the social customer engagement index 2014

SURVEY, WHITE PAPER & INTERVIEWS

The Social Customer Engagement Index 2014:Results, Analysis, and Perspectives

Measuring Use and Effectiveness of Social Media Tools for Customer ServiceSurvey by Social Media TodayAnalysis by Brent LearyForward by Paul GreenbergCase Studies by Discover, T-Mobile, Nissan and Kimpton HotelsSponsored by SAP

2014, Social Media Today, LLC. All rights reserved.

2THE SOCIAL CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT INDEX

Table of Contents

I. Foreword ................................................................... 3

II. Introduction ................................................................ 5

III Executive Summary..................................................7

IV. Case Studies ......................................................... 31

Discover .................................................................31

T-Mobile .................................................................. 36

Nissan ..................................................................... 41

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants .............................. 47

V. Survey Results Analysis ....................................... 53

VI. Case Study Interview Transcripts ....................... 80


About six months ago, I wrote a long five-part post that was published in Diginomica, where I said, Its time to drop the S from Social CRM and start calling it CRM again. The reason was pretty straightforward. Wed reached the stage where the social communications channels especially Facebook and Twitter, but all of them in reality, were part of mainstream CRM technology, strategic thinking and programs. There werent any sectors of the CRM umbrella that didnt just organically include social channels as part of how they planned and executed any customer facing strategies.

If you look at this years Social Customer Index, it drives home that point. Around three-quarters of the companies surveyed use social channels as customer service touchpoints to engage customers. Thats telling because it indicates that social has become mainstream as a set of communications channels for companies and their customers to interact in.

But what you often hear when things like social is overhyped is annoying commentary that says, Well, social will replace traditional communications media. This is the cry of the ill-informed. Once again, The Social Customer Index

comes to the rescue. I was pleased to see that the respondents resoundingly said no to this oft-stated proposition. The opposite is the case: the Index finds that the longer a company has used social channels, the more they are integrated with traditional channels. They dont replace them.

This is an omnichannel world. Its not just that people are deciding which of the many channels available they want to communicate in, but they are choosing multiple channels in the course of a single set of interactions. For example, when I had a discussion with my niece about a laptop that my wife and I were going to buy her, we communicated through the following:

1. Skype2. Text message3. Phone call4. Facebook5. Twitter6. In person

This was within a 36-hour time frame. The conversation on Skype was an interactive chat that was pretty much, What is your cell number? I want to text you. Using one channel to get to

Forewordby Paul Greenberg

SECTIon I


another channel to provide an interaction via a third channel omnichannel this was organic to my niece. What makes all this fascinating, and the Social Customer Indexs annual temperature check incredibly valuable, is that we can clearly see how business is transforming by attaching some real numbers to the process. It provides us with a valuable opportunity to support changes in our own business strategies, suggests possible approaches and programs, and delivers the data we need to convince the powers-that-be that the approach we are considering is the right one.

Think about it this way. How much easier is it to convince decisionmakers that you should begin a Twitter social customer service channel which guarantees a response time of less than, say, two hours, if you have the data to show that not only is it being done, but doing it well gets you positive returns? The other valuable aspect is that you can frame it properly and show that social isnt meant to be a substitute for traditional channels, but has real value when integrated with them.

We are now in the midst of an era of digital business transformation that, on the one hand, has given rise to disruptive new

business models ranging from Salesforce.com to Amazon to Uber, and on the other hand, has expanded the possibilities for interacting successfully with customers in places and ways that havent been available in the past. To both understand this and make it happen is exciting. To have the Social Customer Index corroborating some of our instincts on how to do it successfully makes the excitement more than just ethereal it becomes the basis for planning an actual program with these new models. To not do it not so smart. So read this and thank Social Media Today and Brent Leary for their service to your business. Then get excited and then get smart. You can only benefit.

Foreword (contd)


This report marks the fourth consecutive year weve surveyed the Social Media Today community to better understand how their organizations are integrating social media tools and strategies into their customer service/experience efforts. While were releasing the report in the first quarter of 2014, the survey was fielded in 2013 with 1,258 participants. In comparison, in 2010, our inaugural year, there were only 123 participants. With this years larger sample and the addition of new questions, we believe this years Index provides more insights and data than ever before.

As with previous editions of the report, our main objective is to learn more about organizational efforts to leverage social and mobile technologies and to identify the impact these efforts are having on support goals and objectives. Additionally, we examine how plans, approaches and strategies have evolved over time, as we have a number of years to look back on and compare with the current years results. Were pleased to be able to share the data and insights in this years report.

Weve added a number of questions to help us better understand to what extent social customer service strategy

and initiatives are aligned with overall company strategies. We also wanted to understand how insights gained through social service initiatives were being communicated and shared across the organization in order to create consistent experiences for the customer. As you will see in both the executive summary and the detailed analysis section, companies who report a close alignment between customer service strategy and corporate strategy tend to see more positive impact from their efforts.

Included in this years report is an executive summary highlighting some of the key findings and takeaways coming out of the survey. We take a look at some year over year comparisons and find interesting trends in key areas to dig into. A new survey question about investment strategies in social service programs revealed how some segments of the survey population allocate their funds and what impact this has on program satisfaction levels and results.

The addition of several new alignment questions enabled us to identify a segment of the survey population that we call fully integrated organizations companies that report having social

IntroductionSECTIon II


teams, strategies, and processes that are fully integrated with the organization as a whole. We compare these companies to the general population to see what impact full integration has on support goals and objectives.

We also discuss a few trends we anticipate in the next 12 to 18 months, which we believe will impact social service initiatives going forward, including the Amazons May Day and the rise of the Subscription Economy.

As in previous years, in addition to sharing the detailed survey results, we are pleased to include several case studies of companies and their approach to social customer service. We were fortunate to have executives from Discover, Kimpton Hotels, Nissan and T-Mobile share their experiences and insights on how their social service efforts have evolved over time in order to meet the increasing expectations of tech-savvy customers. We were also fortunate to have Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light, share a few thoughts to kick off this years report.

Whether youre studying the answers to specific survey questions, reading stories from the profiled brands, or discovering new trends, it is our hope that you are

able to find something in this years report that will help move your social service efforts forward. We couldnt continue producing this report without the support of the Social Media Today community and thank you for making this happen. We would also like to extend a special thank you to SAP for their continued support in sponsoring the Index since its inception.

Introduction (contd)


About the Index By the NumbersTo provide some background for this years Index, here are some key demographics of the survey population:

Total respondents: 1258 (920 completed) Up from 891 (587 completed) in 2012

69% of respondents are based in the USA 48% employed at companies with 50 or less employees 26% employed at companies with over 500 employees 11% employed at companies with over 5000 employees 30% are Director level or above (C-Level, VP) Top departments

Marketing 57% Other 20% PR 8% Customer Care 8% Sales 7%

Executive SummarySECTIon III


Key Data Points from the 2013 Index

15% of companies say 25%+ of customer service inquiries are initiated over social channels (35% say less than 5% do).

27% say it takes them less than an hour to respond to questions/issues on social channels.

4% say their company has been integrating social into customer support for more than 4 years.

