How Comms and Customer Service teamed up to talk the
social language
Gritter?
In the Customer Service Centre… Nearly 10,000 calls received in December 2010, usually a quieter month due to XmasThe highest rate of e-mails sent to the team
ever (822)Double the average abandoned rate (almost quadruple that to January or February 2011)
We officially hated this Winter.
Meanwhile, over in the Communications Team…
Highways-related calls account for 30% of all
received
Print media is awash with questions and criticisms
“Were the gritters even out last night?...”Lincolnshire Echo reader, 22/11/10
“…I would like to know their grit bin policy…
Louth Target letters, 29/10/10
“…with many residents
asking if council gritters had
been caught on the hop…
Spalding Guardian,
01/02/11
So how could this be better-managed and the public better-informed?
In an alternate dimension somewhere…
Engineers are proactively treating the prioritised network with 20gms pre-wet, reverting to 20gms dry where brine is unavailable, as sanctioned at HTMG. L O L.
REPLY FROM USER @Karl46
What does all that mean? R U gonna bother gritting today? My road’s NEVER done, useless.
Why don’t you shut the fu
The better way…
The result in the CSC…Within the first month we saw an immediate reduction in calls received and abandoned
By the end of the first full season we had seen an average abandoned rate reduction of 33%
+ a reduction in calls received from the bad winter in 2010/11. 11,000 fewer calls, a 20% reduction. Of course this won’t all be down to Twitter but there’s no doubt it played a large role.
Staff morale increased and staff didn’t start panicking when snow was predicted.
Positive comments could be fed immediately into the internet by retweeting.
We could put a human face on an invisible service and ensure people knew we were out there doing what they often said we weren’t…
Thanks for all you do gritting our icy roads, I’ve arrived safe & sound, thanks guys!
Stay safe out there on the roads, gritting teams.
Shout-out to the LincolnshireCC Twitter team, v helpful, they GET Twitter!
You know me so well! Thanks for looking into it for me.
January 2013140 positive comments of thanks and praise (and 26 negatives - to respond to and discuss live)
Plus…. CREATIVITY!
What other job allows you to send pictures of AT-ATs from Star Wars from a Corporate feed in an attempt to gain a positive response from people usually angry with a perceived lack of service?
@LincolnshireCC: “Our cameras show Lincs drivers today must beware black ice, frozen snow and an Imperial assault on the rebel base."
497 Re-tweets…
worldwide.
Mentions in print media
Loads of new followers
According to an NM Incite report, nearly three-quarters of customers would recommend a brand that gives them a ‘quick and
effective’ response on social media.
Given this massive pay-off, brands are clamouring to get their social customer care in order – a Mashable post revealed that
80% of companies plan to use social media for customer service.
The two big upsides to this approach are that conversations (and complaints) are away from public
channels, and queries can be grouped by subject, making it much easier for a customer service rep to
address them in one go.