SOCIAL MEDIA AND BUSINESS PROCESS

MANAGEMENT (BPM)
ENABLE CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY
Nischala Murthy
Janaki Ramana Baratam
Stephan Whelan
WWW.WIPRO.COM
Social Media is Changing Business Dynamics 4
The Phases of Customer Engagement 5
Social Media and BPM for Customer Acquisition 6
Social Media and BPM for Customer Servicing 7
Social Media and BPM for Customer Relationship Management 8
Conclusion 9
Table of Contents
04
Social media is ubiquitous today. Earlier confined only to online social interactions between people, social
media is now moving into the enterprise world as well. Organizations are rapidly adopting social media
platforms for various reasons, which range from having a social media presence aligned with the business
strategy, end-customer engagement, creating and enhancing the brand image and of course as an additional
lever for revenue generation.
Simultaneously with the rise of social media, the continuing economic uncertainly has placed greater
emphasis on Customer-centricity. All organizations, and especially service enterprises, aim to be customer-
1
centric as this is the foundational pillar for organizational existence, growth and success .
Given the fact that organizations strive to be truly customer-centric and that customers today spend a
significant amount of time on social media platforms, this paper aims to present a point of view on how social
2
media platforms along with BPM can be leveraged to enable organizations to be customer-centric.
The growth and adoption of social media has been phenomenal. As
of July 2011, there were officially more than 750 million active users
3
of Facebook alone. Twitter and LinkedIn also have millions of active
users. Further, social media are being adopted by all age groups and
income levels. More than 80% of adults on the web engage with one
to three social networks, and 40% of online adults participate in at
least two social networks.
With the emergence of social media platforms, end-customers have
access to a wealth of information on products and services the
varieties and prices available, as well as real-time access to feedback,
views and comments on the real-life experiences of other
customers. This knowledge impacts buying patterns and behaviors,
and the most important decisions that customers or candidates
make about any company increasingly occur within social media.
Many customers no longer leverage traditional sources/channels
such as manuals, brokers or in-store visits for their buying decisions.
Instead they refer to online sources for information reviews,
blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, etc.
4
Today, 93% of online consumers expect companies to have a social
media presence. For organizations, social media platforms provide a
direct communication platform to channel information to their
customers, and to observe, listen and respond to the customers
feedback in real time. This provides both an opportunity to
continuously and rapidly engage with customers; and at the same
time poses a threat as it exposes the organizations vulnerabilities to
potential customers and the world at large which can impact the
organizations brand and future business.
Social Media is Changing Business Dynamics
05
The Phases of Customer Engagement
The three distinct phases of customer engagement are described below:
?Customer Acquisition
?Customer Servicing
Customer Request Execution
- This is the process of acquiring new
customers
- This is the process of addressing the
customers' requirements, and can be classified as:
? - This is the process of
executing the customers requests in line with the predefined
contractual agreements. For example, to open a savings bank
account, the customer should submit the Account Opening
application form along with the required documentation. On
successful verification and approval, this request is executed
? - This is the process
of handling any changes / requests / modifications according
to the customers requests. For example, if an account holder
wants to update his customer profile information, the banks
Customer Service Representative can initiate the process to
update these details
- This is the process of
continuously interacting with the customer to manage, build and
strengthen customer relationships. This helps to maintain and
nurture continued business relationships
Customer Service Request Management
?Customer Relationship Management
?
?
Understand requirements
Services requirements on time,
with quality and as per pre-
agreed terms and conditions
Customer Servicing
Customer Acquisition
?
?
?
Identify the customer
Initiate request for acquisition
On-board the customer
?Customer interaction
& engagement
Customer
Relationship Management
06
The customer acquisition process consists of identifying potential
prospects, qualifying them and converting them to live customers.
Organizations can observe customer patterns and behaviors on
social media platforms by using the right tools and technologies, and
identify potential prospects. Structured analysis and aggregation can
help in customer profiling and segmentation. Subsequently, targeted
marketing campaigns and customer dialog can help in customer
qualification and acquisition.
For example, consider the case of a bank launching a new credit card
targeted at college students, with special features and a pre-approved
credit limit. To reach potential customers, it can look at the basic
profile information of college students on Twitter. [Here we are
assuming that the students have provided accurate information on
Twitter]. This is the first level of customer segmentation.
