Finding Your Social Voice – Tips from Startek’s Social Media Expert

In today’s digital, social and interactive world, consumers want access to companies on their own terms. While phone and web channels remain vital to cus­tomer service, consumers are increasingly seeking assistance through social communi­ties. Whether adding a compliment to a brand’s Facebook wall, tweeting about a negative customer experience, or posting a customer service question through a user forum — the social consumer now controls the conversation.

But marketers aren’t completely powerless. With careful planning and a little help from the experts, brands can find their voice while reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction and sales.

Recently, we sat down with Roger Huff, our leading expert on social media, to learn more about Startek’s plans to improve the future of social care. He also shares his predictions and social trends to watch for in 2019.

What is your role at Startek and how long have you been with the company?

I am Startek’s Director of Social Media and Digital Engagement. I have been with the company for over 10 years and have led social media strategy for 7 of those years. My role includes consulting with leading brands to design and deliver world-class social support.

Recently, Startek merged with Aegis to create a global leader in customer experience management. How are Startek and Aegis combining efforts to improve social care?

The Startek and Aegis merger has unlocked enormous opportunities across all areas of the business that neither company could achieve alone, including in social care where both brands have complementary strengths. Aegis brings to the relationship an industry leading omnichannel support tool in the AegisLISASM platform, which can pull in customer data not just from legacy channels like phone and email but also across social media channels, chatbots, blogs, forums, mobile apps, and messenger apps to create a unified view of the customer.

Aegis also has extensive experience building and implementing chatbots for customer support. These chatbots are built to support customer communication across all channels, including social media and digital engagement. Today, Aegis utilizes these capabilities to support some of the world’s largest and most prestigious brands that are on the cutting edge of digital customer support and engagement.

Similarly, Startek brings to the relationship industry leading expertise in social media strategy design and execution. This includes a social media engagement lab with a hub and spoke support model. The lab serves as the hub of expertise to support all satellite spokes implemented across the globe. Startek executes social media support for dozens of brands worldwide and has built digital reputation management and community management capabilities that are most often found at digital agencies rather than BPO providers. Through this expertise, Startek supports tens of thousands of brand-owned retail locations and hundreds of thousands of online products while monitoring millions of brands mentions and brand-aligned topics every year for our clients.

The complementary digital expertise of Startek and Aegis brings together industry leading digital tools, proven AI and chatbot capabilities, digital agency capabilities, and complex global digital support capabilities to create a unified offering for our current and future clients not before seen in this industry.

Do you think social media has become the most important customer service platform across industries? If so, why.

Social media has quickly become the preferred method of customer service engagement for many consumers who have adopted social media as a staple in their daily lives. Brands previously believed they were reaching a specific demographic on social media, but it has become a way to reach consumers from all demographics and customer profiles. Social media is also especially important for customer service because many times it is a last resort of sorts. Customers have called, emailed, and even chatted on native brand websites with customer service specialists.

When they feel they have not received sufficient help, they often turn to social media to communicate their frustrations. Social media customer care gives brands a unique opportunity to reach out in those times of frustration and save customers from potential brand defection and churn – and in many cases, creating brand advocates in the process.

In your opinion, what are some social trends to watch for in 2019?

In 2019, the largest social trend to watch for will be digital customer engagement volume growth. According to eMarketer, Facebook ad revenue in the U.S. is expected to outpace total print ad spending by 2019. With larger-than-ever portions of marketing budget being focused on growing and engaging customers on social media, the by-product of those strategies will be larger-than-ever digital audiences to engage with on those platforms.

I believe we will see brand marketing teams create stronger partnerships with digital customer care teams, both internally and externally. Scaling internal marketing resources to handle customer care concerns can be very expensive. Brands will look for ways to handle growing amounts of digital customer engagement while looking for ways to retain brand voice in those engagements. Companies like Startek and Aegis who have this expertise will be poised to grow relationships with brands that are focused on digital customer engagement, acquisition, and growth.

If your social media strategy needs a facelift, visit our contact us page to learn how Startek and Aegis can help.

This blog post was reproduced with the permission of Startek. you can visit them at http://www.startek.com

Original Article: http://www.startek.com/news/finding-social-voice-tips-from-social-media-expert