52% say Facebook is the most effective social channel for customer service. Twitter follows at 25%, then LinkedIn at 8%. Owned communities are most effective for 7%.

HootSuite use among respondents tripled year-over-year and is on the way to becoming the most cited monitoring tool. Radian6, the most cited tool from 2012, dropped by 38% in 2013.

Strategy

81% say social customer service strategy is integrated into overall social strategy of the organization.

55% have fully integrated their support teams (no separate team for social service support).

25% say they leverage customer service insights for non-customer service related activities in a structured fashion.

Executive Summary (contd)


Mobile Service

50% of those surveyed said their company provides customer service via mobile devices, up from 38% in 2012.

52% of those whose organizations are building customer service apps for mobile devices reported creating mobile-friendly websites vs. 36% who reported creating native iOS/Android mobile apps.

Results

32% say they have seen very positive impact from social on customer service goals and objectives.

16% say they are very satisfied with their companys efforts to engage customers on social networks for service and support.



Key Takeaways from the 2013 SurveyAs companies gain experience, further integrate social into service processes and teams, and align social service strategies more closely with their overall customer engagement strategy, they are seeing more positive impact from their efforts. Additionally, a greater number of service interactions are taking place over social channels. But even as the percentage of social service interactions increases, it still lags far behind traditional service channels like email and phone.

The move to provide mobile customer service is accelerating and should continue to do so in the foreseeable future as customers operate more of their personal and professional lives through a plethora of devices, including wearable devices.Effective resource allocation will continue to be central to social service success as companies continually fight to keep up with customer expectations for better experiences. Optimizing in the face of an ever-changing mix of devices, tools, platforms and technological literacy will only become more challenging, even as experience with social service grows deeper. Its the nature of the current environment, and it will only

accelerate over the next few years, particularly for organizations looking to integrate social from a strategic, process, and team perspective.

Overall, Facebook remains the most used and most effective social channel for customer engagement from a service perspective, but companies who operate their own branded communities find those to be just as important as Facebook and more important than Twitter. Over time, these owned communities should allow companies to build deeper, more intimate relationships with customers, as long as they continue to facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and provide relevant, timely information whenever it is needed.

Speed of engagement will play an increasingly important role in creating great customer service experiences, and companies that focus on providing speedy responses on a consistent basis should create win-win scenarios for the customer base and the organization. According to the survey results, the road to faster response times calls for alignment of processes, teams and strategies and of course a greater percentage of investment dollars being used on the right technology pieces to provide a solid foundation on which to build.



Finally, companies will maximize their odds of social service success if they make sure the strategy is a meaningful, well-connected part of the overall customer experience strategy. To that end, the organization should create a culture that allows that customer experience strategy to grow and stay aligned with customer behaviors, activities and expectations over time.

Below are some additional high-level overviews of important findings from the survey.

General Trends Over Time: Year-Over-Year ComparisonWith the completion of the 2013 annual index, a number of interesting temporal trends begin to emerge. We review these below.As illustrated above, there has been a steady and significant trend of support interactions



occurring increasingly through social channels:

Only 35% of respondents say their company has less than 5% of support interactions taking place over social, compared with 57% in 2011.

Roughly twice as many people say they are seeing 11-15% of interactions taking place on social.

Over three times as many people report 16-20% of interactions occur via social channels.

Greater numbers of people report more than 20% of interactions happening over social channels in 2013, compared with 2011.

Looking at the impact social support is having on service goals and objectives, the



upward trend in reporting positive impact is matched by the downward trend in those reporting no noticeable improvement. In fact, between 2011 and 2013, the 10% drop in those reporting no noticeable improvement is almost completely offset by the 11% increase in those reporting either a positive or very positive impact from social support initiatives. Given these trends, it seems safe to say that over time, as more experience is gained, goals and objectives will benefit from an expansion of social tools and strategies into customer service/experience initiatives.While most other aspects of the survey are trending positively over time, some

interesting results emerge with respect to overall satisfaction with company efforts to integrate social into customer support efforts. Despite the aforementioned trend towards reporting more positive impacts on goals and objectives, there has been no increase in the proportion of respondents who are very satisfied with company efforts, and overall, the numbers for those reporting some level of satisfaction are unchanged. There seems to have been a shift, however, from disappointment to neutrality, with the proportion of people reporting a level of disappointment decreasing over time, and the



proportion reporting a neutral opinion increasing.With the rapidly changing landscape of social, mobile and cloud technologies along

with even more rapidly changing customer expectations its not too surprising that respondent satisfaction levels are not increasing as quickly as other areas. The following chart of major challenges faced by social support initiatives may help to further clarify:

While theres been significant improvement in areas like determining key performance indicators, the main obstacle continues to be figuring out how to optimally allocate resources. Well over 40% of respondents say this continues to be a serious impediment year-over-year. Resource allocation can take the form of people, team configuration, training, tools and financial investment. How companies determine resource allocation can determine how employees develop and implement processes and procedures when engaging customers which also plays into how satisfied employees are with how things are going.Computer/Electronics Industry: 2010-2013



The survey respondents from the computer/electronics industry make for an interesting subgroup microcosm over the years. Each year of the survey, this group accounted for approximately 9% of the overall respondent population, with 11 respondents in 2010, 12 in 2011, 64 in 2012 and 115 respondents in 2013. While the number of respondents in both 2010 and 2011 are low, we decided to include these years because this group accounts for roughly the same percentage of the overall population in all four years. However, the 2012 and 2013 numbers give us a fuller representation of the industry.As the graphic above illustrates, an increasing number of people report very positive

impact of company efforts to integrate social into customer support, with 38% of those surveyed in 2013 choosing this selection up from 27% in 2010. Note that in 2011 that number dropped to 8% before moving back up dramatically. This may be due to the low number of respondents in the first two years of the survey, or possibly an adjustment to more realistic expectations as more experience was attained. Whatever the case, the trend over the last three years is up.



Satisfaction levels with company efforts, while not as high as the impact numbers, are also trending up nicely. An increasing proportion of industry respondents say they are very satisfied with company efforts, more than doubling from 9% in 2012 to 19% in 2013. Additionally, the proportion of companies that integrate social into traditional customer support processes has increased dramatically over the three years weve surveyed for this information, rising from 9% in 2011 up to 52% in 2013, close to a 6% increase.

The number of service interactions is steadily growing. In 2010, 64% of those in the computer/electronics industry said

their companies had less than 5% of their support interactions taking place on social networks. In 2013 that number dropped to 39%. Meanwhile, mobile support among this group grew 2.7 times from 2011 to 2013.

All in all, the computer/electronics industry over time is spending slightly more money, handling more interactions via social, seeing much greater impact and feeling more satisfied with company efforts in this area. Well see if the trend continues in 2014.

Insights from the Very SatisfiedAmong those who answered the question about their satisfaction with their



organizations efforts to integrate social into service, 16% said they were very satisfied. When comparing these respondents to the overall population some key points stand out.First, while there are several data points that show those very satisfied with their company

efforts with social service are on par with the overall population, it cant be ignored that this group is more than twice as likely to report very positive impact from these efforts on service goals and objectives. Second, they are much more likely to be able to respond very quickly to service inquiries, while handling a higher percentage of those requests via social channels. In addition, they are more likely to work in integrated teams of people, have social integrated into traditional service processes, and say they have a structured process for leveraging customer service insights in other areas of the business.

