Webcare this is how!

Webcare
this
is how!
Seven steps to webcare
in government

Digital Services programme

Webcare
this
is how!
in government


Step 1 Define what webcare means to you and
why you want to use it 8
What is webcare? 8
Webcare, should it concern you? 9
What are the costs and benefits of webcare? 10

Step 2 Provide a solid base for webcare in your organisation 14
What are your targets? 14
Who does what with webcare? 18
How does webcare fit in your organisation? 19

Step 3 Create commitment 22
How do you involve people? 22
How do you keep people interested? 23

Step 4 Decide what you want to measure 26
How do you measure? 26
Which search words should you choose? 27
What do you report and to whom? 27

Step 5 Know the legal aspects of webcare 30
What are the key issues? 30
What should you save and how? 31
How do you protect your account? 31

Step 6 Use the corporate style 34
What are the guidelines? 34
What do you put in the general description? 36
Anything else you should remember? 37
How can you maximise your reach? 37

Step 7 Start! 40
Which steps do you need to take? 40
Which elements should your work instructions comprise? 40
When do your refer? 41
Who responds? 41
How do you respond? 42
How can you deal with negative responses and complaints? 43
Is there any training? 43

Introduction

Defining webcare is simple enough – webcare is the use of social media to
find out what moves citizens and businesses (our customers) and to
interact with them by answering their questions, addressing their
comments and helping to solve their problems. Knowing how to put
webcare into practice, however, is a different matter altogether. Webcare
places new demands on the organisation and on its people. Major firms
are experimenting with webcare and successful government pilots have
been set up.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation has limited
knowledge and experience of social media in general and of webcare in
particular. reason for our Digital Services Programme to explore the use
of webcare in our organisation. The study aimed to find out who is working
on what and which possibilities there are for pooling the purchase of
expertise and tools. The study revealed a great need for knowledge and
for sharing this knowledge, particularly because webcare is still in its
infancy.

This booklet looks at webcare as a means to improve our services to
customers and to promote knowledge sharing. Knowledge, for instance,
about how questions from customers regarding regulations and subsidies
can be answered adequately and efficiently, and how to promote the use
of social media to enable customers to help each other.
other government organisations will also find this booklet of great use.
So for anyone interested in introducing webcare, let this booklet be your
guide!

4 WEbcArE THIS IS HoW! – SEvEn STEPS To WEbcArE In govErnMEnT

our Ministry is part of a nation-wide government organisation which
operates as a single organisation in many areas, particularly in
information supply. We aim to learn from each other and to build an
information infrastructure fit for today and tomorrow. The social media
are invaluable in this, and our Ministry’s knowledge of webcare would be
more than welcome.

This booklet is a guide, not a ‘holy grail’ with rules set in stone.
It couldn’t be – social media are in constant development and so are we!

Make them work for you! good luck!

Kind regards,

Maarten Hillenaar
Directeur Informatisering rijk – cIo for the Dutch government
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom relations


#meaning


Step 1 Define what webcare
means to you and why
you want to use it

What is webcare?
definition There is no single definition of webcare. People at the Ministry use several definitions,
which are best summarised as:

Improving services to customers via
the internet by listening to and answering
questions online.
online Webcare and online reputation management may seem similar, but there are differences.
reputation online reputation management is about how to deal with online questions from
customers adequately, pleasantly and correctly. Webcare goes one step further: in addition
to dealing with questions and complaints, it is about communicating online with
customers, and about tracking how customers express themselves with respect to the
Ministry itself. It should further be noted that the concept of ‘webcare’ is at present largely
limited to the netherlands. In Anglophone countries, the distinction between online
reputation management and online customer care (using social media) is not always
made explicit.

Webcare comprises a number of aspects, such as:
apply • resolving complaints;
• Answering questions;
• Providing information unprompted; and
• Providing internal feedback about customer experiences.

How would you define webcare?
The definition of the term webcare needs fine-tuning. not even wikipedia1 offers a good
term. Who can think of a suitable definition?


Social media come in all shapes and sizes. Deciding where to focus our attention is easy
however – we simply go where our customers guide us. Your analyses should show
exactly which social media your target group uses the most.

This booklet particularly looks at what are known as ‘status updates’, the opinions of or
status comments by individuals to which we at the Ministry respond. The length of these
updates messages varies, from 140 characters for Twitter status updates to much longer responses
on Facebook.

Note
government organisations deal with policy and implementation issues, as well as political
issues. but who does what? At our Ministry we have decided on the following approach:
• Policy communications are dealt with by the Ministry.
• Politically sensitive topics involving Minister or State Secretary policies are addressed
centrally (via the Ministry’s communications Department).
• Policy implementation communications are the responsibility of the services in
question.

We are using the word ‘customers’ to refer to citizens when they need, or are obliged to,
arrange transactions with governmental organizations. naturally, the reality is more
complex, but the word emphasizes how important it is to make this transaction clear
and easy.

