Every 13 minutes someone is twittering, blogging about @Telenet

Telenet is a major provider of analogue and digital television, Internet and telephone services in Belgium. One of their mottos is "‘Follow the customer, not the cable"’. So how did they roll out their customer service over social media?

Early 2010, the official Twitter account @Telenet was launched, tweeting news and info about their products. Tweets ending in the characters ^CH come from Charlotte, Telenet’s virtual Webcare agent. A team of four knowledge employees are operating behind that pseudonym.

To give you an idea,  every 13 minutes someone is twittering, blogging, ... about Telenet.

More where this came from:

Social Media in 2010. Keep talking! @ blog.telenet.be

For my upcoming book on social media for businesses, I interviewed Telenet Knowledge Manager Leentje Chavatte. About Project Charlotte:

‘We scan social media to see what people are saying about Telenet. If a problem escalates, we immediately inform the right people. Recently, a number of e-mails were not delivered. We found out about the problem onlineon-line and discussed it immediately with our colleagues. Then we informed everybody about the problem and the potential solutions.’

The next step is for Telenet to respond via Charlotte or in some other way. The knowledge team is armed with standard answers to some frequently asked questions. There are basic rules, like be polite, listen to the customer and help him or her as quickly as possible. Chavatte:

The quality of the answers has to be good, which is why we have a small team. We mustn't allow ourselves to get carried away emotionally if a customer begins swearing or is rude in some other way. We don't respond at all to some things, simply because they lead to an endless yes-no discussion.

If doubt exists about the answer, the knowledge team first discusses the problem with Communications.

We maintain close contacts with other departments like Communications, Marketing and Sales. We make sure that the information they send out about results or product launches is sent out simultaneously to customers. The knowledge team receives help from everybody within the company. An employee who sees comments published onlineon-line can inform Charlotte by means of a web tool. We keep a watch on what words customers use in messages about our company, says Chavatte. When we launch a product, we look at signs like the emotions or words in the comments.

How do customers react to Charlotte?

Telenet customers appreciate our dealing with them personally. It's an approach entirely different to the traditional channels of communication. We’re not active in social media because it happens to be fashionable today. For us it’s an excellent means for supporting existing processes; it’s not a communication channel in itself”’, says the knowledge manager. Thanks to the company’s efforts, a lot of messages about Telenet are positive, although something can obviously go amiss at any time. “‘If something isn't working, you immediately notice a small peak of negative comments. Customers are very strict with a brand that makes a mistake, but if you build up good relationships with them, you will see that other customers spontaneously stick up for you if something does goes wrong.