At the bi-annual Execs in the Know Customer Response Summit in March 2018, Andy Yasutake, Senior Director of Global Technology and Solutions & Operations at LinkedIn, spoke about using Directly’s unique customer care model to manage customer service surges. Here are the key takeaways:
How does LinkedIn leverage Directly?
“There is this marketplace of people out there . . . very engaged members who are already active on LinkedIn hosting and helping other members. What if we could tap into that in some way? We partnered with Directly. Directly offers an expert-based solution.We already had a significant amount of members engaging in our community forums, in our help centers . . . What if we picked a few members and offered them a monetary reward?”
How did Directly help with a significant surge in customer service requests?
“Surge protection was built in. In 2012 when we had an issue . . . it took us 16 weeks to recover. We had to hire a bunch of people that didn’t know how to use our tools. [In 2016] it was [re] exposed, but a lot of members started contacting us. We had a 1300% increase. [This time] we engaged experts . . . and leveraging the power of the Directly platform with our tools and our brand of LinkedIn, we were able to improve performance.”
What has Directly done for LinkedIn overall?
“We were getting incredible response times. An email that would take twenty four, seventeen hours . . . we were getting response times in six minutes, so the customer satisfaction went through the roof. They’re going, ‘This is like a real time channel, except it’s email.’ Directly’s solution helped us identify members . . . offer them a Directly/LinkedIn co-branded message . . . but it offers [the service request] up first to [Directly] experts before it goes to an internal [representative].
“It was an incredible solution that was just offering general support. The impact has been significant cost savings. . . . [and] we’re averaging 3 to 5 minutes on response times for emails that would have taken 24 hours. . . . Our internal employees . . . are actually working on higher value channels.
Join the CX conversation with us on Twitter @Directly, and if you want to find out how Directly can transform your customer service, visit our website or schedule a demo today.