Webcare, should it concern you?
Is webcare something that should concern you? Yes, definitively. customers are turning to
social media as a new way to communicate with or about the government. We cannot
don’t afford to ignore this development. As more and more large firms and government
ignore organisations are getting involved in webcare, customers are expecting the same from us.
If we ignore webcare it would be like our call centre ignoring telephone calls.

but getting involved in webcare requires careful consideration. Implementation bodies
must make strategic choices about when to introduce webcare.

Making yourself available through social media show’s that your organization really
cares2 about your customers and wants to help. good examples are the airlines that
used social media3 to help out customers all over the world during the ash cloud
crisis in 2010. An example of ‘bad customer’4 service by another airline was
translated in the Youtube hit ‘United breaks guitars’.


What are the costs and benefits of webcare?
Suggest introducing webcare in your organisation and don’t be surprised if the first thing
cost speci- you’ll hear is ‘how much’. The answer is simple. Initially, webcare costs more than it brings
fication in. The next question is usually – could webcare take over some of the calls that are now
being answered by the call centre. And the answer to that is a provisional yes, albeit in the
long term.

Webcare can be profitable, but it won’t be immediate. An adequate and efficient approach
to webcare could also generate other benefits. It could for instance help to reach the
audiences traditionally targeted by mailings or special campaigns. realisation of these
benefits relies on an expert approach however.

Webcare could also change the role of the customer contact centre (ccc). Most likely, the
expert role ccc would take on a more specialist role. Simple questions could increasingly be dealt
with online.

obviously, the return on Investment (roI) of webcare cannot be expressed in sums and
ROI funds alone. The adequate and efficient use of webcare could have a massive impact on
your organisation’s image. but how to measure it?

For a rough estimate of the roI, you should at least consider the following costs and
benefits:

Costs
• FTE
• office resources
• Training
• Tools
• Adaptations to the website

Benefits
• Fewer callers.
• In-depth knowledge of customers, eventually cutting
market research and customer panels costs.
• Damage control when things threaten to get out of hand.
• Image as a reliable government.


For more information: basics of social media roi5 (next presentation down the list)
was written a while ago and offers a refreshing look on the roI of social media.


#organi
sation


Step 2 Provide a solid
base for webcare in
your organisation

What are your targets?
“The world is changing so fast that it would be pointless to think about the role of
webcare in the mission, vision and strategy of your organisation”. bring up social media,
Contribution and this is what you will hear a lot. Still, it makes sense to look at what your organisation
represents and what its aims are. Ask yourself how webcare can contribute. If you can
visualise this, it will be easier to find support from your management.

Our Ministry
At our Ministry we aim to create room for entrepreneurs to innovate and to grow.
over the coming years we will focus on reducing regulations and cutting red tape.
digital Where possible, applications for regulations and subsidies will be digitised and adjusted
contact to the profiles of customers. Information needs to be entered just once, or may even be
taken from customers’ business management systems. This should simplify subsidy
applications to a single press of the button.

customers will however always continue to require advice and information from the
government. With digitisation comes a need for digital contact. Webcare will enable us to
communicate with customers in a fast and efficient manner. Moreover, it will enable
us to learn from them.

The worriers among us insist that you need an underlying strategy. if you do not want any
problems. You could for instance translate the objectives of your organisation into a
social media ambition to support this strategy.


If all is well, your social media objectives should be firmly embedded in your
communication strategy, in line with the organisation’s objectives. once your webcare is
up and running, the knowledge you gain by talking to your customers will serve as input
for your organisation’s strategy and objectives. And that, of course, would convince even
the greatest cynic ; ) !

Social media tools

Social media objectives

Communication objectives

Organisation objectives

Think about the organisation structure you want
If you are developing initiatives in a larger organisation with several implementation
bodies or divisions, it makes sense to consider the actual organisation of webcare.
You could for instance start by selecting units that bundle specific tasks, such as:
centraal • Procurement (of tools and training).
point • Knowledge (knowledge acquired and contacts within the organisation).
• Harmonising communication issues like corporate style, tone of voice etc.

Jeremy owyang distinguishes five ways in which organisations combining several
divisions develop the use of social media. once the webcare organisation is firmly in place,
customers will no longer have to run round in circles.

Centralized Distributed Coordinated Multiple Hub Holistic
and Spoke


Many organisations take an organic approach to the use of social media. Advice and
models consultancy agencies have been quick to respond with the development of various
models. For our exploration we used the Deloitte Social Media Maturity Model.

