Who to Follow on Twitter Before Dreamforce

Editors note: This article was originally posted on NewVoiceMedia

Dreamforce is now just a month away, so you’re probably particularly keen to be connected with all the best influencers and insiders on Twitter, to make sure you get the most out of your experience.

With so much content available and 130,000 attendees anticipated, which tweeters are most worthy of a follow? Here are our 50 recommendations for a rounded timeline. 

 
1.     @ValaAfshar Vala Afshar

2.      @JesseAltman Jesse Altman

3.      @LAAF Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

4.      @pmarca Marc Andreessen

5.      @KevinBaldacci Kevin Baldacci

6.      @Benioff Marc Benioff

7.      @JoshBirk Josh Birk

8.      @Amber9904 Amber Boaz

9.      @ReidCarlberg Reid Carlberg

10.  @DCarroll Dave Carroll

11.  @PeterCoffee Peter Coffee

12.  @DanDarcy Dan Darcy

13.  @Dreamforce

14.  @EricDresh Eric Dreshfield

15.  @Cloud_CEO Jonathan Gale

16.  @MikeGerholdt Mike Gerholdt

17.  @GordonEvans Gordon Evans

18.  @GeraldineGray Geraldine Gray

19.  @HammNick Nick Hamm

20.  @ParkerHarris Parker Harris

21.  @SeanBHawkins Sean Hawkins

22.  @ReidHoffman Reid Hoffman

23.  @GeorgeHuSF George Hu

24.  @Hyken Shep Hyken

25.  @CharlieIsaacs Charlie Isaacs

26.  @ZacharyJeans Zachary Jeans

27.  @PeterKnolle Peter Knolle

28.  @lazerow Michael Lazerow

29.  @BrentLeary Brent Leary

30.  @LeBrun Marcel LeBrun

31.  @CohanLeon Cohan Leon Daley

32.  @MLevchin Max Levchin

33.  @FlavMartins Flavio Martins

34.  @Patterson_sarah Sarah Patterson

35.  @Tom_Peters Tom Peters

36.  @DarthGarry Garry Polmateer

37.  @LpRobins Larry Robinson

38.  @salesforce

39.  @DSchach David Schach

40.  @rockchick322004 Mary Scotton

41.  @JimSinai Jim Sinai

42.  @StealeyReed Sarah Stealey Reed

43.  @Jeremys Jeremy Stoppelman

44.  @TooSaaSy TooSaaSy

45.  @DavidBThomas David Thomas

46.  @EckhartTolle Eckhart Tolle

47.  @Aunitt Ashley Unitt

48.  @StevenVBe Steven Van Belleghem

49.  @SFDCphil Phil Walton

50.  @MarkeWoollen Mark Woollen

You’ll find this collection of Dreamforce thought leaders saved as a Twitter list, where you can also check out their bios. Subscribe to it here. You can also visit NewVoiceMedia’s Dreamforce microsite for more tips and info.

During Dreamforce, use the #DF14 hashtag to uncover plenty of other experts throughout the week.

Achieving Exceptional Social Media Support

Let’s face it-- social media is more than an emerging channel, it is here! According to a recent survey, nearly one in three social media users prefer to reach out to a brand for customer service through a social channel compared to the phone. And to further illustrate the power of social, an overwhelming number of customers will recommend a brand to their friends if they have a positive experience via social media.
 
Plan for Success
What does this mean for the contact center? Simply stated, we must deliver exceptional social media support. The foundation begins with solid planning. Before starting your program, determine your mission. What do you hope to accomplish via social media support? Once that question is answered, have a clear strategy!

I would caution overextending yourself. You may not need to be everywhere on social media. What I found worked best is being where the customer is. Having a presence for the sake of being on social is not ideal. If no traffic exists, the impression is that you are not engaging your customers. Research where your customers are or where you company is most frequently mentioned.


Hire the Right Agent
Despite our best efforts to skill agents across multiple channels, social media support is not for everyone. Because of the complexity of issues that may arise, as well as the need to rely on and get input from other departments, the ideal candidates should be well spoken and have a good rapport with other departments. My colleague Jeremiah Methven wrote an article in which he suggested some characteristics he looks for in social agents:

1. Comfort level with social media
2. Understanding of business sensitivity, company brand, and company voice
3. A strong desire to resolve issues

Each of these together will ensure issues are resolved in the best manner possible without offending customers or bringing embarrassment to your brand. A social savvy agent can turn a customer complaint into an engagement opportunity that not only wins the customers, but also shows the public your commitment to being exceptional.


