Spanlink Introduces Cloud-based Service to Help Businesses Track and Respond to Social Media Interactions

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

Spanlink SocialWatch Offers Companies a Hassle-free Way to Improve Customer Care through Social Media.

MINNEAPOLIS – Dec. 7, 2010–Spanlink Communications today announced Spanlink SocialWatch, a hosted service that enables companies to find and proactively respond to customers and prospects communicating through public social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. Based on Cisco’s SocialMiner software, this cloud-based service offers businesses an easy way to monitor their brand and respond to social media interactions without an upfront capital expenditure on hardware, software or implementation costs.

With SocialWatch, Spanlink hosts all the hardware and software required, and helps businesses set up campaigns to track status updates, forum posts or blogs from customers. Based on these campaigns, enterprises are alerted to conversations related to their brand in real time and can easily engage with customers that require service through the originating social network.

“The Internet is always open for business and online chatter about a brand or company doesn’t simply just go away. Companies are quickly recognizing this and seizing the opportunities to strengthen their brand, increase sales and improve customer relationships,” said Blair Pleasant, president and principal analyst, COMMfusion. “Leveraging Cisco’s SocialMiner software, Spanlink’s cloud-based offering makes it easy for companies to begin monitoring and engaging with customers through social networks in a matter of days. With this service, companies can keep an eye on the web to gain and improve business intelligence, as well as immediately reach customers who need service, or improve further relationships with customers.”

When companies engage proactively with customers they can quickly improve relationships, tackle potential consumer or product issues, generate proactive sales opportunities and manage brand perceptions. According to Yankee Group Research Director, Sheryl Kingstone, 70 percent of consumers want access to company experts and support via social media, and nearly 60 percent of customers feel company outreach via social media would improve their loyalty to that company.

“With more than 11 million tweets per day mentioning a company or a brand, social media has become a growing new channel for customer care,” said Eric LeBow, vice president of Professional Services, Spanlink Communications. “In fact, we believe that by 2013 more than 35 percent of businesses will be leveraging social media in their contact centers to proactively respond to customers, and to maintain and build customer loyalty.”

Key Benefits / Highlights:

Key benefits and highlights of  Spanlink SocialWatch include:

• No large, upfront investments. Without the need to purchase hardware, software licenses or implementation services, investments are kept to a minimum, and as a cloud-based service, payments are made incrementally.
• Quick and easy implementation. Since this is a cloud-based offering, companies can begin proactively engaging with customers through social media in a matter of days.
• Scalability.  Businesses can easily start with a small number of agents monitoring and engaging with customers and prospects, and quickly add and subtract capacity as needed.
• Easy transition to an on-premise solution.  If a customer decides that they want to bring the solution in-house and manage it themselves, the solution allows for it and the existing configuration and data easily ports over.
  
  

About Spanlink Communications, Inc.

Spanlink Communications is a leading provider of unified communications and customer interaction solutions. With more than 22 years experience, Spanlink helps companies exploit the benefits of virtual unified communications networks for business transformation. Spanlink applies expert advising, deployment, integration and managed services to tailor each customer’s solution and support plan to its business needs for transformational business improvements in productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Spanlink is a Master certified Cisco partner serving mid-size businesses and large enterprises. Find news and information atwww.spanlink.com.

News Source : Spanlink Introduces Cloud-based Service to Help Businesses Track and Respond to Social Media Interactions