The Impact of Being a Fully Integrated Organization



In 2013 we were curious about the extent to which social service was integrated into the fabric of the organization. In order to capture this we added a question that asked if the social service strategy was integrated into the organizations overall corporate social strategy to improve customer experience. Since we added questions last year to track if social tools and strategies had been integrated into traditional support processes and where support teams were integrated, we were able to assess the possible impact of integrated teams, processes and strategies.

240 respondents indicated that their organizations have integrated teams, processes and strategy. We call these fully integrated companies, The illustration below compares this group to the overall population in a few key areas. Additionally, we look at a subgroup of fully integrated companies with 500 or more employees, to see how they compare to the overall population.What immediately stands out in the figure above is how much more likely fully



integrated companies are to experience very positive impact of their social initiatives on their service goals and objectives. Fully integrated companies with over 500 employees are most likely to benefit, being almost twice as likely to report very positive impact, compared with the general population.

Fully integrated company respondents were also much less likely to report their method of social engagement as being ad-hoc. They are also more likely to have their own communities (especially 500+ employee fully integrated companies), and provide mobile support for their customers.

While it would seem that becoming a fully integrated company would

entail operating in a more complex environment, at least while transitioning to this kind operation, fully integrated organizations were less likely to cite resource allocation as a major challenge. Management buy-in, however, is a slightly greater challenge for fully integrated companies with 500 or more employees.

In general, it appears there are significant benefits to combining social tools and tactics at the process, team and corporate strategy level, and for larger organizations the impact seems to be even more potent, but it will be interesting to see how this trends in 2014.

Depending on Branded Community



Last year we looked at how branded communities fit into the mix of customer engagement from a service perspective. Respondents who reported working at an organization with a company-owned community found them to be the most effective channel, even though Facebook and Twitter were by far the most used networks for customer engagement. The image below illustrates the continuing importance of these communities to companies who own them.Facebook and Twitter are definitely the most effective channels for engagement for

the general population, by far out-distancing owned communities, but those with an owned community truly have a different perspective. While Facebook nudges out owned communities among this group, those communities are, for all intents and purposes, just as important to them as the big guys.A Look at the Allocation of Investment




A quick look at the annual financial investment that companies allocate to implementing social tools and strategies into customer service efforts reveals some slight upward movement from 2011 to 2013.In the 2013 survey, for the first time, we asked respondents to tell us how the monies

invested in social service initiatives were allocated. The overall population reported allocating the money in the following manner:

Technology: 23% Employee Time: 51% Training: 11% Consulting: 10% Other: 5%

A closer look at how funds were allocated uncovers a few interesting patterns.Across the board, employee time is far and away the category receiving the most financial


resources, with technology next in line. While technology made up 23% of the overall populations annual investment, that number grows significantly to 32% for larger enterprises deploying native mobile apps for customer service. Technology spending also reaches 32% for larger enterprises with the ability to respond to service inquiries in less than an hour. When looking at companies reporting very positive impact from their organizations social service efforts,

technology spending makes up 27%, while 47% is allocated to employee time. Companies handling greater than 25% of service interactions via social reported spending 14% on consulting time, well above the general population average of 10%. Technology spending also makes up a greater percentage of the overall spend for companies investing more than $250,000 (29% vs. 23%).Social Monitoring Tools Interesting Shift Year-Over-Year



In 2012 we started asking respondents for the tools used at their organizations to help implement their social service strategies. A word cloud of the services used in 2012 is pictured below:Just one year later in 2013 the word cloud looks like this:

As you can see, many of the tools mentioned in 2012 are missing from the 2013 word

cloud, with the missing tools, all of which are paid services, indicated in red. Other tools


Attensity Community Customer Email Facebook Google

HubSpot Insights Lithium Manual Monitoring PhoneRadian 6 SAS Service Social SpredfastSurveys Sysomos Tools Tweetdeck Twitter VisibleTechnologies

Alerts Google Analytics Hootsuite

Call Company Contact Customer Email

Analytics Hootsuite HubSpot LinkedIn ManualMeltwater Mention Monitor Notifications Phone Radian 6Reviews Salesforce Social Surveys SysomosTools Tweetdeck Twitter Search

Facebook Feedback Google Alerts Google


like Radian6 and Lithium have been de-emphasized, whereas services like HootSuite and Facebook have become more popular. Below is the actual count of the top tools mentioned in 2012 vs. 2013:This graphic really illustrates how tools like HootSuite and Facebook made tremendous gains in terms of usage, while Radian6, Attensity and Visible Technologies lost some

steam among survey respondents. Meanwhile, other paid services like Sysomos, HubSpot, Meltwater and Sprinklr made gains among respondents.

It will be interesting to see what this list will look like in 2014. Will it be more turnover, or will the likes of HootSuite, Sysomos and others continue picking up users?5000+ Employee OrganizationsThis year for the first time we segmented out respondents from organizations with greater



than 5000 employees, and with representatives from these super-sized organizations making up 11% of the total survey population, were able to make some interesting comparisons. The illustration below depicts how these extremely large companies compare to the general population of respondents with respect to key survey metrics.As you can see, super-sized companies are aligned with the general population with respect to impact, satisfaction levels, and the belief that Facebook is the most effective

social channel for customer engagement. As might be expected, they are much more likely to invest big dollars into their program. But the total survey population is much quicker to respond to social inquiries, handle a higher percentage of service interactions on social channels, and work in more integrated teams than do the big companies.Four Trends That Will Accelerate Social Service Adoption in 2014



Milliseconds MatterEvery second counts when it comes to meeting customer expectations. A study by KISSmetrics found that 47% of consumers expect a Web page to load in two seconds or less, and just a one-second delay decreases customer satisfaction by 16%. According to a recent University of Massachusetts study, if a video hasnt started streaming in five seconds, about 25% of potential viewers will bail before viewing, and if it doesnt start in 10 seconds, the bail rate jumps to almost 50%.

Speed thrills, and lack of it kills. Weve never liked waiting for things we want, and technology enables us to wait less and less. Book buyers are used to getting e-books downloaded in less than 60 seconds, whereas just a few years ago they didnt mind waiting days for a book to be delivered or even going to a bookstore to get it. Delivering customer service experiences that thrill begins with speed.

A 2011 survey commissioned by TOA Technologies of 1,000 customers needing home service to fix things like broken air conditioners and cable outages provided some interesting findings about the importance of speed in creating positive experiences:

If a service technician is on time for a service call, 65% of customers feel satisfied and 52% say they are happily surprised. On top of that, 70% say they would recommend the company to a friend.

If a service technician is 30 minutes late, that 65% satisfaction number falls to 27%.

If the tech is an hour late, 42% report feeling angry.

It goes downhill from there, to the point where 47% of respondents say they will never use the company again, and 35% posting negative comments online if a technician is four hours late.

