Three years of Vodafone at social networking sites
On 1 February 2012, Vodafone established a new team to provide customer care on social networking sites. Every day, including weekends and national holidays, a group of five enthusiasts deals with customers' inquiries from morning to night at Facebook, Twitter and other Internet discussions. On 31 January, Vodafone is going to celebrate the third anniversary with several contests, in which fans can win iPhone6 or a Vodafone tablet with LTE support.
Along with the new team founded three years ago, Vodafone also introduced a secure form at Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Customers can post specific inquiries concerning their accounts without having to call the customer service or come to a Vodafone store.
"It has always been vital for us to provide perfect customer care through all communication channels available. That is why Vodafone was among the first companies in the Czech Republic to respond to the boom of social networking sites and offer customer care through this channel, too," says Michaela Jánská, the Head of Team in the Customer Care Department. "In the past three years, a lot has been improved to comply with the customers' needs - for example, we extended the working hours until 10 p.m. on weekdays and greatly reduced the response time. At the moment, 71 per cent of inquiries get answered within half an hour," she adds.
In three years, the team dealt with more than 16 thousand inquiries, posted by customers through the contact form at social networking sites, and sent almost 60 thousand replies to the customers' questions posted at social networking sites.
The team is regularly granted the "Socially Devoted" certificate. According to the Socialbakers agency, the team responded to 99 per cent of customers' inquiries posted at Facebook in the last evaluated quarter.
The highest number of replies (a total of 404) was sent on 23 May 2013, when the unlimited Red tariffs were launched. Otherwise, the team responds to about 80 inquiries a day on average.
Besides customer care, the team also provides an important feedback across the company and to the management. In the past three years, the team has changed but once when one of the colleagues left for a maternity leave.
To thank the customers for their interest in this form of customer care, Vodafone prepared several contests which are going to be held in on 31 January. Vodafone customers can win iPhone6 or one of the Vodafone Smart Tab 4G tablets. All they have to do is get connected on Saturday evening to Vodafone's Facebook and Twitter accounts. All contests will be evaluated by the team which takes care of Vodafone's customers at social networking sites. The team will be online, which means that the results will be announced right away on Saturday night.
At the moment, Vodafone has more than 187 thousand fans at Facebook, almost 35 thousand at Twitter and 33 thousand at Google+.