Social media seen as key element of multi-channel communications strategy by contact centre leaders according to ProtoCall One survey

-67% surveyed reported building social media into their contact centre strategy
-Over one in ten already harnessing social media - Facebook and Twitter are favourites
-42% planning higher investment in their contact centres in 2011
From its survey of senior contact centre decision makers, ProtoCall One, a contact centre consultancy and systems integrator, found that two out of three (67%) of contact centres favour harnessing social media in their multi-channel communications strategy to enhance communication with their customers. Just over one in ten (12%) reported themselves as being ahead of the pack by currently reaping the benefits of social media, with one in five (18%) already using Facebook and Twitter in their communication strategies. At the other end of the spectrum, just over one in six (17%) of those polled shunned social media preferring instead to improve alternative types of multi-channel communications like email, text and web chat before adopting these new types of social media.

Overall the contact centre leader respondents appeared optimistic with nearly half (42%) reporting an increase in contact centre investment for 2011 over last year and just under one in three (29%) reporting that they plan to maintain their 2010 IT spend. 15% said they needed to demonstrate a return on investment within eighteen months with cost reduction cited as the primary business case goal, with just under one in three (29%) reporting this need. One in four managers (25%) said they are looking to improve, their levels of customer experience, which aligns with the social media findings, and just over one in ten (12%) said they needed to migrate their customers to lower cost channels. This suggests that most managers feel that they have the most economical communications strategy in place already.

The survey was carried out at the recent ProtoCall One Customer Experience Day attended by a cross-section of customers and prospects from a wide range of both public and private industry sectors.

Paul Weald, Strategy Director at ProtoCall One said: "These findings reflect the positive conversations that we are currently having with our customers and prospects around how they can find innovative ways of communicating with their customers. There is an increasing level of awareness of what social media could offer – together with a greater understanding of the business rationale of being either a leader or a follower in adopting these emerging channels."