Its important to remember this is a survey from 2011, a time where we were just beginning to transition away from a computer-centric way of life, and we are now moving rapidly into the Post-PC era, where we are operating even more of our personal and professional lives through devices. The further into this new era we go, the greater customer expectations seem to be for fast service from the vendors they frequent. This means that 2014 expectations are very different from 2011




expectations, and what was acceptable then wont be now and in the future. Today, every millisecond counts when trying to build customer loyalty and longevity.

Adobes SVP of Marketing says we have a matter of 300 milliseconds to turn our actions into great experiences that help us build new customer relationships and extend existing ones. With less time to make a connection and convert it into a meaningful relationship, companies have to act quicklyand react even quicker, which means taking a hard look at their current capabilities to make fast moves. This includes how quickly they can respond to customers when they need help.

More Subscriptions Calls for Better ServiceJust as milliseconds matter in the Post-PC era, modern customers are looking to technology to make their lives more convenient. As they adopt new technologies and adapt their lifestyles to take advantage of what it can do for them, they gravitate towards companies willing to use technology to help them make their lives better.

According to an October 2013 Economist study of 293 business executives,

commissioned by billing/subscription management platform provider Zuora, a majority of businesses are changing the way they price and deliver goods and services to meet customer desires for consumption and pricing models that fit their lifestyles. In the survey, 38% of the responding executives said they themselves increasingly prefer to access goods and services via subscription (such as software licenses), while 26% prefer to rent rather than purchase goods such as cars and apartments. The survey found that 80% of these executives believe that their customers are likewise changing how they obtain access to goods and services.

As these business executives, in their role as customers, move towards subscribing to more goods and services, their companies are evolving in tandem. 51% are changing, or in the process of changing, how they price and deliver goods and services. In fact 40% are integrating subscription goods and services to their business model, in response to the changing needs of the customer.Along with the rise of monthly subscription services like Netflix, the Dollar Shave Club, Zipcar and many others, the impetus is on the vendor to prove their service has



enough value to keep customers on board every month. That means in addition to constantly providing great products for customers, they also have to deliver excellent customer service, in order to extend the life of the relationship. In the Subscription Economy, where more customers will judge their relationships with vendors on a month-to-month basis, customer service has to be at the heart of the organizations business model in order to be successful in 2014 and beyond.

MayDay Button: Amazon Strikes AgainThere is no doubt that Amazon.com has led the way in changing how people shop, and with Amazon Web Services, how they build businesses. Theyve changed how we read books and our expectations for when we get our stuff after weve bought it. After Jeff Bezos appearance on 60 Minutes the evening before Cyber Monday 2013, he had everyone anticipating when the Amazon drones would be delivering orders to our doorsteps. While the drones may be another game changer, shaping the future of how businesses operate, its years away from happening if it happens at all. But there is something that Amazon recently rolled out that could

have a much bigger impact on customer expectations for service in the near future.

When Amazon released the Kindle Fire HDX devices in October of 2013, much was made of its great display, slim footprint, and relatively inexpensive price, but what caught many peoples attention is the Mayday button included on the device. According to Amazon, when you tap the virtual Mayday button on the Kindle HDXs screen, within 15 seconds a customer service representative appears on your screen. The rep can see whatever your HDX is currently displaying without seeing you or your actual account information.

The rep can both draw on your screen or take control of your interface, but you can take back control at any point simply by using the tablet. The window with the rep can moved around the screen, their voice can be muted, and the call can be ended by tapping End.

Youve probably seen the commercials that depict this. A friendly face pops up and offers help within seconds. Ive tried it, and although I didnt get Amy popping up on my screen, I did get a very friendly and helpful representative nonetheless. Its this kind of service experience that could change customer



service expectations for every business.Now, it isnt fair to expect every

business to roll out this kind of service, as it takes a great deal of resources to pull off. The logistics and technology investment alone has to be tremendous and will have to scale over time as more customers use the service. Nonetheless, elevated customer expectations will force other businesses to put their best customer service foot forward. It means sooner rather than later at some level you will have to figure out how to leverage the power of clouds and devices to continuously improve your customer service capabilities and processes. You will also have to ensure the right people are engaging your customers. Having the best technology and logistics does you no good if the person you have popping up on your users screen is an unfriendly one.

Mobile Leads the WayThis is the most obvious trend, which really doesnt need much explanation. Just look at the 2013 holiday season if you do need a little convincing. Online sales on Cyber Monday surged 20.6% compared with the same day last year. The most active e-shopping cities included

New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Data from comScore anticipated $1.8 billion in e-commerce spending via desktops on Cyber Monday, with an additional $200 million coming from mobile sales.

On Black Friday, mobile accounted for 55% of traffic to Walmart.com. Overall, 29.4% of online traffic was mobile, according to data from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Numbers like these have led Walmart.com CEO Joel Anderson to conclude that 2013 will be remembered as the year online went mobile.

If 2013 was the year that online went mobile, then 2014 has to be the year that mobile customer service begins to hit the mainstream. Many companies are already effectively providing mobile service experiences to their customer base, but in order to provide the kind of mobile experiences that customers are beginning to demand, businesses need to take a hard look at current processes and capabilities and see what needs to be changed to take advantage of the new technology environment. It might also mean looking at the current corporate culture and be willing to change it in order to deliver what


customers expect today and tomorrow. Amazons Mayday is one example

of what the new normal for service may be in the not too distant future. Its fast. Its mobile. Its human. And thats what customers want and expect.



Case Studies

Discover

SECTIon IV

Click here to listen to an exclusive interview between Brent Leary and

Dan Gingiss, Director of Digital Customer Experience & Social Media for Discover.

Click here to read the transcript.

Here is an overview of Discovers strategy for social customer service:

OVERALL STRATEGYWhat is the size of your social customer service team?

Dan Gingiss: There are about 40 people participating in delivering Discovers social customer service experience, including people from headquarters, Customer

Service representatives, and external agency support.

How is this team structured? Are they part of the existing social media team, the existing customer service team or a team of their own? How has the team scaled since the initiative started? How well-integrated is social within your current customer service call centers and the tools you are using?

DG: Social Customer Service is jointly handled by the Social Media Team and the Customer Service division. The call center representatives assigned to Social use special listening and response tools that are also accessed by the Social Media Team. We continually evaluate resource allocation in the call centers as we do with other service channels.

How does the social customer service team interact with the rest of the social media team at the company?

DG: The call center representatives are trained as generalists who can answer virtually any cardmember inquiry. They


are also equipped with Customer Service contacts in other non-card units (e.g., personal loans), should such inquiries surface.

How has social changed the relationship between customer service and other departments in the company, like marketing or sales?

DG: The only substantial change so far has been that Social, unlike any of our other service channels, is jointly managed with a non-Customer Service department.

Through which social channels do most inquiries arrive? What proportion of customer inquiries come in through traditional channels versus social? Has social enabled call/email deflection?

DG: The majority of our social inquiries come from Twitter, followed by Facebook. Social inquiries as a percentage of total inquiries are still very small. We are in the process of trying to quantify deflection rates for both the individual supplying the inquiry and for other social community members who may see answers to questions that might have otherwise led them to contact us as well.

MAJOR CHALLENGESWhat challenges have you faced that are specific to your industry?

