Social media offers the insights that companies need to improve their customer experience and create stronger, more profitable relationships. But it takes a smart approach to manage the volume and complexity of the available data, giving it a clear content-based focus and making it really useful for customer experience management.
TNS has developed an effective new way to do this. We only analyse social verbatims that relate directly to customer experience. We then apply proven concepts from traditional customer research and merge social media insights with data from customer survey research.
The result is much deeper insight into how people feel about particular products or services and which areas are most in need of improvement. It facilitates the creation of service excellence in the areas that matter most.
We applied this approach to British Airways mentions on Twitter over a three-month period – analyzing a total volume of over 130,000 tweets. By focusing on topics related to customer journeys, particular customer segments and target groups, competition and service processes, the data was reduced by 63% to only relevant customer experience related mentions.
From traditional customer research we applied the customer journey thinking as a framework to structure and categorise the social feedback. The volume of mentions for each step of the journey was measured, along with the sentiment expressed – classifying it as positive, negative or neutral.
In the British Airways example, the customer journey we focused on was a typical flight, beginning with a search for information and booking, continuing with check-in and boarding, then ending at the destination’s baggage reclaim.
This analysis showed that the steps of the customer journey differed significantly in terms of the volume and extent to which they were discussed in social networks. Some, like the baggage drop-off, were mentioned infrequently in a mostly neutral tone, and others, like delayed flights, led to lots of negative buzz. Overall the crew received the highest number of positive comments.
The insights from customer research hold the key to providing meaning to social media information when it comes to the strength of customer relationships. We conducted a traditional survey in parallel to the social media analysis using TRI*M, our validated approach to customer relationship assessment. We interviewed 2,000 BA travellers covering topics such as customer loyalty, customer journey, competition and social media as a service channel. Thus, we identified how important each step in the journey was to customers and measured the threat or gain for relationships if service levels changed in each area. It gave clear insight, enabling us to draw a direct link between the relevant topics on social media and their impact on the customer experience.
The survey revealed that most of the buzz was not relevant to building customer relationships. While punctuality was one of the major factors causing negative buzz, it was not a major driver of customer loyalty. Waiting in a departure lounge with free Wi-Fi and ready access to social networks disproportionally affected the volume of mentions.
Our new process, however, drilled deeper into the social conversations and we discovered three areas of improvement: (i) information about delays, (ii) flexibility in dealing with missed flights and (iii) compensation. Including these measures in the survey, we found that they had tremendous gain potential for the overall customer relationship and the customers’ likelihood to recommend the company to others. Passengers with good experiences in these areas were four times (information), five times (compensation), or even six times (flexibility) more likely to recommend British Airways.
Our new approach has a long-term positive influence on each customer survey carried out thereafter. Issues that are discussed frequently on social networks can be included in the questionnaires. It means future quantitative surveys can be radically slimmed down, containing only pertinent questions that are 100% relevant.
Company resources are limited and actions need to be focused. Therefore, it is vital to know where to invest – what matters most to create profitable customer relationships.
Data integration becomes key to driving actions. That is why we believe fusing the authentic voice of the customer from social media with the robust, strategic direction of survey data provides the perfect match to inform successful customer strategies.
It identifies real threats and opportunities, highlights where problems occur, informs the right actions to solve them and finally measures the impact of the solution. The result is better customer experiences, stronger brand loyalty and increased ROI.
Download the PDF file:
http://www.tns-global.com.tw/MailSources/InfoPulse/2015/08/01_Social_Marketing.pdf