“Telekom hilft”: Customer Service in the Social Web

“Telekom hilft” (meaning “Telekom cares”) is a program instigated by Sales & Service at Telekom Deutschland GmbH and is a flagship project in the company-wide Enterprise 2.0 initiative. These efforts aim to explore new communication channels for customer service in the social web. This innovative offering of support in public is paying dividends for brand and reputation management, as well as employer branding for the business. Reactions to initial customer contact points on Twitter and Facebook have been overwhelmingly positive. This best practice case describes how the program developed, the theoretical framework behind social customer relationship management, and the concept that went into service design, as well as our findings so far. Above all, there are clear signs that customer service staff will need to develop brand new skills in the next few years, if they are to provide value-adding service communication where connected customers in the community are treated as equals.