DG: Being a highly regulated industry, we are not able to respond to cardmember inquiries that relate to any account-level information. In those cases, we either ask the customer to send us a direct message or contact us through our recently introduced secure chat feature, which allows us to service them securely while remaining in the social channel.

Another challenge is the complexity of the credit card business and the enormous scope of potential questions that a customer may have.

What challenges have you confronted in implementing your social customer service strategy? How have you convinced upper management to get on board?

DG: It has been a pretty seamless integration with our Customer Service partners.

Case Studies (contd)


MEASURING FOR SUCCESSWhat metrics are you tracking?

DG: We track Response Time at three points: Creation, which is when the customer makes the inquiry; Open, which is when a Customer Service representative first reviews the inquiry; and Close, which is when a Customer Service representative responds to the inquiry. We look at Response Time by representative and by time of day. We also track social community sentiment by categorizing comments according to whether they are Questions, Complaints, Compliments or Feedback.

What you can share about your costs?

DG: The main thing weve done to control costs is to cross-train the Customer Service representatives on other digital channels such as e-mail and Click-to-Chat so that there is little or no downtime.

MOBILE and COMMUNITYWhat is the role of mobile in your social customer service strategy?

DG: We have a steadily growing percentage of cardmembers who access their accounts via mobile, and we understand that a majority of people access social media via a mobile device. We are cognizant of mobile when designing new functionality such as our secure chat feature. There is a separate Customer Service area dedicated to e-Support, which includes website- and mobile-related phone inquiries.

How is your community involved? How many questions are your communities answering?

DG: While we are always happy when a community member jumps in to answer a general question, we pride ourselves on answering every cardmember directly in a personalized way. The nature of our business suggests that a smaller percentage of questions can be answered by community members because all account-related inquiries need to be taken off Social to a secure environment.

What proportion of questions are being handled by your community?



DG: This is not a metric we track because 100% of questions are answered directly by Discover.

Are you tracking metrics like customer conversion in relation to questions being answered? That is, do customers in your community tend to be more engaged, buy more, or last longer?

DG: Thats been a difficult nut to crack, but its certainly a metric were focused on.

FINAL THOUGHTSThe good, the bad, and the ugly: what lessons has your brand learned about engaging in social customer service?

DG: Answering every customer is of

paramount importance. Because so few companies do this simple act well, the response itself is often a surprise and delight to the customer. The fact that we also solve their problem the first time is a fantastic bonus.

Speed is critically important, as consumer expectations for response time have risen. However, speed does not matter if it is not paired with

accuracy, so we will always choose the right answer over the fastest answer.

Dont be afraid of negative commentary. In many cases, we (or our community) are able to change negative sentiment into positive sentiment just by responding to comments in a personalized, genuine way.

Personalize responses further with the representatives name at the end.

In general, what impact has social customer service had on business? Are there any customer stories you can share?

DG: My favorite story is of a gentleman who tweeted to us that we were sending him too much mail. He wrote: Havent checked my mail in a few days and there are 3 offers for the @Discover it card. Persistence or lack of coordination?

Our response was this: @ We must be excited to have you apply! DM w/your full name & full address if you would like the mailings to stop. *Amy

His response? @Discover kudos for the prompt response time! Ok Ill bite, mostly because of your response Amy. #greatservice



Heres another great example. The customer wrote, Dear @Discover: why did you say I am no longer eligible to receive paperless stmts? Is there an eligibility requirement for saving trees?

Our response: @ We definitely want to look into this for u! Please DM me w/your full name, zip and ph# so we may find out what hppnd Sonee

Customer response: OK, serious props due to @discover. I tweeted an issue and they not only replied back immediately, they solved it for me all under an hour.

In what direction is your organization hoping to head in the next 1-2 years with social, mobile and cloud technologies to improve customer support and experience?

DG: Our philosophy is that we want to be able to service our customers in the channels in which they wish to be serviced. We hope to continue to evolve the social and mobile channels as more and more customers seek us out through those channels for customer service. As we do this, we intend to keep speed, accurate resolution, and security in mind at all times

It helps that Discover is working from a position of strength when it comes to Customer Service. We routinely score very high in the JD Power Satisfaction Survey, we recently won a Call Center Excellence Award for Best Performance Acting on Voice of the Customer and Voice of the Social Customer from the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC), and we have won the Brand Keys Loyalty Award for 17 consecutive years. This core strength makes the transition into new servicing channels much easier.




About Discover:

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company with

one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the

company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company issues

the Discover card, Americas cash rewards pioneer, and offers home loans, private student loans,

personal loans, home equity loans, checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit and

money market accounts through its direct banking business. It operates the Discover Network,

with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nations leading ATM/debit

networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance in more than

185 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.discover.com/company.



T-Mobile

Click here to listen to an exclusive interview between

Brent Leary and Krissy Espindola, Director, Knowledge Management & Social Customer Support at T-Mobile.


Here is an overview of T-Mobiles strategy for social customer service:


Krissy Espindola: Our social customer service team has 29 full-time employees.

How is this team structured? Are they part of the existing social media team, the existing customer service or a team of their own?

KE: They are their own team under a director responsible for a broader Knowledge Management team, and they sit within the Customer Service organization. The team is made up of:

1 Senior Manager 2 Managers 5 Support Team Members 21 Social Customer Support

Specialists

How has the team scaled since the initiative started? How well-integrated is social within your current customer service call centers and other tools you are using?

KE: When we started, we had a little over 500,000 social fans across all of our branded properties. Today we have over 4.5 million. In the last year, our team has grown from 7 full-time employees to 29.

The social support teams (T-Force) sit in a number of our call centers. They use SAP Cloud for Social Customer



Engagement to support our customers, as well as all the other customer service tools that our regular care representatives use to service customer needs.


KE: We have an extremely close-knit partnership with the Social Media and Marketing teams. Our processes are tightly integrated so that customers receive support and are engaged on all levels. The Social Support Team is also the hub for all of our social media reporting that is delivered back to the company.


KE: Social has been a game changer for T-Mobile, as it allows us to get ahead of the conversation and anticipate the needs of our customers. We are able to resolve minor issues that could become major pain points for our brand by

feeding our data and analytics back to our executives and making changes that will improve customer experience. Social has also become an integral part of our communication planning. Its now part of our DNA to ensure that our social teams have the right talking points to address any inquiry and to do it in our brand voice.


KE: The majority of our customers connect with us on Twitter, and Facebook is a close second. Our customer-reported call deflection rate is close to 100%.


KE: The mobile industry has historically been challenged by generally negative sentiment. However, with our Uncarrier strategy and a strong social strategy,



weve been able to successfully shift perceptions. With the majority of social traffic coming from mobile, the customers most likely to use their devices to interact with social networks have even more reason to share their experiences with us good and bad.


KE: While we havent had difficulty getting our leadership teams support, we did have early challenges in creating a support structure that provided not only engagement, but allowed us to truly resolve issues that needed attention. After a few months of trial and error, we launched our Listen, Engage, and Resolve strategy, a very simple concept thats allowed us to build out a program that we can continue to scale. In aligning our processes and tools with this strategy, weve been wildly successful.


KE: We track fan growth per channel, average time to connect, SLA, and sentiment.

