Asian call centers target for social media

With the opening of numerous Asian markets across the globe to international commerce, you would think that the call centers in those regions would be getting an influx of new business, but it is just not happening fast enough according to Salesforce Chairman Marc Benioff.

Call centers, abound in Asian countries such as the Philippines India, and Malaysia must retool and adopt social networking applications to maintain their competitive edge in today's evergrowing scoail networking market, say executives from Salesforce.com, which this week launched its own social network tool.

Benioff said, during his keynote address Thursday at the company's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, it was unfortunate companies, particularly call centers, have invested in traditional software only to realize that customers are venting their frustrations and leaving comments in social media sites and online communities.

It seems these days that people know more about strangers on Facebook, Twitter Linkedin, and other social networking sites than their own family, friends, employees, or co-workers. Although numerous call centers have made strides in providing the connectivity to demographics that normally could not be reached through traditional means, it is not an end all to reaching a targeted market, and definitely does make these entities smarter through social networking, but why aren't businesses using these sites not getting any smarter?

He added that it was ironic that companies were "disconnected" from their own workers. "We've been eclipsed by consumer applications like Facebook and Twitter. Aren't we ready for a change in enterprise collaboration?" he questioned.

Call centers, which main purpose is to cater to the needs of customers, have not adapted their business practices to move in line current customer demands, he said. "It's time for a change in the industry," he added.

To tap this trend, Salesforce today launched its Web-based social networking service, dubbed Salesforce Chatter. The new tool integrates the functionalities of Facebook and Twitter into an interface for corporate users.


Jim Steele, chief customer officer and president for worldwide sales at Salesforce.com, said call centers, including those based in Asia, need to retool and adopt social media to stay relevant and competitive.

"Customer service and retention are paramount in this age. If you're not listening to them, you're missing an opportunity," said Steele in an interview.

The Asian region, he noted, is a dynamic market with customers habitually changing preferences. Customer engagement, he added, is therefore a crucial element for success.

Chatter also features user profiles, status updates, real-time feeds, groups, social applications, and business content such as documents, spreadsheets, and presentations similar to those found on Facebook.

The new tool will be available on the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and iPhone platforms, like Facebook, but Chatter will not be available until the early part of 2010.