Social Customer Service@Scale: Using Sprinklr, GM was able to streamline its internal operations and improve customer satisfaction.

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How GM fine-tuned its approach to social media
The world's largest automaker has streamlined how it responds to mentions on Facebook, Twitter, and
blogs, and it has expanded its outreach at events such as SXSW.
By Matt Wilson | Posted: March 21, 2012
Whether you're a big-deal influencer attending South by Southwest, a customer looking for some help,
or someone who happens to mention Cadillac on Twitter, General Motors wants to reach out to you.
Speaking to a crowd of attendees at Ragan Communications' Social Media for PR and Corporate
Communications Conference in Las Vegas, Rebecca Harris said there's no silver bullet for making
connections in social media.
"It's not one thing for everybody," said Harris, GM social media strategist. "It's one person at a time."
Over the past few years, GM has made it easier for employees to make those connections, not only on
social media websites, but at one of the biggest social media events of the year, SXSW.
Building lanes
In a GM survey, 11 percent of people said they consider social media is a source of information about
automakers. That's not a huge number compared with other sources, such as word of mouth, TV ads,
search engines, or dealerships. What is a big number is the portion of that 11 percent that said social
media really impacts their opinions—39 percent.
"This is a place we should be paying attention to," Harris said.
Not only has GM trained its entire PR group on social media policy, "now we're taking that training
online so that anyone in the company can take the social media training," she said. The company
has Twitter accounts for each of its brands, Facebook accounts for brands and certain cars,YouTube
channels, a Google+ page (with which it's still experimenting), a blog, an employee video site and a
Facebook-like community.
Although the company tries to give each brand and model its own individual flavor, "We try to make
sure we're all running down the same path as we engage," Harris said.
For a while that wasn't happening, as the public relations, marketing, and customer service departments
worked at arm's length from one another. So Harris and her team developed a "swim lane" document
that laid out the specifics of each department's social media responsibilities.
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"That, in itself, has been an amazing difference for us to do our jobs," she said.
Customer service handles customer questions and problems; PR handles outreach to the media, trade
publications, and influencers, as well as reputation management; and marketing seeks potential
customers and lifestyle influencers. For example, when Pauly D (from "Jersey Shore") or Beyonce asks
where they can buy a Cadillac (and they really did on Twitter), marketing offers that guidance.
Along with the swim lane document, GM also turned to Sprinklr to get everyone on the same page.
"We weren't using any of the same systems," Harris said. Now, teams can track metrics, make
assignments, archive conversations, and make sure two people aren't handling the same case at once.
Using the system has cut down customer response times from 12 hours to 90 minutes, Harris said.
The company has also added monitoring "pretty much around the clock," using a tool developed with PR
agency Fleishman-Hillard, she said.
"We didn't have weekend coverage before we brought these three teams together," Harris said. "It's
really made a difference. We're seeing a difference in the tone of our pages." For example, more people
are coming to GM's defense in comments sections.
Successes and learning experiences
In January, GM reclaimed the status of world's largest automaker from Toyota. Understandably, the
company shared the news on Twitter and Facebook.
"Within 15 minutes, the Facebook post generated more than 300 'likes,' 60 comments, and 63 shares,"
Harris said.
What's interesting is that a Valentine's Day post asking people for "love at first sight" stories was almost
as popular, with 200 likes and more than 100 comments within 15 minutes. Harris said asking people
about themselves "can generate some good will across your pages."
However, "there some instances where we can't make everybody happy," she said.
For example, a blogger posted that a dealer had told her she'd have to get a new car because her
Chevrolet Cavalier's gas pedal was broken and the dealer, for some reason, couldn't get a new one.
"Those kinds of things I see go up on the wall, and my blood pressure goes through the roof," Harris
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said.
Harris' team directly messaged the blogger and, after two days of back-and-forth, directed her to a
different dealership, where her car was fixed.
"You just don't know what's going to happen," she said.
SXSW
In recent years General Motors, specifically the Chevrolet brand, has had a huge presence at the SXSW
festival, a top destination for social media entrepreneurs and experts. Attendees there are young and
affluent, and not necessarily the average Chevy buyers. The company's aim, then, is to get people in
seats and tell them a story about the brand.
One way GM did that was by offering people test drives. In the "Drive a Chevy" promotion, attendees
could sign up to get 10 minutes with any Chevy—a Volt, a Corvette, a Camaro.
Another program, "Catch a Chevy" involved 55 Cruzes and Equinoxes driving around festival hotels and
meeting places to pick people up and take them to their next destination. It really helps in areas of
Austin, Texas, with few public transportation options, Harris said. Twitter exploded with talk about the
program, she said, and people came to know drivers' names.
GM also offered a "recharge lounge" where people could power up their phones and tablets, and made
a series of videos with Stephanie Wonderlin. (In 2011, it was Shira Lazar.) "That common voice helped
us," Harris said.
From the event in 2011, Chevy saw a 13 percent boost in its Facebook audience, 85 percent growth on
Foursquare, 25 percent more Gowalla followers, and 10 percent more Twitter followers.
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