What can you share about your costs?

KE: While we cant share specific costs, we would encourage anyone to invest in the right people and technology to make social support come to life.


KE: Since many of our customers engage our social sites using their mobile devices, we have to ensure all sites are optimized to provide a seamless mobile experience. We also provide a pre-installed My Account application on all of our devices that links to our community, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages.

How is your customer community involved?

KE: Our Support Community is the hub of all of our social activity. We consistently drive customers to our community where



they can get extended support from documentation and other community members, like our Pillars.

How many questions is Community answering?

KE: We have had about 10,000 questions in our Support Community this year, with over 96% of them answered.

What proportion of questions are being handled by your community?

KE: Our own T-Force team responds to almost all questions, approximately 90%, but usually the team will let the community provide the answer and only steps in when the community doesnt provide an answer in a timely manner. Ultimately, around 80% of the answers are coming from the community.

Are you tracking metrics like customer conversion in relation to questions being answered? That is, do customers in your community tend to be more engaged, buy more, or last longer?

KE: Unfortunately, we dont yet tie

Community accounts to customer accounts, so we are unable to correlate Community participation to customer activities. We anticipate this functionality early next year.


KE: How you respond on social will

resonate and can potentially reach millions of people.

One of our more negative experiences happened when we sent a direct reply to a customer who worked at a technology company as a blogger. Lets just say that wasnt one of our best moments, but weve learned from it and have never made that mistake again.


KE: By engaging and resolving with social in the right way, our brand has seen an



over 10% increase to positive sentiment. We see success stories daily, especially with customers who have been extremely dissatisfied. Some have even turned around and promoted our brand publicly. Those are the best experiences. In our follow-up surveys, we see a customer-reported resolution and deflection rate of close to 100%, which is rare in a traditional call center environment.


KE: At a high level, we are looking to further integrate and improve our technologies and processes, so that we provide a seamless support experience to our customers. We want to meet them

wherever they choose to engage us, whether its on our website, Facebook, Twitter, Chat, Google, a retail store, a call center or new social sites that emerge.

About T-Mobile:

As Americas Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc.

(NYSE: TMUS) is redefining the way

consumers and businesses buy wireless

services through leading product and

service innovation. The companys advanced

nationwide 4G and expanding 4G LTE network

delivers outstanding wireless experiences for

customers who are unwilling to compromise

on quality and value. Based in Bellevue, Wash.,

T-Mobile US provides services through its

subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands,

T-Mobile and MetroPCS. It currently serves

approximately 46.7 million wireless subscribers

and provides products and services through

70,000 points of distribution.



nissan


Brent Leary and Erich Marx, Director of Interactive & Social Media Marketing, Rob Robinson, Senior Specialist in Social Communications, and Andrea Lopez, Social CRM Manager of Nissan.


Here is an overview of Nissans strategy for social customer service:


Nissan: We have a social customer service team of five, led by one supervisor.


N: The team is dedicated full-time to social media customer support and closely linked to our Consumer Affairs division. The team has been in place for about 16 months. Members use Salesforce.com to communicate with the Consumer Affairs staff in our contact centers. They use Radian6 for social media monitoring and analytics, and they use Sprinklr for workflow management and issue reporting. Nissans marketing and PR social media team and its agencies also have access to Sprinklr, and they coordinate responses



to consumer concerns with the customer service team using that tool.

How does the social customer service team interact with the rest of the social media team at the company? How has social changed the relationship between customer service and other departments in the company, like marketing or sales?

N: Social media has prompted Consumer Affairs, Marketing and PR to work more closely together because social media is more integrated than traditional outreach and response activities. Customers may respond directly, for example, to marketing or PR announcements made on the companys Facebook pages or Twitter profiles. Consumer Affairs, Marketing and PR communicate more frequently in order to coordinate activities.


N: Most incoming social media inquiries from customers originate on 1) Facebook

and 2) Twitter. Other channels such as Google+, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram experience much lower volumes of customer inquiries, though we still actively monitor them. The social media customer support team does not make phone calls or correspond with customers via email. If a customer requires a phone call for follow-up, a case is created using Salesforce.com and escalated to Consumer Affairs, where a specialist is then tasked with calling the customer for follow-up.

There hasnt been a noticeable effect on call volume to date.


N: Some company stakeholders were hesitant initially to participate in social media because they understood that it is inherently riskier than more traditional marketing and communication methods. The automotive industry, in general, can be risk-averse and conservative when it comes to trying new things. Ultimately, we were able to make the case that it made more sense to be active and visible in



social media than it did to be absent or unresponsive.


N: Securing budget and headcount without even a guesstimate at ROI has been a major challenge. Having to prove that this wasnt optional became a matter of likening it to not picking up the phone when it rings. You dont wait to start answering until you can prove how much money its going to make you; you just start answering it. The executives recognized that and told us to do what we needed to do for our customers.

Defining roles between marketing and customer care in the social media space was and is an ongoing challenge, but not one unique to our organization, especially as the landscape changes with each passing day.


N: We place a lot of weight upon fan engagement and social media share-of-voice among a competitive set. We want to drive comments, likes and shares from as many fans as we can, and we want to punch above our weight in terms of how much we are discussed online. In terms of customer service, we monitor our overall response time and the percentage of fan posts we address, and compare these against our competitive set.

What you can share about your costs?

N: We arent permitted to share specific cost information because it is confidential. In terms of both customer service and marketing/PR, we made a strategic decision to dedicate a modest portion of our existing budgets to social media.




N: We are still evaluating the role that mobile will play in our social customer service strategy. We have access to all comments (mobile and desktop) that are generated on our social media channels via Sprinklr, and our teams do have access to Sprinklr via mobile devices as needed.

How is your community involved? How many questions are your communities answering?

N: The level of response varies by community. Our Nissan LEAF and Performance communities serve very specific, very passionate audiences, and these fans typically respond more frequently than our broader, larger audiences. Even on our largest channels, such as our brands Facebook page, fans do answer questions from other fans fairly often. Fans also weigh in when they think a fan is being unreasonable in raising a concern, such as expecting warranty coverage when vehicles are thousands of miles over warranty limits or when

customers did not perform necessary maintenance to keep vehicles in good running order.

What proportion of questions are being handled by your community? Are you tracking metrics like customer conversion in relation to questions being answered? That is, do customers in your community tend to be more engaged, buy more, or last longer?

N: This is a subject we discuss all the time. Because automotive purchases usually have a long sales cycle, it can be difficult to track how social media activity influences consumer behavior. We want to make our customers happy and provide them every reason to be loyal customers, whether they are new owners, long-term customers or consumers who are considering Nissan for the first time.

Did someone buy a new car because of a single tweet or Facebook post? Its possible, but thats a tough question to answer decisively. Would we be less visible to customers and at a competitive disadvantage if we chose not to use social media on behalf of the company? Absolutely.




N: Some issues cannot be resolved. Often customers comment on our social media channels after they have inquired via traditional methods (dealerships, phone calls) and did not like the answers they received offline. These kinds of inquiries are very difficult to address, though we do attempt to help whenever possible. Our promise is just that well give their situation a thorough review, make sure the correct handling and decisions took place, and then reaffirm or take corrective actions as warranted.


