnership with customers. Often times, the field service technician is a trusted advisor for the customer, as they help solve problems for the customer in a very difficult time. Social doesn’t have to mean that technicians are creating blogs, but there is the opportunity that they can inform customers as to the status of a work order or their arrival on site.

Social collaborative tools can seem daunting in business – no one wants their brand sullied because a rogue employee posts something inappropriate. But despite the horror stories and PR blunders, the value of social collaboration should outweigh the potential landmines. It is important for field service organizations to avoid the fear of social, as it is more than just a consumer trend. Social tools have the opportunity to connect the field service team with customers, the back office, and each other. Service in 2015 moves at the speed of a tweet or a post, and organisations must take advantage of this increased access to information and insight. Don’t get left in the past, leverage the tools of the present to build the type of service which will excel in the future.

 

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Many of the UK’s courier businesses are small to medium sized operations, frequently employing fewer than 10 staff. For smaller firms like this operating in a highly competitive space, service reliability and customer satisfaction is everything and couriers understand the importance of having the right technology to achieve a competitive edge. Scheduling and proof of delivery systems are essential elements for any courier company but in addition, social media offers an opportunity to both improve competitive advantage and build a compelling brand offering.

As well as helping to create a distinctive brand, social media activity has a direct impact on the effectiveness of a search engine optimisation (SEO) programme, since, properly done, it signals to Google and other search engines that you are communicating relevant content on a regular basis with your community. This will inevitably improve search rankings and mean your website is more likely to be found by prospective customers looking for courier services.

One of the issues with social media is that although entry costs are low and anyone can set up a Twitter or Facebook account, the process of communicating itself can be time and resource intensive. Given how important it is for SEO and inbound lead generation - how can courier companies and especially the small to medium sized providers - incorporate social media into their business offering?

Don’t delegate to the most junior person

The first point to understand is that regardless of how small a company is, they should be dedicating some time and thought to social media.  The second point is that social media is important and should not be relegated to an activity controlled by someone very junior at an organisation, even if they are an expert on Facebook or Twitter. Would you let a trainee loose with your most important customers? Probably not, so why let them be in charge of your company’s social communications? Whilst it is unlikely they will create a social crisis, their industry knowledge is probably lacking and this won’t help you to build credibility amongst customers and industry peers. Instead ask them to share their knowledge of techniques and combine this with your deeper knowledge to create more compelling content.

Plan the content calendar to balance quality with quantity

Next, decide what to say and what content to share. Planning needs to be done on a weekly basis and involves creating a spreadsheet detailing what messages are important and on what platforms they will be shared. Working this way means you won’t overlook key messages and also means you can be more time efficient because it becomes possible to schedule announcements. When compiling a content calendar for the week, be mindful of the quality vs. quantity balance. It is more worthwhile to make two or three valuable updates a day than be ‘twittering on’ about something inconsequential.

Demonstrate your industry expertise with blogs

For an effective social media strategy, relevant content is everything and having regular, well written blog posts to share is essential. As a courier firm using social media, your primary goal should be demonstrating expertise and the fact that you are more knowledgeable about your industry than competitors. This strategy will enable you to differentiate your offering more easily and win a regular following.

One of the top ways to demonstrate expertise is by posting relevant blogs. For a courier, this could be on topics such as e-commerce shopping trends, delivery efficiency levels or industry statistics - all of which would feature relevant search terms or keywords. Having keyword optimised blog posts means that they will be found easily online and become an important source of traffic to your website.

Introduce social customer service

Social media offers a chance to engage directly with customers expecting deliveries and parcels. Many couriers rely on text messages and emails, directing customers to a website for real-time updates. Social media is also a real-time and very visible medium so why not communicate via Twitter or Facebook to confirm delivery times and gain feedback on your service? Certain customers will prefer this to more traditional channels, so by adapting your approach to suit their needs, you will help to build stronger brand loyalty.

Be analytical to determine what works well

Finally, measure everything you do with social media to understand what works and what is less effective. Be prepared to see a wide range of results from different activities and be open minded enough to accept when a strategy is less effective and change the approach.

A cursory scan of the social media activities of different courier companies shows that whilst some are actively using Twitter and Facebook for instance, a larger number have yet to take the plunge. There is also a wide difference between the tactics used by those using social media already and some couriers are using it very effectively to communicate with customers whilst others are taking a less interactive approach and using it for one way communication primarily.

Top tips for creating interesting blogs

Ten ideas for potential blogs relevant to courier companies, which provide keyword rich content.[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Any interesting / unusual parcels delivered on time and in perfect condition?
• Celebrate important new contracts won with customers
• Discuss the latest technology and how it is of commercial benefit
• Discuss how technology helps job scheduling and miles on the road
• Highlight any use of bio-fuels or green vehicles
• Contrast regional trends in customer behaviour, e.g. popular delivery times, delivery to home or business addresses
• Comment on industry developments – mergers, funding, new launches
• Fundraising and work in the community undertaken
• Highlight important media coverage and include links to the articles
• New personnel who have joined the company and further expansion plans