Monitor Social Media
Listen to social media! What is being said about your brand? Are you being mentioned? This should include mentions with and without your handle. Listening should also be extended to competitors as well. Active monitoring could lead to a switch in brands. However, it is imperative to be quick and concise during these moments. A timely response and follow-up is essential.
I am often asked, “What should I respond to?” by those just getting acquainted with social media support. My answer is short and simple, “answer everything.” This can be quite a challenge if you are inundated with requests. However, social media should function like your traditional channels. Properly forecast, schedule and staff your team to handle the volume.
Also, prioritize what messages receive a response. During a webinar earlier this year hosted by ICMI, the following prioritization was offered:

• Urgent Requests
• Gratitude
• Negative sentiment
• FAQ (“This is the “low-hanging fruit.” It’s easiest thing to respond to, and it can drive traffic to your web site if you have this content there.”)

Based on this priority, you can ensure that you are responding to the most important messages. This list can vary, but it serves the purpose of identifying what to answer, and ensures uniformity across the team. Everyone knows what to respond to and they are aware of the priority of importance for messages. This will help minimize customer concerns from falling through the cracks, while ensuring the best possible response is given.
Social media support can be challenging, but when carefully planned and properly executed, it is a great way to serve your customer.

Sean is a Customer Experience, Contact Center and Help desk manager with over 12 years of experience. He has a terrific pulse on incorporating innovation into the contact center. He's implemented social, outsourcing partners, new technology, and new products, while maintaining an award-winning contact center.
 
His contact center is a past winner of the ICMI "Global Call Center of the Year" for Small to Medium-Sized Centers. In addition, he was named one of of ICMI's Top 50 Contact Center Thought Leaders on Twitter. Follow on Twitter @SeanBHawkins or connect on LinkedIn. 

Amazing Service Begins With Engaged Leaders

Providing service to customers is not as hard as some make it seem. It does take diligence and lots of effort to do it exceptionally well. In its simplest form, it is about treating customers with courtesy and respect. Unfortunately, in the business world we often lose sight of that.

When doing business leads to unsatisfied customers, it is time to reevaluate how business is done. Companies are competing for the same customer, and if all things are equal, customer service is usually a deciding factor for the consumer.

 How can you as a contact center leader help your agents to be successful in providing “amazing” service above and beyond?

Review Processes
Exceptional service allows agents to offer immediate solutions without getting bogged down in processes or policy. This leads to happy, loyal customers. In turn, your contact center will see an improvement with CSAT. Removing barriers that prevent exceptional customer service will lead to a more engaged service center. I make it practice of regularly reviewing processes, policies and procedures impacting our customers and agents. As business needs change, policies should be reviewed and updated if necessary.

Agent feedback
I’ve never met an agent who enjoys denying customer requests. On the contrary, they have a desire to satisfy them. Team members have often requested that they be allowed to offer a good will credit to customers. This request was due to their willingness go beyond good service to amazing service. They knew that random acts of kindness made customers happy.

What I learned is it empowered them and made them feel a part of the decision-making process. Upon implementation, we were able to see how this directly impacted customer and agent satisfaction.

Manager Buy-in
I’ve always treated my team as customers. In my opinion, showing them what great service looks like is more impactful than telling them. When they see it alive in you, they will emulate it amongst one another and customers. Leadership must be committed to improving and should regularly attend training, seminars and conferences.

Front line supervisors, leads and managers are a great source for ideas. Allowing them freedom to develop CX initiatives will ensure they are customer focused and invested in organizational goals. I recommend that all leadership review customer feedback and CSAT performance as a team. Some of the benefits in doing so is everyone is aware of department/team performance, problems can be identified, and new ideas can be presented to the group.

Below are 4 simple and immediate steps you as a leader can implement on your journey to customer service excellence.

1. Empower agents- accept feedback, include in decision-making process
2. Be transparent- honest and effective communication (internally & externally)
3. Be accessible- provide support in multiple channels, expand support hours
4. Be attentive- your own active listening allows agents to better assist customer and anticipate future needs

As you can see, these suggestions can be easily implemented, are quick wins, and address some core areas of customer experience. With consistency, effort, and diligence, I’m convinced these steps will set you on the right path and improve your service department.

Sean is a Customer Experience, Contact Center and Help desk manager with over 12 years of experience. He has a terrific pulse on incorporating innovation into the contact center. He's implemented social, outsourcing partners, new technology, and new products, while maintaining an award-winning contact center.
 
His contact center is a past winner of the ICMI "Global Call Center of the Year" for Small to Medium-Sized Centers. In addition, he was named one of of ICMI's Top 50 Contact Center Thought Leaders on Twitter. Follow on Twitter @SeanBHawkins or connect on LinkedIn.

Guest Post: 5 Ways Mobile Technology Aids Customer Service on Social Media

The difference between a contact center and a call center comes down to the types of communication that each one handles. While a call center only handles voice communication, contact centers are able to use email, online text chats, social media, web interfaces, video calls, and other technologies to connect with clients and customers. As mobile technology and social media networks continue to evolve at rapid speeds, businesses are reacting by favoring the implementation of contact centers, rather than traditional call centers, for responding to the needs of their customers. This shift can be complicated, though. Hiring staff for contact centers means finding competent workers who are adept with answering customer queries through a variety of channels, whether online or on the phone. Thankfully, advances in mobile technology help to ease the burden of these demands on both employees and employers. As apps, phones, and tablets develop, so too does the customer service industry, which the following five points demonstrate.

