Organizations are exploiting social customer interaction channels for sales and marketing, but adoption of these channels for customer service is much slower. Info-Tech research indicates that customer-initiated service inquiries through social channels do not pay off. However, proactively monitoring the social cloud for service opportunities does help organizations achieve their service goals. IT should not be on the sidelines when it comes to enabling customer service: it must support the technologies involved (i.e. integration with CRM platforms). This storyboard, along with its accompanying tools, will help you:

• Understand how customer service fits into the broader CRM picture.
• Assess channel value and design an appropriate hybrid channel strategy.
• Integrate customer service channels with CRM software.
• Implement best practices to enable superior customer service.

Managers must recognize that social channels are here to stay, and define a strategy for using these channels to drive satisfaction and retention with their target customers.