What a Social Support Solution Can Do For Your Brand

July 21, 2011

Today’s Speakers

Joe CothrelChief Community OfficerLithium @cothrel

Michelle Kostya Social Support Program ManagerResearch in Motion@michellekostya

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What is Social Support?

Social support is the use of social channels—forums, blogs, social networks, and other social media—to supplement or replace traditional customer service and support channels.

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Web Site

Ratings & Reviews

Forums

Blogs

Ideation

KnowledgeBase

Q&A

Forums

Blogs

and more

and more

The Social Support Ecosystem

95% peer/ 5%

direct

5% peer/ 95%

direct

50% peer/ 50%

direct

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Why Social Support?

• Because customers demand it.• Because it saves money.• Because it increases customer satisfaction

and loyalty.• Because we gain insight.• Because it builds a positive brand image.

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BlackBerry Connecting with Customers Online For

Support

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First, a short history

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The Old WayMarketing and Customer Service existed as silos

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The Old WayCustomer Service 1.0

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The Old WayMarketing 1.0

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But, today we have

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Today users rely on social media for research on brand support …

Source: Society for New Communications

91%Users say they use some sort

of social media at least sometimes to research

customer service experiences

85%Ranking of how valuable blogs and

discussion forums are as sources of information on a brand’s customer

care experiences

63%Ranking of how valuable social media sites are as sources of information on a brand’s customer care experiences

47%Share positive brand

experiences online

40%Have criticized a brand on a blog or social network

86%Of Millennials will share their brand preference online

Source: StrategyOne/Edelman Survey

…And share experiences

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“Customer service should not be viewed as a cost but as a powerful marketing tool”

Source: Zappos

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Customers don’t care what department you are from

Social media diminishes our differences

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While all this is happening…

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Our customers were changing

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96% of Millennials have joined a social

network.*

*Source: Customer Experience for the Millennial Generation

<1%

25%

of Millennials call customer service when seeking support on a product issue.**

of respondents who complain via Facebook or Twitter expect a reply within 60 minutes.***

**Source: StrategyOne/Edelman Survey***Source: Lightspeed Research

They were reaching out in different ways

These customers were talking about BlackBerry

On Facebook

On Twitter

On Forums

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So what did we do?

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Social media can be scary

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We took baby steps

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We identified our objectives

• Empower our BlackBerry brand evangelists to support each other

• Provide users with self-service options• Learn from customers by gathering and listening

to feedback in online communities• Help consumers learn to use their BlackBerry

and become better users

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BlackBerry Support Community

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• People who love your brand• Your everyday fans and customers• They are vocal, passionate and always give

your brand praise• They interact with your content (share,

comment, like, etc.)• They willingly share reviews and content

with their social circle• They have emotional equity in your brand

We identified our advocates

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Then we ran a pilot

CommunityCommunity Twitter Twitter

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• Staffing• Social media guidelines• Processes• Communication

First Steps

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• Customer service team has “connectors” for full-time, comprehensive monitoring and engagement

• Online monitoring and engagement comprise 100% of job duties of connectors

• Community Managers engage daily with members

“This is not about marketing. This is about relationships”

We hired dedicated staff

We set the stage

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And, worked with our partners

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Always measuring our success

• Net Promoter Score• Engagement – Retweets and @replies• Real-time insight leading to action• Positive tweets & thanks

@BlackBerryHelp You guys are the most useful follow on

Twitter! Thanks, luv u more than my wife...

Really @

@BlackBerryHelp You guys are the most useful follow on

Twitter! Thanks, luv u more than my wife...

Really @#lithcast

Why Net Promoter Score?

• Expanded reach onsocial networks

• Refined process and guidelines• Developed shareable

content: blogs, videos

After the pilot

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We learned a lot along the way

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Be wherever they are.

Building a community is a conversation

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Find ways to delight your fans

• Pilot first • Create guidelines• Build process as you go but recognize

opportunities for preparedness• Build partnerships and promote internally

& externally• Be prepared to be wildly successful !• Don’t lose sight of what you are there to

do!

In addition…

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Good customer service means:

• Customers are more willing to choose your brand over lower prices

• They are more likely to make another purchase

• They will advocate on your behalf

Why does this matter?

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And the results?

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460,000+followers on

@BlackBerryHelp

3 Community

Managers

18full-time

dedicated employees

340,000+Support

community members

145,000+followers on

@AyudaBlackBerry

2Industry awards

Shorty and Lithy

By the numbers

3800+followers on

@BlackBerryBantu

Get Help….

@BlackBerryHelp

Supportforums.BlackBerry.com

Helpblog.BlackBerry.com

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About Lithium

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The Lithium Social Customer Suite helps great companies turn social customer passion into marketing, product development, and customer service assets.

The Lithium Social Customer Suite offers complete social monitoring, a comprehensive community platform, and actionable analytics across millions of blogs, forums, and social networking sites.

For market leaders such as Best Buy, AT&T, Research In Motion Limited (RIM), Univision, and PayPal, Lithium is the leading provider of social customer solutions that deliver real business results.

www.lithium.com.

About Lithium

www.lithium.com.

DeepEngagement

Great experiences for your most passionate contributors

—your superfans.

Social Science

Rich data for analysis, benchmarking, and

optimizing your social investments.

Driving real business outcomes.

Social Success

About Lithium

www.lithium.com.

Lithium is Number 1 in:• Current offering• Features• Strategy• Clients

November 2010 “The Forrester Wave™: Community Platforms, Q4 2010”

Resources

www.lithium.com.

November 2010 “The Forrester Wave™: Community Platforms, Q4 2010”

• Lithium at a Glance• Community Platform• Social Media Monitoring• Customer Intelligence Center• LevelUp for Facebook