billingviews social crm series: vodafone uk

Our Series on Social CRM

Case File #2: Vodafone UKEnthusiastic, but in need of organization.

October 2011

Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

• Examines how Communications Operators engage customers on Facebook

• Focuses on overall approach and usability issues

• Identifies positives and negatives• Provides a checklist of practical

improvements• Working to establish industry-wide

best practices for Social CRM in communications

About Our Social CRM Series


Why Facebook?• Because it is currently the most popular, consumer-facing social

networking community in the world.

Why not Twitter?• Well, we may get there. We’re starting with Facebook.

What’s your purpose?• Social Networks are evolving and may become superb, low cost channels

for customer engagement. We want to facilitate a dialogue about what is and isn’t working.

Isn’t this just fluffy, pop culture stuff?• It can be, but we aim to apply proven principles – channel management,

user interface design, common sense – to call out useful lessons learned.

FAQ


Positives(+) Active, personal responses to

customers(+) More than 288k “Likes” (1.5% of customers)(+) Easy to find via search and to

discern from false positives

Case File #2: Vodafone UK


Negatives(-) Basic usability issues(-) Hit-or-miss follow-ups(-) Inelegant integration to

Online Self-Care(-) Inconsistent linkage from

website to Facebook care

Vodafone UK Positives


(+) Active, personal responses to customers

Dedicated Web Relations team responds rapidly to customers

Provides patient, personal replies to complaints and questions

Presents relevant links within direct responses to customers to help resolve issues



(+) More than 288k “Likes”

Roughly 1.5% of customer base has decided to “Like” Vodafone UK; means they receive the operator’s posts in their Facebook newsfeeds

Active community engages with operator to offer praise, participate in polls and promos, seek help and support, and – of course- to complain

Vodafone makes a sincere effort to interact positively with all customers, but polices offensive comments and explains when they’ve done so



(+) Easy to find via search and to discern from false positives

Vodafone UK main page is first search response and easy to identify

No impostor profiles confusing customers seeking help

Sure, you see the inevitable hate groups, but it’s easy to discern them from the real thing

Some trademark abuse in play, but relatively limited in scope

Vodafone UK Negatives


(-) Basic Usability Issues

- Customer Services labeled clearly, but only appears below the “more” fold

- Discussions make for a useful care forum, but not clearly labeled as such and also appearing only below the “more” fold

- Navigation to page takes users direct to Vodafone Music, not to main Wall or Care

- Far too many menu items with no intuitive organizational structure or cohesive purpose



(-) Hit-or-Miss Follow Ups

- Agents provide customers with links to online email form and asks them to enter code of “WRT135”

- Customers don’t always get it right and requests get lost in the ether (see right)

- Not a seamless approach to driving online care

- Economics are off; Relies too much on staff assistance

- Not a consistent way to resolve problems and drive customer satisfaction



(-) Inelegant integration to online self-care

- Screen real-estate in Customer Services section not optimized (clickable options go far below what’s shown to the right)

- All links open new browser window, forcing customer out of Facebook environment

- Second link – to “Troubleshooting” – a broken link

- No use of “social sign-on” option to create seamless e-care access



(-) Inconsistent linkage from website to Facebook care

- Link to Facebook presence buried at bottom of eForum page

- eForum page is 3 clicks and a few scrolls away from homepage

- Other Facebook icon links trigger a ‘share this page’ option and don’t link to Facebook profile

- Facebook and Twitter aren’t included in Contact Us menus

• Land customers in the right place. Sending all customers to a non-essential page (like Music, for example) creates barriers to help and care.

• Keep menus simple. Too many menu items with no coherent organizational flow defies basic usability rules; creates user confusion and frustration.

• Position links correctly, and test them. Hiding links to care options “below the fold” is a barrier to channel use; broken links are an absolute no-no.

• Optimize screen real-estate: Facebook design and presentation options can be inflexible, but users should not have to scroll to find useful links.

• Stay within the environment. Use Social CRM as an easy path to existing online care; but don’t force customers to leave the social network.

• Use social sign-on. At the least, give customers the option of having single (or social) sign-on between social network and online care tools.

• Link back to social network. Make customers aware that Social CRM is an option on main website and link back to social CRM consistently and clearly.

• Get the economics right. Too much assistance-based help with non-integrated processes and tools hurt the cost equation for the operator.

Lessons Learned


• Verizon Communications• Telefonica• Deutsche Telekom• America Movil• NTT DoCoMo• France Telecom• Telenor• And many more…

Coming Soon in Our Social CRM Series


BillingViews is the global home for billing and CRM expertise and intelligence in the communications and media industries.www.billingviews.com


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http://www.billingviews.com/


Alex Leslie• Globally recognized billing and

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Billing Association

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