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Rethinking customer engagement

By Christine Barrow
Johannesburg, 09 Sept 2015
Social media has changed how organisations engage with their customers in two ways, says Andrew Felbert, co-founder and director of Why Satisfy.
Social media has changed how organisations engage with their customers in two ways, says Andrew Felbert, co-founder and director of Why Satisfy.

With the exponential increase in mobile and social technologies, customers have become more powerful than ever before.

So says Andrew Felbert, co-founder and director of Why Satisfy, who notes customers are always connected socially and are able to source information quickly - this gives them control over their own experience.

To survive in an ever-changing and highly connected world, Felbert believes companies have had to re-strategise how they interact and communicate with their customers.

According to Felbert, social media has changed how organisations engage with their customers in two ways.

"Firstly, a post serves as a highly targeted direct response display ad. Nowadays, you are followed around by the brands whose Web sites you choose to visit, but they aren't necessarily brands you feel any affinity to, and the message can often be in a place that has minimum value. Social serves these 'ads' as part of your standard experience on the platform and you have opted in to see this content. The second thing is that it has opened up a two-way conversation off the back of these 'ads', as well as a super-efficient communication channel if you take advantage of it in the right way."

The smart use of social media to interact with customers has significant long-term benefits for organisations. Social media needs to be embraced as more than just a marketing channel - it is a powerful business tool that, when used creatively, grows organisations and makes them stand out from their competitors.

"It is terribly outdated to post a picture of your new product over social, but then if somewhere in between the 'amazing' comments, a customer responds saying the product they purchased is faulty, you ask them to e-mail the customer care centre or call in," says Felbert.

"Social has become the same as your Web experience, where you get the content you want to see with some 'noise' thrown in. The challenge is for social platforms to get the mix right between making money and pushing their users away. On a positive note, social engagement technology like Conversocial allows organisations to cut through the noise in social and deliver lightning-fast customer care without a massive amount of resources."

Join Felbert, other influential industry players, along with international keynote speaker and social business guru, Neal Schaffer, at the ITWeb Social Business Summit 2015 in October, to unpack how to use social media to transform your business. Don't delay a minute longer - click here to register for the social business event of the year.