Social proof is a big thing these days. It allows potential customers to see how you interact with your current customers, and what your customers think of you based on what they say about your products or services. In the information age it’s become extremely easy to obtain social proof, and online communities are one place people can go to see social proof in action. Integrating social media into your contact center’s customer service offerings is one way to easily start your own online community.

Not only do online communities increase social proof for your business, but they also help strengthen your customer experience by acting like an extension of your call center, allowing customers to connect in other ways with your business, providing employees with a place to share ideas, and creating customer-to-customer connections. Let’s examine each of these in a little more detail.

Call Center Extension

Picking up the phone is no longer the only way to reach a contact center. Some might argue that social media and other digital tools will make traditional contact centers obsolete if they choose not to incorporate those tools into their business. By creating an online community through the use of social media, you now have another way for customers to reach you. The online community acts like an extension of your call center, where customers can start or continue conversations with your contact center agents. Many people nowadays prefer communicating online to having a conversation on the phone where they may potentially spend some time waiting on hold.

Another Place to Connect

An online community can provide a place for customers to connect with you and your business. Maybe they don’t have a specific issue that they would normally call the contact center for, but they just have a quick question about your product or service they can post online. In this way, you can provide more value to your customers by sharing helpful information about your products and services, like sharing a link to an article, that might not be shared as easily over the phone.

Customer Connections

Online communities allow customers to connect with each other as well. Here’s where you get into the meat and potatoes of social proof. As your community grows, you will see customers start to answer other customers’ questions and provide honest feedback about your products and services. You can jump into the conversation or simply monitor what customers are saying about you - then use the information to improve your customer experience.

Employee Think Tank

Online communities aren’t just for interacting with customers. Creating an exclusive online community for your employees will help them provide a better experience for your customers by allowing them to share ideas for dealing with certain customer complaints or even quickly ask questions while they are on a call with a customer. Providing a place where employees can share ideas is a valuable way to reduce employee turnover too.

KOVA provides a number of workforce enterprise optimization solutions that can help you improve the customer experience in your contact center. Contact us today to learn more.