Social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook are fast becoming the first point of contact for consumers who have a complaint. Very often customers are guaranteed a rapid response compared to using call centres or email. It makes sense therefore for customer experience managers to be able to monitor and manage all feedback, including social media, via one platform. This is precisely what Aptean’s Respond aims to achieve.

Aptean has incorporated an add-on social media management component into Respond 6.2, the latest version of its complaints and case management software solution. For now, the social media platforms to be monitored and managed include Facebook and Twitter. Combined with an industry leading text analytics and sentiment analysis engine, which categorises feedback by severity and flagging those requiring urgent response. Respond allows social teams and complaints management staff to prioritise accurately and understand at a glance customer sentiment trends.

Colyn Dee, director of Cirrus TechVue, which represents Aptean in South Africa, says that companies often have two separate teams for dealing with social media and customer experience. Very often the customer experience team is not aware of a complaint that has come through via social media.

“With Respond’s social engagement platform, your customer service team can now have direct access to your company’s Twitter and Facebook channels to respond to, resolve and escalate inbound complaints, compliments or feedback,” notes Dee.

The customer service team can even create cases within Respond directly from a conversation if needed. The social engagement platform links up two traditionally separate teams by allowing social and formal case management to happen under one roof. The software enables organisations to get to the root cause of customer satisfaction issues and quickly implement improvements

“It isthe perfect solution for consumer-focused sectors such as financial services, medical aid, travel, utilities and cellular phones companies,” says Dee. “Responding quickly and appropriately to negative and positive social comments can help businesses in these industries increase customer loyalty and retention.”

For more information: http://apteanrespond.com/6-2.html