This introductory post was written by Nigel Orfei, Director, Customer Services for Radian6. Nigel will be contributing to this blog on a regular basis to share general best practices about managing customer service in the online social space, and he’ll be answering some of the common questions we receive from our clients about our platform, as well as sharing tips and tricks for getting the most out of your social media monitoring efforts. Interested in more resources about social customer service from Radian6? Take a look at our eBook from May about creating a social customer service model, and sift through our Resource Library.

The processes for contacting Customer Support at your cable company or utility company are pretty clear. Most of you know who to contact (or have a number to call), are aware of how you’ll be helped, and know what information you need to provide in order to get help. Unfortunately, you’re probably also aware of what these Customer Support departments can’t help with.

One of the benefits of social media is its ability to break down walls. You don’t need to — and shouldn’t have to — know who to contact to get in touch with our company. If you reach out to a member of our Community Team, they’ll do their best to help you, or they’ll put you in touch with the person best prepared to answer your questions. This is the same across the board – if you contact us via phone, email, or on Twitter (@radian6support).

These instances are when the Radian6 Customer Support Team comes in. I can say confidently that every member of the team will do his or her absolute best to get you what you need to be successful. Quite often we get a support question forwarded to us that starts with, “I’m not sure if you can help…” so let me clear up what we can help with:

• Impromptu feature/functionality training
• Coaching through our different training programs, why you should attend, help with sign-ups, how it will help you
• Solving challenging how-to questions
• Helping clarify how and why various features are useful
• If anything comes our way that we can’t answer, we’ll find and connect you with the person who can.

To take this one step further, when you reach out to us, provide us the information below for the best response:

• Account name
• Name of your topic profile
• What you need help with
• If you’re having a problem with one of our platforms, describe the problem
• Has anything changed?
• What date/time is best to reach you?
• How can we reach you? Phone or email – please provide one or the other

This is just an introduction to what we need to best help you, and we want to know what you’d like to learn from our team. Talk to us in the comments, share your thoughts on how you’re using Radian6, and let us know what knowledge gaps you think we can help fill about social media monitoring.