N: Social media is increasingly influencing our business decisions. In response to requests from fans on our LEAF Facebook page and Twitter profile, we extended third-party app access to CARWINGS,

Nissans LEAF vehicle telematics service, in order to prevent Windows Phone users from losing access to the service. (Separate Nissan apps are available for Android and iOS users.) Social media response to our advertising, both positive and negative, is considered more and more in terms of where, when and how often to conduct advertising campaigns. When we announce new vehicles, we pay close attention to how fans react to them. Enthusiasm for a concept vehicle, for example, can influence the decision to bring a similar vehicle to market. These kinds of intelligence are incredibly valuable to us, and we are always looking for new ways to gather and understand them.


N: A primary focus for us in social support is to take the data were gathering through the interactions were having with



our customers and funnel it back into the organization for more proactive product and process changes. If there are quality issues, manufacturing and engineering can use social feedback as a leading indicator for an issue that traditionally they may not have become aware of until long after a vehicles release. Social is providing us a wealth of unsolicited and honest/raw information from our shoppers and owners, and were trying to harness that data and make it actionable which is no small feat within a global manufacturing organization.

In the immediate future, we also want to 1) keep producing fun, exciting content that our fans want to see (and to do an even better job of it), 2) answer as many inquiries from fans as we can and do so as quickly as we can, 3) find new and better ways to understand what customers are telling us, and 4) stay on the lookout for new platforms, channels and opportunities where consumers are spending their time.

About Nissan North America

In North America, Nissans operations include

automotive styling, engineering, consumer

and corporate financing, sales and marketing,

distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is

dedicated to improving the environment

under the Nissan Green Program and has been

recognized as an ENERGY STAR Partner of

the Year in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 by the

U.S Environmental Protection Agency. More

information on Nissan in North America and

the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles

can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com

and www.InfinitiUSA.com, or visit the Americas

media sites NissanNews.com and InfinitiNews.

com.



Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants


Brent Leary and Maggie Lang, Senior Director of Guest Marketing for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.

Here is an overview of Kimpton Hotel and Restaurants strategy for social customer service:

OVERALL STRATEGY

What is the size of your social customer service team?

Maggie Lang: One social media manager in the home office oversees a team of eight social media listening agents and a volunteer social media squad consisting

of employee volunteers.


ML: All are part of the social media team, except the social squad (which consists of employees throughout the organization who are passionate about social) In the past, the customer service desk was responsible for social customer service, but we realized that we needed people with very specific social media savvy that would operate directly under the social media manager.


ML: They interact very directly and very hands on. They are part of the same group. However, they also have strong relationships with the operation and our


general managers, which allows them to very quickly escalate issues or forward praise.


ML: Social very quickly became a large customer service channel for us. Were extremely responsive in social, and its a strong priority for us. In addition, its also become our primary engagement channel, since it allows interaction that is real time and relevant, which is very important in the travel industry. If people want to talk about their travel experience as its happening, we need to be there in real time. If they want to shower praise on a hotel or restaurant employee after their dine or stay, we want to enable that as well. Other departments also leverage social to get messages out, but we are mindful of that social is a genuine conversation, not a primary sales channel.

Through which social channels do most inquiries arrive? What proportion of customer inquiries come in through

traditional channels versus social? Has social enabled call/email deflection?

ML: We have seen significant growth in the social channel versus traditional channels like email or the call center. Currently almost a quarter of all incoming social interactions revolve around customer service. The email channel is still most preferred, but as our guests see us responding quickly on social and understand that we highly value this channel, they are increasingly turning to social to interact with us.

Brands can either gain or lose credibility depending not only on the frequency of their responses, but also on the quality of their responses. That is, do responses feel like form letters with a very corporate tone (Thanks for your tweet), or do they feel personal and relevant to the original request? We value personalization and encourage a conversation in social, rather than always deflecting to email or calls. We ask questions and follow up to make sure that issues were addressed or matters resolved. We dont end the conversation with, Someone will get back to you. We dont want that as consumers, and we dont believe our guests want that from us.




ML: Social media is ever changing, so it has been important to us that we stay on top of innovation, trends and new technology. The travel industry isnt always first to adopt new innovative channels, and we wanted to make sure that we got it right, as opposed to being first to market. It wasnt about going after the shiny new thing. We wanted to ensure that we were being genuine and thoughtful wherever we showed up that we had the resources and focus to really be there.

Our industry never shuts down (a hotel operates 24/7, 365 days a year) so we also need to conduct business as usual. Being alert and responsive, while also focusing on innovation is a challenge from a resource perspective. In addition, the travel industry as a whole operates on lean margins, and we have to be extra savvy in securing resources and investment. Measurement is critical for this, both quantitative and qualitative.What challenges have you confronted in implementing your social customer

service strategy? How have you convinced upper management to get on board?

ML: Our senior management has always been extremely supportive of social media and quickly saw the value of real time feedback and engagement. Customer feedback and engagement is really the cornerstone of what we do, and there are no other channels that allow feedback this quickly. We embrace social media from the inside and out by leveraging tools like Yammer internally and Sprinklr externally. Our senior leaders post and interact with their teams on Yammer, so it comes naturally to all of us.

The only challenge weve really had was keeping up with the great innovation that happens in this space. We want to be thoughtful in how we approach new channels, always ensuring that we keep things relevant from a customer experience perspective.


ML: We believe in tracking the depth of interaction (comments, content, likes), not just the breadth (friends/followers).



Recently Ogilvy Social rated us the brand with the most Brand Passion in the world. We were floored with this honor! It validated our belief that reach and transaction rates arent the ultimate goals. Love and passion for our brand are. We track it all but focus specifically on qualitative aspects that we can either improve upon or celebrate.

What can you share about your costs?

ML: We leverage Sprinklr, rated in Forresters latest vendor Wave as a best-in-class tool for social media monitoring, listening and management. It was important to us that we truly invested in the Ferrari here, as opposed to just using free tools.

MOBILE and COMMUNITYWhat is the role of mobile in your social customer service strategy?ML: Mobile is very important, especially in the travel industry. Guests are on their smartphones in our hotels, checking social channels, posting photos, submitting restaurant reviews. We need to be where they want to be. Though mobile may not make sense for all industries, it makes

a lot of sense for us. We admit that we were a little behind in this space, but as a company, we have refocused our efforts around mobile and are now razor focused on innovation. There are many great offerings in the works around this for this year.

How is your community involved?

ML: We dont have a community forum as of yet. Its something that were taking a look at. After a guests travel experience, this becomes valuable.


ML: Social media and customer service are a marriage made in heaven, if done well. We have learned a lot by experimenting: balancing content between proactive marketing and guest generated engagement, voice opportunities, and so on. We learned that response time matters, as does having a unique voice. No corporate brand talk here. We also experimented using different tools and



technologies, and learned valuable lessons about organizing around social. Social is a fairly forgiving space to experiment in, and we always want to make sure that we react to what customers like and want to engage with, as opposed to what we as a marketing organization want to push out. This has become a conversation for us. Its the ability to interact, share laughs and listen long past our guests travel.

