[24]7 strongly believes that companies can leverage the power of social media and convert conversations into dollars without placing the onus on the customer or the enterprise. With that in mind, the company has launched [24]7 Social, an application suite that uses predictive technology and real-time decisioning to let consumers share their customer service experiences.
With social sharing, consumers share their reviews about products or services and their customer experience on social media channels such as Twitter or Facebook. According to [24]7 research, 15 percent of online shoppers “share” their purchases, 40 percent read product and brand postings by friends, and 5 percent click through and purchase.
“The way people communicate has changed a lot, and [enterprises need to] understand how vital social media [is], because it’s going to evolve, and it’s not going to go away,” says Daniel Hong, senior director, product marketing strategy, at [24]7. “[24]7 Social takes social sharing across channels, where sharing can be easily done on the Web or other enterprise channel.”
[24]7 Social features four apps, including purchase sharing, where customers share what they’ve bought after checkout has been completed. Another app, product sharing, lets users share products while browsing product pages, which can lead to increased awareness. Promotion sharing lets customers share offers from an enterprise Web site, which may lead to incremental sales. The experience sharing app enables consumers to share their experience after they have completed a successful customer service interaction, which could boost brand loyalty.
"We’re providing a level of communication for social sharing that enables each interaction with the customer to be intelligent and to target aspiring brand advocates,” Hong says. “The experience is unique and allows the enterprise to differentiate by triggering customized interactions and tailored incentives. We make social sharing more intelligent.”
Hong discussed how [24]7 Social Sharing works. He said that [in most transactions,] when consumers share, they typically go to a Web site or a Web-enabled device. After making a purchase, consumers are given the opportunity to share, as on sites such as Amazon, for example. “[24]7 Social Sharing takes that sharing across other channels,” Hong explains.
For example, if a consumer has a phone call with an airline and the experience was good, using the software, the agent may discover, for example, that the consumer is very vocal on Twitter, and surmise that there is a high likelihood that consumer will share what happened.
“[24]7 Social has a data model that takes into account the social influence of the customer, the propensity to share to social, and the customer behavior and history,” Hong explains. “The agent can ask the consumer if [he or she] would like to share [the] experience. If [the caller] says yes, the agent can send a text message with a link. The caller opens that up and clicks on it and will be able to share that in a Tweet without having had to leave the phone channel.”
Brand advocates can also share their purchase experience, for example, in a Web chat. The chat agent can ask if the customer wants to share his or her experience and give an incentive, such as 5 percent off purchase, and push a widget from the chat window with the sharing offer.
“You are engaging customers at the right time,” Hong says. “Social sharing becomes a natural extension of the customer experience. Prediction is used to target the right customers with the propensity to share and at the time when they want to share.”