subject: Call Center: Social Media Strikes Back! [print this page] Call Center: Social Media Strikes Back! Call Center: Social Media Strikes Back!
Call center experts will tell you that this was coming. Many BPO firms were getting into social media marketing, hoping to up the ante on their lead generation process. They sent out random friend requests on Facebook, followed anyone they could on Twitter and sent out arbitrary links on MySpace, all in the name of social media marketing. The end result was that the profile accounts kept getting blocked or reported for spamming. The ones who were not so aggressive couldn't bite off much meat either. The people on their pages collected dust. The links that they pushed to their friends were largely ignored or just not opened. Messages sent as bulk mails bit the dust, too. Finally, the CFO decided enough resources have been wasted, let's just stop social media marketing!
The question then stands: is social media marketing really a myth? The answer is an emphatic no! Call center agents who are allotted the projects dealing with social media need to look beyond the tenets of traditional marketing. A telemarketing agent will need training to accommodate the needs of social media marketing. Understanding the basic concept of social media is most essential for the BPO managers. A simple question to answer would be: do you think your outbound call center guy can get a lead when he calls up someone when he's enjoying a game? For all practical purposes, the answer is in the negative. Similarly, you cannot expect a person to click on your link if you just push it across the table on Facebook.
People log in on social media to enjoy themselves. They like to hang around with their gang of friends and do cool stuff. At best, the only useful thing they do is build professional contacts or keep in touch with high school/grad friends. They will never be online to entertain strange call center agents to push to them marketing links, willing them to click. They would also ignore messages on their profile inbox. BPO agents have to understand that sending out a Send to All' message may get your word across, but only in the dumb way a mass mailing initiative would. Social media is personal and intimate. Before you begin to make marketing moves, you must get into the comfort zone of your friends/followers. They will click on your link only when they feel that you are not a marketer. You have to achieve that trust first.
It is not rocket science of the call center agents! They are well-versed in how to win the trust of a caller and convince the person. It's just that over here, you have to convince the person through the written word. But the key for the BPO agent here is patience. It's only by a patient approach can you hit the nail on the head. Initial returns for the call center services firm may not be huge. But that will pass over like a rough patch. Planners need to understand this as well and keep eyes on the long-term plans.
