QATC Survey Results
This article details the results of the most recent QATC quarterly survey on critical quality assurance and training topics. About 75 call center professionals representing a wide variety of industries provided insight regarding social media.
Participant Profile
Twenty-four percent of the participants are from call center operations with 101-200 agents, followed by 24% with over 500 agents, and 22% with 50-100 agents. Twelve percent have less than 50 agents while 10% have 301-400 agents. The majority of the call center operations represented in this survey are in the utility, financial, and telecommunications industries.
Social Media Channels Used
Facebook and Twitter are the top two social media channels used by the survey respondents, followed by LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogs. Few are using Trip Advisor, Flickr, foursquare, and no one reported using Tumblr.
Monitoring of Social Media Channels
Over half (62%) monitor all the social media channels that are used by the organization.
Method of Monitoring Social Media
Fifty-three percent are monitoring social media manually, while 27% are using a software program. When asked which software is used, no software was mentioned more than once, but included engage 121, HootSuite, Social Dynamyx, and Radian6, as well as some programs that were developed in-house.
Who Responds to Social Media
When asked who in the organization responds to social media contacts, the top two responses are the marketing team and a special group of contact center agents. The respondents who answered with Other noted the following who respond to social media: correspondence group, property representatives, the customer resolution department, and corporate communications. Senior management responds for a few companies.
Guidelines for Responding to Social Media Contacts
Three-quarters of the survey participants (75%) have guidelines for responding to social media contacts.
Respond to Which Contacts
The most participants respond to all social media contacts, followed by complaints, inquiries, and compliments.
Have Response Time Goal for Social Media Contacts
Sixty-five percent of the survey respondents have a response time goal for social media contacts.
Response Time Goal
Almost half (45%) of the participants have a response time goal of more than 24 hours for social media contacts. Twenty-two percent have a goal of 2-4 hours, 15% have a goal of 9-12 hours, and 10% have a goal of 13-23 hours.
Objective for Social Media Program
Almost three-quarters of the respondents (71%) have an objective for the social media program in the organization.
Conclusion
This survey provides insight into social media, which is a fairly new phenomenon. Facebook and Twitter are the most used channels, which is not surprising. However, many programs are still being developed, and most of the information here is being captured manually. It is also interesting that the top two groups that respond to social media are the marketing team and a select group of call center agents. And it is good to see that many companies already have guidelines for social
media, as well as an objective for the social media program.
Even if a company does not monitor and respond to customers in these channels, it does not keep the public from posting its compliments and concerns for all to see. This is a different way of communicating that shifts the process from one-to one communication to one-to-many. When a response is posted on a social media site that can be seen by any logged into the site, the importance of the clarity, accuracy, timeliness, and tone of the response increases and the impact of both excellence and failure will be exaggerated.
We hope you will complete the Fall survey, which will be available online soon.