Carriers have recognized social media as a marketing channel for years, but now software companies are helping them connect billing systems and customer care centers with social media as well.
“Many consumers are going to social media to seek care, to seek feedback or to complain … about the experience they’re having with their service provider.” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president for product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. The Amdocs response is a customer care solution that integrates the individual customer’s id on social media with the OSS/BSS system. This allows the carrier to recognize the person in either context.
Canada’s Redknee is also at the forefront of integrating social media with customer care and billing. Last year the company acquired NSN’s BSS assets, which included a base of service provider customers who were very active on social media.
“We felt that a lot of the new segments in our customer footprint really look for Facebook as being a primary gateway for them to consume and educate themselves about offers that weren’t through the self-care portals, but rather through Facebook,” said Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO of Redknee.
Skoczkowski described the solution Redknee now offers carriers. “Number one, customers can do everything they can do with interaction through their service provider through Facebook. Number two, they can get real-time offers which become available through the device, like the smartphone, through SMS, or through the iPad, but when you subscribe to them you can share it on your wall on Facebook, so that your colleagues, your friends, with one click can subscribe to the same promotion. That is a very powerful viral effect.”
Marketing teams can leverage this “closed feedback” loop to fine tune their programs quickly, Skoczkowski said. Redknee is also leveraging its longstanding relationship with Microsoft to help carriers use Microsoft’s CRM platform to drive inputs for Twitter and Facebook.
Platforms that integrate customer care, billing and social media are sure to find new markets in the developing world, where social media is the first gateway to the Internet for many people. Facebook’s recent purchase of Pryte highlights the role that social media will play in the developing world’d move to mobility. The startup sees an opportunity to sell data on a one-off basis to consumers who want to purchase just enough data to access Facebook for an hour or two.
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