Volcano fallout points to social networking need

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 20 April 2010 17:48

Business IT - Networking

Lonely Planet's Twitter and Facebook pages have provided a glimpse over the last few days of what it's like to be stuck overseas when a volcano blows - they also give a clue as to the direction that savvy call centre operators might take in the future.

Airline call centres around the world have been sagging under the weight of inquiries about flights to or from Europe, where most airports have been closed due to the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano. But according to CRM software specialist, RightNow Technologies, in the future it might be possible to deal with some of the calls by integrating social networking tools with call centre computing platforms.

Ted Bray, vice president of the company's contact centre solutions business, today said a rising number of corporations were attempting to harness society's enthusiasm for social media 'and turn it into something proactive rather than something that has been reactive.'

Bray said that the 400 million plus population of Facebook now made it the world's third largest 'country' after China and India. He added that 'more things are happening on social media than on email.'

Corporations and Governments were now grappling to deal with that he said. 

According to Michael Bishop, managing director of SmartSpeak which provides integrated contact centre computing solutions, the airlines have been identified this week as clear candidates for early adoption of social networking tools in their call centres.

'All airlines at the moment are having strife with the volcano,' according to Bishop. He said that it would have made sense for them to use Twitter to provide information to customers delayed by the closure of airports across Europe.

While international airlines have been manning contact centres around the clock, many have acknowledged long waiting times given the volumes of people trying to access information about travel plans.