Telcos need to score a ‘like’ with Facebook-based customer service

Alex Leslie - 03/01/12

The idea of using Facebook as a place to engage in customer interaction is still relatively new. As a result, few telcos have come up with a specific or functional approach to it – beyond replying to comments.

The current telco tactic is to push customers to website-based online customer service or even towards the call centre. One company, however, recently announced the integration of the Facebook interface into an overall service strategy for telcos.

This recently announced Facebook app exhibits many characteristics that the industry might want to consider as best practice for Social CRM. First, the app from Nokia Siemens Networks puts all of the care related capabilities – from interacting with agents to managing accounts and bills – right into the Facebook environment. Using single sign-on, or social sign-on, it can authenticate the customer without ever asking them to leave Facebook and can manage a range of transactions including support, dispute resolution and purchases.

Secondly, it leverages the social channel appropriately. Customers share product recommendations and reviews with friends and earn loyalty points for referrals. Added to more basic features such as “liking” the operator, it follows posts about new products, offerings, and help tips.

One of the other key aspects of the offering is that it allows telcos to create an interactive, branded presence within Facebook. Rather than relying on static graphics as most Facebook profiles do today, the application presents a branded console within the Facebook framework that can be customized to the telcos’ desired look and feel. Standard Facebook buttons, such as the “like” button can’t be altered – Facebook’s rules do not allow it – but that is one of the few limitations.

“The beauty is that it is simple,” says Sandro Tavares, head of business intelligence for NSN. The interface presented to the customer is simple and intuitive; if you can use Facebook, you can use this app. As for the operator, the app uses the standard Facebook framework, so the integration complexity has more to do with existing billing, care, and ordering processes than with the app itself. Given that more than 350 million users access Facebook via mobile devices, according to Facebook, care apps such as this must work on all mobile platforms.