Comcast monitors pretty much every social media channel that is relevant to them.  In other words, they exist where their customer and conversations exist.  They also understand that various social media channels require a different approach.  For example, Twitter requires a fast response time directly from Comcast, whereas in forums Comcast pays attention to the conversation but realizes that the value comes from the peer-to-peer connections.  When consumers cannot help each other in the forums then Comcast steps in to handle the issue.

Social media is essentially handled by the customer service team.  They are the one’s that scour the net, respond to conversations, and engage with customers and prospects.  Not an easy task when you consider that Comcast appears in blogs between six to twelve thousand times a day (even though many of the mentions are due to the fact that people have a comcast.net email address).  When the customer service team finds an issue that is NOT related to customer service, they then put in a ticket and it gets routed to the right person at the right department.

So now you may be thinking, ‘why is the customer service team in charge of social media’?  Well, this approach might not work for all companies but for Comcast it’s perfect.  Why?  Unlike companies such as Best Buy, Dell, or Southwest Airlines, there is only a certain amount of customization that Comcast can provide.  Essentially you order packages which cannot really be modified or customized.  You have your internet or TV service and that’s it.  What are customers going to do, ask for the service to be cheaper?  So in Comcast’s case it makes perfect sense for the customer service team to lead social media because almost every issue is support and service related.

Comcast also maintains a corporate blog which is run by the PR department.  They have their own social media committee that is made up of folks from various departments and made up of only 10 people.  Their Social CRM approach is fairly simple and quite effective thus far.  Eventually Comcast hopes to empower all employees to be out there on the social web interacting with each other and with customers/prospects because if social media keeps growing, it will be very hard to keep up with all of the conversations.  The idea is that eventually customers will know someone who works at Comcast (should be applied to any company) and that person can then funnel information or requests to the proper person.

Here are some key facts and takeaways from my conversation with Frank on Comcast’s Social CRM approach:

• Customer service team runs social media efforts
• Have a social media committee to discuss strategy and initiatives across departments
• Speed is the most effective mechanism for success
• Filtering is automated so that any issues get routed to the right person at the right department when a ticket is submitted
• There is a flow/process to ensure that tickets get closed
• There is a set list of contacts for emergencies
• Customer service department is trained to handle most issues
• The human aspect of Social CRM is crucial
• The key is to get the right information to the right people quickly
• Support of high level leaders is very important

What do you think of Comcast’s approach towards social CRM?  Did you find this information interesting/valuable?

Seriously, do you think that’s the only downside? How incredibly short-sighted. This is the corporate research equivalent of suicide.

Clearly, no analyst with a shred of talent or ambition will likely ever choose to work for Forrester, assuming this policy is enforced. Best of luck to the remaining losers who decide it’s a good idea to tuck their tail between their legs and go silently into the night to work as a faceless drone for FR. Why not require everyone at FR commute to work by horse & buggy while you’re at it.

Forrester was absolutely idiotic for not taking more advantage of the incredible talent of folks like Charlene Li & Jeremiah Owyang while they were on staff at Forrester, and for not realizing how HUGE a benefit blogging & the visibility created by those folks was to generating business for Forrester. It’s no surprise they chose to break away and start their own firm, which appears to be growing leaps & bounds.

I can’t think of anything more likely to hobble and kill the spark of innovation and curiosity that most research analysts have in their DNA than to require them to publish as a no-name entity.  What an incredibly stupid & self-damaging move.

Dennis Howlett calls this move an Epic Enterprise 2.0 Fail by Forrester.  Dennis and Dave both echo my sentiment.  Needless to say, I don’t agree with this move by Forrester and here are a few reasons why:

• The time spent on branding and marketing the analyst’s website will be lost.  Jeremiah Owyang, for example has a very loyal reader base.  He would have to redirect them all to the Forrester site and then, if he somehow left anyone behind, he must redirect them all back to his personal site.
• SEO value for individual sites will be lost (and gained by Forrester).  Google “social media consultant” and whose site do you see?  I, personally, would never want to lose my ranking.
• Creativity and innovation will be stunted because instead of having the feeling of ownership for anything analysts create.  They will instead have to pass everything over to Forrester.  I think this will hurt morale somewhat, as well.
• I feel like analysts have greatly contributed towards the brand visibility and credibility of Forrester  since they were able to share their own ideas and thoughts.  Now that everything is “Forrester” branded, that feeling diminishes.  After all, don’t we trust individuals more than we trust companies?
• Individual personality and voice will be eroded now that the individual brand is going to become a corporate one.

