Guest Blog: How Customer “Experts” Create a Great Customer Experience

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, Laura Lee Brennan  writes about the increase in companies using social media for customer service. She highlights how community forums can benefit companies and their customers, creating strong relationships.  - Shep Hyken

In one year, the number of companies handling more than 25% of all customer service inquiries via social channels has doubled. That’s right. We’re starting to understand the breadth and depth of how social support via channels like community forums are increasingly becoming a popular way to get questions answered and problems solved. We created an infographic with timely information on community forums which we called “The Unsung Hero of Social Support.”

Even at HP, the way customers prefer getting support has quickly expanded over recent years. With over 45k Twitter followers (and growing), 5700 customer support videos in 22 languages and 1.4 billion page views to date on HP Support Forums, it’s clear that the customer experience and choice across a wide range of social support channels is richer than ever. This is due in large part to volunteer HP Experts and Contributors who some people have called “Superfans.”

So, who are experts in your community forums? They can be employees, dedicated customers with a knowledge-base of your industry and other volunteer contributors who make time—personal time– to help solve problems and answer the technical questions that customers post on the Forums. Specifically, community forums are designed to get support from “people like me” and to get the most accurate information available to solve problems. And those answers become ongoing resources customers who have similar issues and conduct online searches for answers. HP community posts have achieved 200 million visit and 60,000 accepted solutions. And for every accepted solution, about 2,000 people will view it. Those are the critical success variables that forums must meet in order to meet growing customer needs. As the customer experience changes, support through social channels will become a defining force in building great customer relationships.

Nichole Kelly from Social Media Explorer wrote, “Frank Silvia, an electrician and lasvegaswiremen in the forums, said he went to the forums to post a question and while he was waiting for a response, he started to browse through the other questions. ‘I found several really easy questions that I knew the answer to so I answered. Then I got addicted. Barring technical difficulties, I spend anywhere from 1-3 hours a day answering questions now.’”

So, we began to think about ways to further engage with customers who were clearly passionate about helping other people. We came up with an HP Experts program which includes all sorts of great incentives to get customer experts to stick around and help their customer peers, and have a really positive experience. We outlined the top reasons to become an expert and shared them on the community forums, through social media and in external blog posts. We also shared this information at an Expert recruitment event at South by Southwest! Our list, of course, can guideline for any business interested in developing a population of customer brand advocates. Here are some of the benefits we’ve shared with customers about becoming an expert in the forums.

Be a hero. Customers rave when they get a quick solution to their technology-related questions. Use your expertise and desire to help others – and make their day.
Influence new products. Our company is known for innovation, but that doesn’t happen without valuable customer feedback. As an expert, we want to hear your opinions.
Connect with peers. Become a member of our inner circle, and connect with other fans and employees who are equally passionate about excellent products and support.
Learn more – do more. There’s no substitute for experience. As an expert, you’ll be steps ahead of the crowd – and you might even discover a whole new calling!
Satisfy your competitive streak. Reawaken your inner Olympian and compete against other experts in contests and games to earn badges and points – and get the kind of satisfaction that only comes from winning.
Build global relationships. Don’t miss the chance to gain global perspective from Boston to Bangkok as a member of our important global support community.
Walk the red carpet. Make connections, gain insights, and enjoy recognition from our community during worldwide Expert Meet-Ups.
Get rewarded! Experts are an important way we connect with and help consumers – and that’s something we value. Join us – and, as a top contributor, you will enjoy access to loans of our products.

We all work hard to create relationships with our customers. And when we achieve a level of trust and communication with people who love our brands, customers can become our best advocates! 

Sources: ACSI, mediabistro, zendesk, Digital Sherpa, CRM, parature (Self Service Customer), parature (Building Brand Advocates), Desk.com, Neilsen, Social Media Today, Forrester, GetSatisfaction, Coleman Parks and Zuberance.

Laura Lee Brennan is HP Social Care Communications & PR Manager and a frequent contributor to The Next Bench  blog.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com

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