Social media comments can contain a mother lode of information and insight – about products and services, their supplying companies and about the customers themselves – that need to be harvested, analyzed and acted on in hypertime. These remarks can boost, or rip apart, brand reputation.

Yet while most enterprises have integrated social channels into their customer care operations with the help of simple monitoring tools, too many still fail to understand how to respond in a way that benefits their company, says Capgemini. They often relegate social media as merely a marketing function: rather than, say others, as a potent, vital, dynamic customer interaction method. Observers say firms may also not have the highly skilled agents to respond to social media comments.

Capgemini (News - Alert) is tackling social media, offering to take and run the ball for clients with a new comprehensive Social Media Management service, to help them take advantage of online social interactions. Partnering with Attensity, Capgemini's Social Media Management is a customizable all-in-one service offering real-time web listening, analysis and customer outreach. Attensity brings to the table its comprehensive social media monitoring and text analytics solutions coupled with language processing and integration with business intelligence tools.

With the Attensity-powered Capgemini’s Social Media Management service, social media conversations can be acted on in realtime, delivering them to agents via integration to Capgemini's contact centers in Dallas, Texas, Guatemala City, Guatemala and Bangalore, India. The feedback can then be used directly to modify processes, optimize marketing campaigns and improve the overall customer experience; ultimately leading it says to accelerated growth and increased ROI.

Capgemini is no stranger to the social media space. It has already worked with 20 customers including a major airline, a major appliance manufacturer and Brown-Forman (maker of Jack Daniel's) surrounding the launch of the brand's first new product in the US since 1995 – Tennessee Honey. The first spirit company to buy ad space on Twitter (News - Alert), Jack Daniels chose Capgemini and Attensity to analyze the social media presence of its new product and its competitors.

“We predict this area is going to be huge,” says Euan Davis of HfS Research. “Multichannel strategies challenge many firms with the sheer volume of data that needs monitoring, categorizing, integrating, and acted upon. We expect marketing leaders to source third party services that can manage the explosion in data and drive more effective lead generation, churn management and campaign strategies through their provider's analytical capabilities. I expect new offerings like this to feature in the arsenal of the CMO.”

The service is part of a wider drive from Capgemini into the social media space and complements Capgemini Consulting's social media solution called “Social Insight into Action”. This solution provides consulting expertise to transform a business's systems and processes. It turns the insights from social media monitoring into actions that include operational improvement, process redesign and customer segmentation, social CRM and multi-channel strategy. 

“We're very excited that Capgemini has endorsed Attensity as the foundation of its service and is partnering with us,” said Ian Bonner, CEO of Attensity. “Capgemini's global team provides customers with world-leading implementation services. We're delighted to team with them to enable optimal business processes to understand customer sentiment, issues and opportunities online and to leverage those insights through business alerts, reporting and engagement.”

“Capgemini's Social Media Management solution allows us to have a positive impact on customers in this emerging space,” says Paul Cole, vice president of BPO customer operations at Capgemini. ”Most businesses recognize that social media has the potential for generating tremendous value for the business; be it for marketing, sales or customer service, yet many are unaware of how to best use their company's assets to effectively operate within this channel.”

“By partnering with Capgemini, companies have access to the latest and most impactful technologies as well as immediate access to skilled social media advocates, “ he adds. “As a result, they are able to respond, in near real-time, which ultimately can lead to actions that improve the bottom line.”

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