Social media customer experience management: The next big trend?
Posted by Dan Wilson in Customer experience, Social CRM on Fri, 19/08/2011 - 01:09
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Dan Wilson of Medallia, Inc., looks at the emergence of social media CEM - what it means and why we should be paying attention.
Business owners are increasingly interested in the effect of social media on their businesses. Whether they’re concerned or excited, they know social media is changing the game.
Before the advent of review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, business unit managers were much more in control of their properties’ images and reputations. Now, a growing number of adults are using these sites to aid in decisions about where to eat, shop, or stay. For example, according to Forrester’s "North American Technographics Online Survey", roughly 78 million individuals now regularly participate in travel-specific social media.
And social media reviews are skyrocketing, according to published media:
- TripAdvisor alone contains 40 million reviews, double its total two years ago. Yelp, which was founded in 2005, hit 1 million reviews in mid-2007 and passed 10 million in March 2010 despite its policy restricting reviews to site members only.
- Forrester estimates that roughly 65 million US online adults engage in 'critic' behaviour, posting ratings, reviews and other critiques on the social web at least once a month.
- Customer reviews have been bundled into the user experience of most online storefronts. Reviews are front and center on hospitality booking sites such as Expedia.com, just as they are on Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and the online Apple Store.
- Emerging location-based applications such as Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Gowalla are integrating customer reviews into their offerings.
That means that quite a few potential customers are won over by positive reviews or lost forever by negative ones. Since these reviews now have a direct effect on revenue at a particular location or branch, business managers often consider these comments an especially urgent form of customer feedback.
Review sites are also useful to business owners because they contain a wealth of data about competitors. Managers can read reviews regarding competitors in the area, an activity somewhat akin to leafing through their competitors' customer surveys. For the hospitality industry, TripAdvisor reviews are particularly detailed; they contain specific scores for 'Value', 'Rooms', 'Location', 'Cleanliness', 'Service', and 'Sleep Quality'.
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