Kimpton is a lifestyle brand, and we want to be relevant and interesting even during off travel periods. We want guests to come engage with us in social at any time. On any given day you can find one of our amazing chefs blog about what he found at the farmers market that morning and why rhubarb can be really exciting (yes, really!), read a heartfelt story from a member sharing photos of her pup being treated like royalty when he traveled with her, or perhaps hear our Master Sommelier, Emily, share her favorite holiday wine tips. We like to have fun, and in social especially, we believe that our guests have fun right alongside us. Our goal with social is not as narrow as to create a sale or resolve a customer service issue. Our goal is to deeply connect.

Finally, listening to our guests has been top of mind since Bill Kimpton created Kimpton over 30 year ago. Bill LOVED talking to guests and could often be found in our lobbies pouring wine at wine hour and chatting with guests. To this day, our managers pour wine during our complimentary wine hour and engage in great dialogue with our guests. We are an inherently social brand made up of people who love people. Sometimes the dialogue begins in social, sometimes offline. What matters is that we continue the conversation wherever our guests want to have it.


ML: We firmly believe that technology is a major enabler of innovation. We have invested quite a bit of money in support of that belief this year. Kimpton in 2015 and 2016 will be a very forward thinking brand. Our surveys and awards show us that our operations folks are delivering a stellar experience out in the field.



Now its our job as marketers in the home office to do just as well by delivering tools and innovation that enhance the overall Kimpton experience, and also further the authentic conversations that weve already started in social media. Technology will be the great enabler in years to come. Fortunately, we dont struggle with the CMO/CIO battles that we hear about from so many brands; our CMO and CIO are fully aligned and share a joint vision for that future.

About Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels &

Restaurants is the leading collection of

boutique hotels and restaurants in the United

States and the acknowledged industry pioneer

that first introduced the boutique hotel concept

to America. In 1981, Bill Kimpton founded the

company that today is renowned for making

travelers feel genuinely cared for while away

from home through thoughtful perks and

amenities, distinctive design that tells a story

and inspires a sense of fun at each hotel and a

sincerely personal style of guest service. Out to

help people live full, balanced lives, Kimpton

aims to inspire with touches like yoga mats in

every room, complimentary coffee and tea to

start the day, hosted evening Wine Hour, in-

room fitness programming and complimentary

bike rentals. The award-winning restaurants and

bars are led by talented chefs and bartenders

that offer guests a chance to dine like a local.

Kimpton also leads the hospitality industry in

eco-friendly practices that span all hotels and

restaurants, and is consistently ranked as one

of the top companies in the Market Metrix

Hospitality Index, Upper Upscale Segment, for

Customer Satisfaction. The company is highly-

regarded for its innovative employee culture

and benefits and has been named a Fortune

magazine Best Place to Work four times

since 2009. Kimpton is continuously growing

and currently operates 60 hotels and nearly 70

restaurants, bars and lounges in 26 cities. For

more information, visit www.KimptonHotels.

com and www.KimptonRestaurants.com.



Survey Results AnalysisSECTIon V

1. How many people are employed at your organization?

5000 or more

1001-5000

501-1000

101-500

51-100

50 or less

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

47.9%

9.6%

16.5%

7.6%

7.9%

10.6%

602

121

208

95

99

133


2. What is your role within your organization?

Survey Analysis (contd)

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

11.7%

3.5%

14.7%

29.7%

3.5%

12.6%

3.8%

20.5%

147

44

185

373

44

159

48

258Other (please specify)

Customer service rep

Team lead

Supervisor

Manager level

Director level

VP level

C-Level

59.5% of survey respondents were at the manager level or higher, compared with 63.6% in 2012.

Respondents in the role of team lead made up 12.6% of the overall survey population, up from 7.9% in 2012.

Of the respondents at manager-level or above working at companies with more than 1,000 employees, 40.3% said they have at least 100 employees involved in social service initiatives.


3. Does your organization use social media as a channel to address customer service issues or questions?


74.96% use social media as a customer service channel, compared with 71.16% in 2012, a 5.34% increase.

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

75%

25%

943

315No

Yes



4. How long has your organization used social media tools and technologies to address customer service issues or questions?

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

12.3%

14.4%

32.4%

26.7%

14.2%

96

112

253

208

1114+ years

2-4 years

1-2 years

6-12 months

0-6 months

More companies have been integrating social into customer service for over 4 years (14.23%) than for less than 6 months (12.31%).

In 2013, 40.9% of survey respondents said their companies have been integrating social into customer service objectives for at least 2 years, compared to 33.64% in 2012.

49.44% of respondents from companies with 5,000 or more employees said their organizations have been integrating social into service for at least 2 years, compared with 40.32% in companies with fewer than 50 employees.

55.2% of those who said their organization has seen very positive impact from their social service efforts have been at it for over 2 years, compared with 40.9% for the general survey population.



5. In the last year, how much did your organization invest in social media initiatives to address customer service?

The percentage of those spending less than $50,000 annually on social service initiatives has declined slowly over the past three years: 2011: 79.26% 2012: 77.63% 2013: 75.51%

57.65% of respondents at companies with their own branded community spend less than $50,000, while 14.7% of these companies spend over $250,000 annually.

35.96% of respondents from organizations with over 5,000 employees reported investing less than $50,000, while 28.9% reported spending over $250,000 annually, and 15.73% reported over $500,000 in spending.

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

75.5%

12.6%

6.0%

2.7%

3.2%

589

98

47

21

25Over $500K

$250K - $500K

$100K - $250K

$50K - $100K

Less than $50K



6. What percentage of customer service issues/requests are being handled via online social media and social networks (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, online Communities, Blogs, etc)?

In 2013, 35% of respondents said less than 5% of their customer service interactions took place over social channels, down from 56.72% in 2011.

21.8% of respondents said their company is handling greater than 20% of their service interactions over social channels, up from 11.95% in 2011.

27.85% of those working at companies with fewer than 50 employees are handling over 20% of their service interactions via social, compared with 13.16% of those working at companies with over 1,000 employees

28.81% of respondents who said their organization is able to respond to customer inquiries in under 60 minutes reported handling greater than 25% of their service inquiries via social, roughly the same percentage as in 2012 (28.15%).

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

35.0%

18.8%

13.8%

10.5%

7.2%

14.6%

273

147

108

82

56

114Over 25%

21-25%

16-20%

11-15%

6-10%

0-5%



7. Which social media channels does your company use for customer service (select all that apply)?

This was the first year we included options for YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+, and all of them reached at least the 25% usage mark.

31% of those choosing other cited Instagram as an engagement channel approximately 3% of the overall respondents.

Year-over-year, the numbers for Facebook and Twitter rose slightly.

ResponsePercent

ResponseCount

90.9%

83.6%

14.3%

8.2%

13.2%

37.0%

50.9%

25.1%

36.9%

10.4%

680

625

107

61

99

277

381

188

276

78Other (please specify)

Google+

Pinterest

LinkedIn

YouTube

Branded online community

Industry-specific network

Company-owned social network

Twitter

Facebook



8. Which social media channel do customers most often use to engage with you for servic

the social customer engagement index 2014

Business