Building a Rockstar Social Customer Service TeamHow to Hire, Train and Measure

Setting the baseline

So social customer service agents:

o must write wello be empathetic and resiliento have a high degree of affinity for

the brand and customer service

More people are tweeting at and messaging companies than ever before

Most companies base social care in the contact center

o CS agents are trained to handle a variety of customer requests and resolve issues

o Social care has to align with other contact center channels with regards to metrics and process

o Most customer information and records are housed in the contact center

Where do you find social customer care agents?

The best place to look for good candidates is internallyo Internal agents should have mastered

product and process knowledge before they move to handling care on social

o If hiring an external candidate based on their experience, focus part of your interview on brand passion and culture

Interview tips and tricks

01 Give a written test to examine tweet & paragraph response style Get to know your candidate’s communication skills by getting snapshots of their writing sample on the spot.

02 Test for good judgement Can the candidate merge social cues with company policy when a customer makes a special request?

03 Look for clear thinking Can the candidate respond to unconventional events with creative and positive thinking?

Skills and characteristics

01 Look for tenured agents Start with tenured agents who already know your rules and policies for customer care.

02 Find committed customer fans Build a dedicated and company loving team who is ready to make deliberate and immediate impact on the customer experience.

03 Seek out good decision makersMake sure your team includes people who can exercise empathy and patience and have a keen awareness of problem solving.

Customer service agent pay today

Average annual salary for an entry-level agent

$28,000 or $13.50/hour

Top agents can earn in excess of

$41,000+ or $20/hourSOURCE: ICMI Report. (2015). Agent Apathy: The Root Cause of Poor Customer Service

Pay varies across industry and region

Social agents aren’t always paid more than other agents

Training is one of the biggest challenges faced by social care teams

Create a clear guide for social policies

01 Stay in the social channelIf a customer engages with you on a social channel, continue the conversation there.

02 Keep it consistent Follow policies and deliver clear service. If you make an exception, do so on all channels.

03 Personalize the care Avoid the “we”. Even though social care is a public reflection of the brand as a whole, agents can personalize the experience by engaging in the “I”.

04 Establish a single source of knowledgeEstablish a shared resource or knowledge base with reference information that agents can access quickly.

Continually coach the team to success

01 Sharing and reviewing personal experiences and role playHave teams discuss personal customer service experiences and what frustrated them.

02 Engaging in group quality assurance sessionsReview old, challenging customer posts in group sessions to establish best practices.

03 Setting team goalsMotivate your team by setting individual and team goals.

Continually coach the team to success

04 Leveraging a built-in knowledge baseEnable teams to easily find and access the right answers and resources with a built in knowledge base.

05 Having open internal communication channelsRemind agents to reach out to one another via chat to ask questions and get advice on how to address specific issues.

06 Rewarding and praising good workLook for and recognize improvements in agent performance.

What has the most positive impact on agent success?Agent performance is directly dependent on having the right tools, incentives and leadership in place to support agents.

SOURCE: ICMI Report. (2015). Agent Apathy: The Root Cause of Poor Customer Service

Focus on the right objectives

01 Outgoing messagesSpecifically, how many inquiries are being assigned to an agent and how are they being responded to by the agent?

02 Response times How long does it take, on average, to respond to an inquiry?

03 Contacts helped How many contacts is the agent helping during their shift?

04 Resolution times What are the handling and resolution times?

05 Customer satisfaction Is the customer satisfied with the experience?

Key Takeaways

Want to learn more? Watch the webinar here.