At the next level, the bank can examine the tweets posted by the
target prospects. Lets assume that a couple of these prospects are
tweeting about their need for a credit card. Based on this, a process
can be triggered to facilitate customer conversion, by initiating a
social media marketing campaign which sends customized
information to the prospects about specific credit card products.
Such a campaign is much cheaper than traditional campaigns to
establish and develop a new credit card product. Based on the
interest and response from target customers, subsequent steps of
the business process can be orchestrated to facilitate customer
acquisition, in the following ways:
Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Targeted social media marketing campaigns provide a cost-effective,
real-time reach to the right prospective customers. Business
processes which use customer patterns and behaviors on social
media platforms as an input to trigger the right marketing campaigns
can prove to be very effective.
Prospect Qualification Process
A well-defined business process for prospect qualification is an
important step for customer acquisition. Partial/complete
automation of the steps in this prospect qualification process can be
achieved by leveraging the power of a process management tool
Social Media and BPM for Customer Acquisition
along with business rules defined in accordance with an
organizations business strategy.
Customer Profile Data for Process
Simplification
One of the key benefits of social media platforms is the availability of
customer profile information in the public domain. Additional
customer profile data can be extracted from these platforms by
using the right analytics tools. This customer profile data can
provide vital information in defining, optimizing and simplifying the
steps in the customer acquisition process. Configuration and
execution of process steps based on the kind of customer profile
information can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs.
Customer Notifications for Process
Visibility
One of the most important aspects of customer acquisition is
continuous interaction and communication on the status and
progress of the customer acquisition process. Process notification
steps can be configured to provide customized customer
communications based on the current status of the requests, and
sent to customers via channels like Twitter, blogs, direct messages,
texts, etc.
An Alternate Channel for Sales
Social media platforms can also be used as an alternate sales channel
for initiating specific customer requests, by extending the existing
process and systems to include the social media platforms as an
input channel for initiation of the sales process. A process-based
solution for channel unification can also be considered.
Selection of the Right Offering / Solution
Customer patterns and behaviors on social media platforms can be
effectively used as key decision variables in pre-defined business
processes to aid in the selection of the right offering / solution for
customers. In addition to specific data provided by customers, social
media analytics can be leveraged to provide recommendations to
customers on the best solutions for their requirements.
Organizations can observe customer patterns and behaviors on social media
platforms by using the right tools and technologies, and identify potential prospects.
07
Social Media and BPM for Customer Servicing
The customer servicing process consists of understanding and
working on the customers requirements / requests to address their
specific needs.
Social media platforms provide a wealth of information on customer
expectations, preferences and most importantly real-time updates
on changing customer needs. Customer expectations revealed on
social media is an invaluable resource for organizations striving to be
customer-centric. Processes can be orchestrated to connect with
the customer, and to validate if these changing customer
expectations and preferences should be factored in to service their
requests. For example, let us take the example of Bill, who has
subscribed to a post-paid plan from a leading Telecom Service
Provider (TSP). Unfortunately, there have been some errors in billing
and Bill is unable to reach the Customer Care section of the TSP. He
is upset and frustrated that he is unable to get a satisfactory
explanation for the erroneous billing, and tweets his dissatisfaction.
The TSP has active listening agents who read the tweet, and contact
Bill to help resolve the billing issue. Once the process is initiated,
internal systems and resources work collaboratively to ensure that
either a response is provided in the form of an acknowledgment, a
clarification is provided or the issue is resolved.
Every interaction a customer has with an organization is a Moment
of Truth which can be positive, negative or neutral. Positive
experiences usually translate in to repeat business and customer
loyalty, and referrals, recommendations or reviews on several
channels. Here, the organization can initiate processes to further
enhance and strengthen customer relationships through dialog,
cross-selling / up-selling other products and services. On the other
hand, the negative customer experiences can result in negative
reviews and feedback through these channels or termination of the
business relationship with an organization. Here the organization
should qualify the negative experience and then trigger the process
of raising a customer service ticket to address the specific customer
concern. Once triggered, internal systems, people and resources are
aligned to execute the processes.
Here are some of the ways in which BPM along with Social Media can
be leveraged for Customer Servicing:
Change Request Initiation
Customers continuously post updates on their social media
platforms. Thus, any organization providing products or services that
are triggered or modified by specific life events should establish
proactive monitoring engines on social media platforms. These can
be leveraged as the first source of information to understand
changes in customer requirements.