1. Mobile Devices Allow for Faster Response Time
 
We are a mobile generation. This is an age where you can buy laptops that transform into tablets for increased portability, and wristwatches that vibrate when you receive new emails and text messages. Whether your primary concern is work or leisure, it’s all too easy to attach yourself to the web 24/7. When customer service agents have constant access to mobile devices, they will also have access to email, social media channels, video calls, web chats, and a bounty of other tools for communicating with their clients and customers. The image of contact center employees being stuck at their desks, mumbling into headsets, is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Contact with customers is no longer limited to desktop computers and land-line phones, and as the trend of companies hiring home-based agents continues to grow, those agents will continue to turn to mobile technology for performing daily tasks.

2. BYOD Culture is Spreading
 
According to a survey conducted by Sage North America, businesses that introduce mobile technology into the workplace are seeing the biggest positive impact on the quality of their customer service. Other noted benefits include the ability to perform business in the event of inclement weather, more work coming into the company, and the option of conducting meetings remotely. Despite these conveniences, though, fewer businesses are supplying their employees with mobile devices, which is indicative of the growth of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture. While the security risks of a BYOD policy can have severe consequences, especially for employees who deal with highly-sensitive data and materials, for contact center agents who are mostly concerned with managing social media accounts and other communications, the option to BYOD is certainly viable. If you encourage these workers to embrace BYOD culture, you will find that the added freedom of using personal devices can build better working habits, both on and off the contact center floor.

3. Hours of Operation are Irrelevant
 
As previously stated, mobile devices are granting a higher level of freedom to contact center employees. Home-based agents are becoming more common to the customer service industry, and as a result, it’s less necessary to always have a fully-staffed contact center floor. Allowing customer service agents to work on their own devices from home is not just cost-effective, but it also demonstrates adaptability. Depending on the scale of your business, customer queries, complaints, and needs won’t stop coming in during late-night and early-morning hours. Keeping up with service demand doesn’t need to be overly-complicated. Instead of keeping your physical contact center floor open and staffed 24/7, it may be smarter to hire a handful of agents to work at home during later hours to keep up with phone calls, social media channels, emails, and other forms of communication with customers. People have come to expect almost instantaneous responses to their questions and complaints, and providing that immediate response is a key part of elevating good service to great service.

4. More Mobile Tech May Decrease Contact Center Turnover Rates
 
Increased freedom for contact center employees has been a big point of discussion here, and that freedom can carry some real significance for your business. Turnover rates for call/contact center employees are notoriously high, as is the absentee rate for any shift in contact center workplaces. One way to combat this is to facilitate the development of home-based agents. Additionally, equipping employees with technology can lower the stress load of their jobs. Mobile devices will help in both regards. We’ve already seen the ways in which this technology can make working from home a reality. What’s more revolutionary, though, is the software that is available to customer service representatives for recording calls, analyzing customer feedback, and more. Customer service is hard work, and any effort that can be made toward de-stressing agents will be reflected in both the response of customers and your center’s turnover/absentee rates.

5. Mobile Tech + Social Media = Better Relationships with Customers
 
Email and other social apps continue to dominate the software market across all mobile devices, and corporations are taking note. Businesses that establish notable, consistent presences on social media are gaining more control over their public images than they would otherwise be able to. For example, consider fast food giant Taco Bell. The brand name is synonymous with cheap, low-quality, grab-and-go Mexican food. On Twitter, though, Taco Bell is a behemoth of self-aware, dry, yet brand-positive humor. The chain’s PR team constantly engages with its customers, whether they’re lovers or haters of its products, and encourages them (with aggressive wit) to keep coming back. For Taco Bell and other businesses, social media is a tool for crafting unique voices for their brands. Mobile technology is the megaphone, always at hand, to keep that voice blasting into the depths of cyberspace.

Mobile technology isn’t going away anytime soon. Every industry from fashion design to car manufacturing is finding a way to embrace it. Get your contact center involved—customer service is never going to be the same.

Sources:
http://www.exabar.com/Portals/228174/docs/contact-centers-vs-call-centers.pdf
http://na.sage.com/us/our-news/press-releases/06/mobility

Tommaso Mauro is a goal oriented leader adept at identifying opportunities and executing sales strategies to maximize results; Proven ability in consultative sales and business development on a domestic and international scale; Highly effective in organizational and problem solving skills that strengthen a company’s growth-oriented performance; Entrepreneurial spirit and expertise in building business relationships. Tommaso is currently Director of Sales at KOVA Corporation