What do you think about this?  Is Forrester making a good move by asking all analysts to either take down or re-direct their own personally branded blogs?  As an analyst, what would you do in this situation?

Weather

I absolutely love the weather in San Francisco it hovers around 60 degrees most of the time and might get down to the 50’s in the evenings.  It’s never too hot or too cold.  I love the fog that covers the city in the evenings and I love the morning sun the pierces through my windows.

Food

San Francisco is known for having some amazing food and I didn’t believe it until I moved here.  There is a place to eat on virtually every corner in the city and the food is amazing.  You can find anything from Brazilian steakhouses to high quality sushi.  It’s all here and everywhwere.

Public transportation

I left my car in LA when I moved to SF, actually I gave my car to my little brother since he needs it now more than I do.  I walk pretty everywhere I need to get to but there are also trains, buses, and cabs all over the place.  San Francisco is around 7 miles wide so you can pretty much get to anywhere you need to go in the city within a 30 or so minute walk.

Innovation and opportunities

Someone is always working on something interesting and creative in San Francisco.  There are young entrepreneurs running their own startups all over the place and the flow of creativity and ideas in the city is just amazing.  The opportunities to meet with and work with some of the smartest people in the world is also a huge plus.  Where else can you go to an event or meetup and chat with executives that are running some of the leading companies in the world.  The opportunities here are endless.

Entertainment and the people

From theater to walking along the water to the Embarcadero building, San Francisco has plenty of entertainment to offer.  We have clubs, lounges, bars, jazz clubs, art festivals, music festivals, and anything else you can thing.  San Francisco is a very diverse and eclectic city and it shows in its inhabitants.  I love the people in San Francisco, they are always friendly, creative, and witty.

In a nutshell I just couldn’t picture living (for an extended period of time or settling down) in any other city except San Francisco.  I know there are plenty of other great cities out there though!

I’m sure Esteban can do a much better job of covering the details and concepts behind this but I’ll provide an overview.  The key to this framework is to understand that the process between SCRM and E2.0 is never ending and that they both integrate into one another.  The feedback and the knowledge that is obtained from SCRM is then fed back into the enterprise to be acted upon.  Once action is taken, the customers once again provide feedback and so the process continues.  This never ending sharing of information and customer empowerment is what is referred to as the experience continuum.

Let’s briefly identify the four key areas within the continuum, keeping in mind that the same structure exists for both internal E2.0 and external SCRM efforts.

Business function

• This refers to who is going to take the specific action and receive the information.  Will this be handled by the customer service team or by the marketing/PR team?

Rules

• Every business function has its own set of rules and governance for how various initiatives are to be approached and executed.  For example, Comcast uses their customer service team to front end their social media efforts.  If there are any issues that cannot be covered by their team, they get ticketed and forwarded to the correct team in the correct department.  Having a set of rules and processes in place is a necessity.  Keep in mind that the set of rules also applies to what goes on internally within the enterprise.

Channel

• This is the method of communication and execution.  How is the response/action going to be handled and through what channels?

Community

• This is the final process that actually deals with execution and community interaction.  Again, this can be the external community of users or the internal community of employees and stakeholders.

As I mentioned above, this is a basic high level overview of the Experience Continuum.  I’ll let Esteban get into more detail and will perhaps update this post with his notes, but for now I’m curious to hear  your thoughts and ideas.  Please feel free to poke holes, analyze, and critique all of the above and we will make changes that make sense.

I’m hoping SBO will rapidly grow into a valuable community and resource center for anyone interested in social business topics.  I’m one of the selected members who make up the founder’s council and am honored to be along side folks such as:

• Esteban Kolsky
• Tatyana Kanzaveli
• Prem Kumar Apranji

Overtime the founders council will work closely with Axel and Bob to begin integrating new features and ideas that we feel will help benefit the community.  For now, I wanted to introduce the site to all of you and invite you to play around and explore the content that SBO has to offer.  There are some leading minds contributing really solid content on there, which I’m sure you will find valuable.

Let me know what you think!