For example, many users broadcast major milestones of their life on
social media platforms, such as the birth of a child, a new job, a change
of location or marriage. Let us take the example of John, who has
purchased a medical insurance plan from an insurer. John is getting
married and has shared this information on Facebook. The insurer
who reads this update can initiate a dialog with John on new possible
options for him, such as upgrading to a Family Floater Medical
Insurance policy, purchasing a separate medical insurance cover for
his wife or additional life cover for himself. A process could be
triggered to enable this customer dialog and subsequent servicing
of the customer's request, as applicable. At the next level, an
organization can model and define business processes to factor in
the relevant feedback as validated with the customer.
Enriched Customer Profile Data
An important asset for any organization is customer profile
information. This information is typically captured at the outset of
any business transaction, but is rarely updated. Often, it is because
customers do not make a conscious effort to update their profile
information, and hence probably do not get the best service /
product that they are entitled to.
For most organizations, the customer profile information is the
Single Source of Truth leveraged for customer interactions. Hence,
if an organization has well defined business processes to periodically
update the customer profile based on the customers online activity
on social media platforms, it will have up-to-date data which can
be leveraged for all future customer interactions, e.g., launching
focused marketing campaigns, faster turn-around-time of customer
service requests, etc.
Sustained Focus on Operational Efficiency
While social media platforms can be effectively leveraged to initiate
new business processes, sustained customer engagement is
dependent on the efficient execution and closure of the back-end
processes. BPM enables this through process definition, automation,
improvement, optimization and transformation.
Service Request Initiation
(Complaint/Query/Feedback)
An organizations ability to pro-actively raise and initiate service
requests based on historical patterns, current trends of service
requests and applicability to a specific group of customers will go a
long way in making it truly customer-centric. Social media channels
can be leveraged to initiate service requests like complaints, queries,
feedback, etc. These can be addressed through specific channels
promoted by the organization (For example, Twitter "handles"
formally used by an organization, etc.) or through the customers
personal blogs, twitter profiles, etc. These can be used as formal
triggers to orchestrate the right internal business process. However,
it is important that the organization provides a unified customer
experience across all channels.
08
Social Media and BPM for Customer Relationship Management
The process of Customer Relationship Management involves
listening to the customer, providing a satisfactory response (as
applicable), providing advice and recommendations (as required)
and most importantly continuously engaging with the customer.
Social media provides several avenues for organizations to observe,
listen and communicate with their customers, creating new
relationships and nurturing existing ones through meaningful
dialogs. Based on the kind of interaction, several organizational
processes can be initiated, modeled, created, modified or de-
commissioned as needed.
For example, let us take a B2B scenario between an IT service
provider and a product vendor, who have a professional working
relationship restricted to the contractual terms and conditions. The
product vendor is planning a product upgrade and is looking to
embark on a pilot project to test the latest version. On the other
hand, the IT service provider is looking at building its competencies
on the upgraded version of the product.
A win-win situation for both provided they know about each
others plans. The product vendor posts a blog about the product
release and pilot plans. This blog post provides a starting point for
the IT service provider to initiate a dialog with the product vendor
for a joint pilot project. Not only can this association strengthen the
business partnership, but can also set the precedence for
Cross-Sell / Up-Sell Strategies
Customers patterns and behaviors on social media platforms
provide ample opportunities for selling alternate products and
services. Initiating the right internal business processes based on
customer requirements can prove to be beneficial as they are
contextual, timely and in line with the customers immediate needs.
The long term success of these strategies will however be
determined by how rapidly an organization can engage with the
customer in taking the process to closure.
Customer Referrals
Social medias ability to provide customer feedback and referrals in
real-time and in the public domain is a good opportunity for the
organization. A blog on a positive customer experience, a positive
tweet about an organizations product or services or a LinkedIn/
Facebook update providing positive feedback and user experience
can influence the perceptions and buying patterns of potential
customers. Organizations can leverage the positive feedback in
many ways re-tweet, link to these on their social media platforms,
request a formal customer referral etc. On the other hand, in case
of a negative feedback, organizations can engage with customers to
take the corrective action, as applicable.
Customer Notifications for Process
Visibility
The ability to respond to a customer service request as soon as
possible goes a long way in creating customer satisfaction and
retention. Customers expect an acknowledgment, an initial
response, an update on the progress and a resolution. Social media
channels like Twitter, direct messages, texts etc. can be leveraged to
achieve one-to-one or one-to-many communication for customer
notifications on process visibility.
