Specialized Creates Brand Enthusiasts
The prevalence of social media has undoubtedly blurred the lines between marketing and customer support in business. While the marketing department traditionally owns the content posted on social media channels, consumers frequent the likes of Twitter and Facebook to not only interact with a brand, but to voice concerns and/or find timely product support.
Specialized Bicycles (www.specialized.com), a cycling company with 24 subsidiaries worldwide, was able to strike a balance between marketing and customer support to enhance responsiveness to social media mentions about its brand.
The company launched its social media strategy about two years ago to better communicate a lot of information to a lot of consumers at the same time. At first, Specialized used social media for marketing purposes only; for example, to announce a race win or a new product.
“However, on the consumer side, social media presents another way to get in touch with the company,” says Ryan French, director, Inside Sales and Global Customer Experience Operations for Specialized Bicycles. “They don’t differentiate between marketing and support, so we began to get support questions through Twitter or Facebook.”
Thus, the company had to devise a system to make sure it was both marketing to and serving consumers effectively no matter how they reached out to the brand.
As a rule, Specialized lets no comment go unanswered. No matter if it’s a support question, a compliment or just a rider saying “hello”, the company wants to send the message that it is accessible and it is listening.
But this level of responsiveness meant a lot more work for employees, leading Specialized to automate its social media monitoring with RightNow Technologies Inc.’s Cloud Monitor (www.rightnow.com).
“It was inefficient to have our customer support agents combing the Web to find comments,” says French. “It is much more productive to have a software solution that alerts our team about comments. They can now spend their time making sure the interactions are effective.”
Specialized also created a social customer support platform on Twitter called MasterLink, which handles customer support comments that were appearing on social media channels primarily intended for Specialized marketing purposes.
In the past, the marketing person in charge of a Twitter account did not have the skill set necessary to resolve customer support requests. Each time a request was posted, the marketing person had to call the customer support department for insight on addressing the item and would then transpose the answer back to the customer via Twitter.
“By creating MasterLink, we cut out the middle man and now answer comments directly and quickly address customers that need help. In addition, we wanted to make our support accounts even more interactive than the marketing version, so we do our best to make it engaging and open to conversation with the customer,” says French.
Due to these advancements in its social media strategy, consumers now consider Specialized as a customer service-oriented company.
“We realize that you can lose a customer very easily if you aren’t present with the right answers at the right time,” says French. “Social media gives people who may not be happy a forum to voice their complaints. Then we’re able to see it, solve their problem, create advocates and retain them as happy customers. “
In one example, Specialized received an alert from RightNow Cloud Monitor about a customer that was concerned that his local bike shop would take three weeks to fix his bike. Since the standard turnaround time is three days, Specialized called the shop and was able to get the bike back to the customer the next day.
“We transformed a customer with a negative experience into an advocate who will be ‘Specialized for life’ in a forum that thousands of people will see,” closes French.
FAST FACTS
Positive Feedback
Specialized Bicycles’ foray into social media for both marketing and customer support has positively impacted customer service through other channels, be it increased web site visits or reduced call volumes to the contact center.
Company at a Glance
Specialized Bicycles is a core cycling brand that caters to riders of all levels, from the beginner to the professional racer. All Specialized products are conceived, produced and marketed based on enhancing the rider experience.
Support Groups
Specialized will develop a MasterLink Facebook page that will be promoted as a customer service channel. It also integrated self-service answers and information into a support tab on Facebook.
Social Impact
Specialized Bicycles interacts with cycling enthusiasts via 17 social media sites, each designed for a specific consumer, whether that be a person in need of support, a female cyclist on mountain time, a recent race champion and so on.
WORDS OF WISDOM
“Treat social channels just like the phone — if someone comments,
you have to be there to answer. Telephone, e-mail and social media are all equally important channels and brands shouldn’t perceive them differently.”
you have to be there to answer. Telephone, e-mail and social media are all equally important channels and brands shouldn’t perceive them differently.”
– Ryan French, Director, Inside Sales and Global Customer Experience
Operations, Specialized Bicycles
Operations, Specialized Bicycles