Social Media ROI: Customer Service Call Deflection | Business 2 ...

So you?re trying to figure out the value of social media customer service vs. telephone customer service. In this case, we?re actually measuring reduction in cost instead of increase in revenue. Most people think of increase in revenue first before they think about reducing costs. It?s the traditional mindset at work.

So here are the line items for deflected contacts in social media customer service:

Direct Deflection Cost Savings

1. # New Questions answered by Super Users = (# of Total New Questions Answered) x (% New Questions answered by Super Users)
2. # of Direct Deflected Contacts = (# New Questions Answered by Super-Users) x Estimated Direct Deflection Rate
3. Savings per month = (# of Deflected Calls) x (Average Cost/Call)

Indirect Deflection Cost Savings

1. # of Indirect Deflected Contacts = (# of Total New Questions Answered) x (Estimated Indirect Deflection Rate)
2. Savings per month = (# of Deflected Calls) x (Average Cost per Call)

Now, all you have to do is fill in the numbers that make sense for your business. Obviously this is just the beginning when trying to figure out the total ROI gain, as you will now have to calculate all of the employee and technology costs. Hopefully this guides you in the right direction.

I will follow up next week with a post speaking about calculating the costs of social media customer service.

For more details, you can download the full ebook on Social Customer Service ROI on Kathy Hermann?s site.

Have you done this calculation exercise before? What are the challenges of gathering this type of data?

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