Filtration and Prioritization of Requests
A challenge for most organizations is to qualify and filter the right set
of requests / complaints / issues to work on. A rules-based solution
can help qualify requests based on business criteria like customer
profile, category of complaint, impact on customer, impact to
organization. Due-diligence is required to eliminate duplicate
complaints, if also raised on other channels.
Social media provides several avenues for organizations to observe, listen and
communicate with their customers, creating new relationships and nurturing existing
ones through meaningful dialogs.
subsequent product releases.
Social Media provides organizations with a wealth of information on Social media provides organizations with a wealth of information on their
customers. While social media and BPM can definitely enable customer centricity, the long term success for organizations will be dependent on
the enterprise-wide social media monetization strategy and the agility of internal business processes. Social media complemented by agile
business processes can definitely aid in creating customer-centric organizations. These organizations will be able to successfully acquire new
customers, align and position their offerings in line with customer requirements, effectively optimize their marketing strategies, and will find
ample opportunities for improved customer experience and enhanced customer relationship management.
09
Conclusion
Acronyms
Acknowledgements
References
B2B Business to Business
BPM Business Process Management
BRMS Business Rules Management Systems
CSR Customer Service Representative
DM Direct Message
LOB Line of Business
ROI Return on Investment
SOA Service Oriented Architecture
SLA Service Level Agreement
SMS Short Message Service
TAT Turn Around Time
TSP Telecom Service Provider
The authors would like to thank Sitaram Mohan and Bharath Sarma Rejeti for their inputs and feedback at all stages of this white paper.
1
http://www.wipro.com/blog/default.aspx?id=74
2
BPM is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes
business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility and integration with technology.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_management#cite_note-004)
3
http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/08/16/social-network-users-statistics
4
http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Insurance_Agenda_Scoial_media_article_final/$FILE/Insurance_Agenda_Scoial_media_article_fi
nal.pdf
Nischala Murthy
Nischala works with Wipros Global BPM Practice with responsibilities in conceptualizing and evangelizing Business Solutions and
Differentiated Services, Positioning and Value creation, Marketing and Branding.
Nischala has more than a decade of IT experience across project delivery, consulting, business solutions and marketing. From 2008 to
2010, she has worked as a part of the BPM & SOA Solutions and the Innovation Team in Wipro. During this tenure, she was instrumental in
conceptualizing new solutions, providing go-to-market strategy and enabling solution sales, she played a critical role in the marquee
solution wins. Nischala has done her MBA from IIMB [www.iimb.ernet.in], one of the premier B-schools in India. She is an active blogger
and has several publications to her credit.
About the Authors:
Janaki Ramana Baratam
Janaki Baratam heads sales for Wipros Business Application Services in Europe and USA for the insurance vertical. He is a technology
executive with experience of selling, designing, developing and commercially managing a wide range of technology based products and
solutions, through concept and model development and partnerships.
Over 24 years of career, Janaki has been involved in launching some leading products including the Genesis and Movies 24 IPTV platform
that powers over 360,000 European hotel rooms. He was instrumental in turning around large programs that include IPTV for Chungwa
Telecom in Taiwan and National Lottery for Camelot in the UK. He also has worked as a Management Consultant for DCE Consultants,
Netherlands and advised customers such as Citibank, ING, Omron Electronics and Schiphol Airport amongst others. Janaki has a degree
in Computing Science from Imperial College London, an MBA from NIMBAS Utrecht and has completed executive training with Harvard
University.
Stephan Whelan
Stephan Whelan is an experienced Technology advocate who specializes in Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Content
Management (ECM) and Web Content Management (WCM) as well as a pioneer in Online Publishing, Media, eCommerce and Social
Networking.
Stephan has over 15 years experience at designing, developing, selling and managing technology implementations across Europe and the
US at clients such as HMRC, British Airports Authority (BAA), AEGON, Rentokil Initial, Alliance & Leicester, ICI Paints and Symbian. He
has helped develop and grow professional services, project methodologies and implementation of a partner channel from scratch.
Currently Stephan is responsible for Business Application Services for the insurance vertical in the UK and Ireland at Wipro
Technologies.
He has been an active blogger and writer since 1998. Stephan has a degree in Business Information Systems from DeMontfort University.
10
About Wipro
Wipro Technologies, the global IT business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing
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company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioners approach to delivering innovation and an organization
wide commitment to sustainability, Wipro Technologies has over 130,000 employees and clients across 54 countries.
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