Published on the 02/10/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Predictive analytics embedded in a new suite of apps helps to encourage consumers to share more of their positive insights about products and services through social networks…
Customer service specialist [24]7 believes that savvy enterprises may be able to turn their customer base into online brand advocates by providing tools that allow them to more easily share their experiences of products and services on social networks.
The company’s co-founder and CEO PV Kannan, said that there had been a number of attempts by organisations to harness the power of social networking.
He said some had attempted to analyse market sentiment by interpreting social media commentary, while others had taken more proactive approaches, setting up Twitter accounts to interact with customers directly.
But he said, “It has become the alternate [sic] complaints box,” with consumers tending to only report their poor experiences on social media. Kannan said that the [24]7 suite of apps released this week would make it easier for consumers to report and share both positive and negative experiences on social networks.
The software has been designed to integrate with [24]7’s customer service tools, so that at the end of any interaction the consumer is invited to report their experience and share that on social networks.
While customers aren’t precluded from reporting poor experiences the system has been designed to identify the most supportive clients and attempt to encourage them to post comments on social media. The system uses predictive analytics to “identify, target and entice influential customers – to share at the right moment in the interaction…the prediction is powered by data models that take into account a myriad of signals including: propensity to purchase, customer history, social influence and profile of the consumer.”
Early users of the technology include a pay TV company and a couple of larger retailers according to Kannan.
[24]7, which was established by Kannan in 2000, last year forged a deal with Microsoft which simultaneously took a stake in the company, with the two organisations now working on the Predictive Experience Platform which is intended to support and enhance large enterprises’ interactions with customers.
