This document discusses calculating the return on investment (ROI) for social customer service programs. It provides formulas and sample calculations for determining call center savings from increased agent deflection and improved productivity, as well as costs for staffing, technology, and marketing a social customer service program. An example ROI calculation shows potential annual gains of $170,664 from call center savings, costs of $131,204, and an ROI of 22.5%.

1. Social Customer Service ROI
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2. ROI Gains
Call Center Savings:
• Increased Agent Deflection:
• Direct,
• Indirect.
• Improved Agent Productivity.
• Lowered Average Handling Time
• Increased First Contact Resolution Rate and
• Knowledge Base generation.
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3. ROI Costs
Common costs for social customer service
programs:
• People,
• Technology, and
• Marketing (of the social customer service
program).
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4. ROI Formula
ROI = (Gains - Costs)/Costs x 100
ROI is shown as a percentage.
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5. Sample Calculations
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6. Gains
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7. Call Center Savings -
Direct Agent Defection
FORMULAS
# New Convos answered by Customers =
(# Total New Convos Answered) x (% New Convos
Answered by Customers)
# of Direct Deflected Contacts =
(# New Convos answered by Customers) * Est
Direct Deflection Rate
Savings per period=
(# of Deflected Calls) x (Avg Cost per Call)
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8. Call Center Savings –
Agent Defection
CALCULATION:
# New Convos Answered by Customers =
(6,500 New Convos Answered/month) x 70% =
4,550 New Convos Answered by Cust per month
# Direct Deflected Calls = (4,550 New Convos
Answered per month) * 10% = 455 per month
Savings = (455 Deflected calls per month) *
($25/call) = $11,375 per month = $136,500/year.
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9. Call Center Savings –
Reduced AHT
FORMULAS
# Social Cases Impacted =
(# Social Cases per period) x (% Social Cases
Impacted)
Savings per period =
AHT x (Agent Cost per hour) x (# Social Cases
Impacted)
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10. Call Center Savings –
Reduced AHT
CALCULATION
# Social Cases Requiring Assistance will be a known
metric.
For example purposes, assume based on examples
related to Agent Deflection shown above. Out of
6,500 New Social Conversations per month, a total
of 1,755 were deflected. 4,745 cases still require
agent assistance.
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11. Call Center Savings –
Reduced AHT
CALCULATION
# Social Cases = 4,745 Social Cases/mo = 56,940
Social Cases/yr
# Social Cases Impacted = (56,940 Social Cases/yr)
x 10% = 5,694/yr
Savings per period = (12 min/case) x ($30/hr x 1
hr/60 min) x (5,694 Cases/yr) = $34,164/yr
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12. Costs
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13. People costs…
FORMULAS:
Burdened Compensation per Social Team Member
= (Salary + bonus + benefits load) x (% Time
Devoted to Social).
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14. People costs…
CALCULATION:
Cost of Manager =
($105,000/yr burdened compensation) x (20%
Time) = 21,000$/yr
Cost of data analyst =
($100,000/yr burdened comp) x (20% Time) =
$20,000/yr
Total costs = $41,000/yr
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15. Tech costs
FORMULA
Tech costs =
Sum of individual tech components
described above. Use incremental
costs only.
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16. Tech costs
Assume 3 Support Techs (shown under
People Cost example) are new hires.
Need incremental CRM seats with
Social Add-on functionality.
Also needed is modest community
solution to supplement searchability of
Facebook community.
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17. Tech costs
Total Tech Solution costs for example =
[Incremental seats social customer
service solution]
+ (Cost for modest Community solution)
+ (Subscription Costs for Premium
Social Monitoring)
+ Implementation Costs
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18. Tech costs
CALCULATION:
Tech costs=
[($200/user per mo for CRM/SCRM) x
(3 seats)]
+ ($4,167 per mo Community)
+ ($1,500 per month Social Monitoring)
+ $15,000
= $90,204 for first year.
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19. ROI
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20. ROI Formula
ROI = (Gains - Costs)/Costs x 100
ROI is shown as a percentage.
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21. ROI Formula
GAINS =
$136,500 + $34,164 = $170,664
COSTS =
$41,000 + $90,204 = 131,204
ROI =
($170,664 - $141,204)/$131,204 x 100 = 22.5%
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22. Contact information
Natalie Petouhoff Kathy Herrmann
DoctorNatalie@gmail.com info@kathyherrmann.com
DrNatalieNews www.kathyherrmann.com
@DrNatalie @KathyHerrmann
+DrNatalie +KathyHerrmann
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