1 Ad-hoc 2 Division 3 Organisation 4 Network
Strategy & no Social Media Division has Social Integral Social Media Social Media
Operational Strategy & ad-hoc Media Strategies Strategy & Strategy chain &
Management decisions (uncoordinated) coordinated Integration
Organisation Internal Social Media External Social Service oriented Social Media
& Processes focus (experimental) Media focus Social Media integrated in primary
(experimental) services
Control & no management Social Media Social Media cIo/cEo/cFo &
Management support & cost embedded in Programme manager shared budget
allocation organisation & cost & ambassador &
allocation social media budget
Information Many tools & no supporting Social Media Social Media Shared
technology methods, no architecture & roadmap & services & central
standards functionality Standards portal
People no training & Social Media in job Social Media Social Media trust &
& Culture support profiles, limited competency innovation.
training & support framework Helpdesk Investments in
Training & Support

So – does a carefully planned and organised webcare facility guarantee success? Should it,
in fact, be strictly organised? Well, #Webcare is not an officer, nor is it a Division. Instead, it
is a mentality. All staff contribute online, says @jwdew (or jwdewaard) on twitter.

If you want to know more about the social media model in organisations, go here6.
The US red cross, for instance, aims to optimise its local social media activities by
means of the hub and spoke model. go here7 to see how they aim to unify their
communications. Wil je meer weten over het model van de rol van social media in
organisaties?

one of the things the webcare expertise group found in its exploration was that you do not
need new functions to implement webcare. Webcare is often introduced as part of the
pilot customer contact centre , and that works fine, initially at least. It makes sense to have
someone in charge who knows how large organisations work, who knows how to assess
risks and who can create commitment.


In complex cases the assistance of a project or programme manager could be called in
commit- during the initial start-up phase of webcare. To force a breakthrough, somebody from
ment outside the organisation could be called in.

Webcare works smoothly with the help of the following divisions or units:
• Department of Legal Affairs
• Department of customer complaints
• Policy
• customer contact centre (ccc)
• Department of communication
• Internet
• Knowledge centre
• IcT Division

For convenience and clarity, appoint a Single Point of contact (SPoc) for each
department. This SPoc can relay any questions to colleagues in the relevant department.

SPOC It is important to inform the organisation about the relevance of webcare. Any support the
SPoc needs from colleagues or the management must be arranged quickly and efficiently.
The right mindset among all staff will make all the difference.

mindset Don’t over-organise the use of social media. Don’t set up complicated projects and don’t
take months to get ready. In short – take it steady. before you start, do a ‘what if’ session
(more about this later). Involve people who are hardcore social media users, who also use
these new media in their private lives. Here’s a great tip on how to find them: “Take a
walk through the organisation. The people with smartphones on their desks are the ones
you need for your project”.


Who does what with webcare?
So who does what? Sometimes it is difficult to allocate a topic to a SPoc. consult
carefully and meet up regularly to discuss progress. The following overview might help.

Customer Contact Centre (CCC)
• First-line questions
• Analyse topics and issues

Dealing with customer complaints
• complaints and problems

Implementation bodies
• Second-line questions
• Map out customer needs

Policy
• Develop policy based on customer needs
• Advise politicians based on customer needs

Communication/PR/Information
• Monitor online reputation
• Signal ‘political’ issues

Legal Affairs
• Legal conditions
• Use of social media and the government Information Act

Internet Division
• Use ccc findings to update website
• Measure channel behaviour
• Monitor online needs
• Monitoring tools


How does webcare fit in your organisation?
besides agreeing on the organisation and structure of webcare, you must also agree on the
norms and values that are to apply online. After all, no team can function as one if there is
firm any ambiguity, no matter how well everything else is organised. These norms and values
arrange- could be summarised as:
ments • We do not follow our own colleagues.
• We always speak on behalf of the organisation and never respond on a personal title.
• We do not make promises we cannot keep.
• We do not speak ill of others.
• We answer only if we know the information we give is accurate.
• We always do as we say, both to ourselves and to our customers.

In addition to these internal norms and values, the webcare team has to understand and
underwrite its role as the online face of the organisation. This carries through to how the
team acts. ‘our focus is our customer’ should not be the hollow phrase used by some
organisations, but should be every-day practice. The entire webcare team must be driven
by a wish to focus on providing excellent services and act accordingly. Every single day!
The webcare team speaks to the organisation on behalf of the customer. This means it
must have the strength to cut through red tape and deal with an inflexible organisation.
The members of the webcare team must all care deeply for both their organisation and
their customers – only then will the team be successful.


#commit
ment


Step 3 Create
commitment

How do you involve people?
‘I’m keen, but my boss isn’t.’ Trailblazers in webcare have heard it all before. Usually it is
ignorance on the part of managers. Some tips and tricks to create commitment:
• refer them what others are doing – this helps to settle nerves.
tips and • Show exactly how webcare can contribute to realising the targets of the organisation.
tricks • Webcare can help to emphasise an organisation’s strong points. Show people how.
• Suggest a pilot period during which webcare is field tested, under supervision if required.
It will help people at all levels in your organisation to get used to working with webcare
and to learn from the interactions with their target groups.
• Find a high-level ‘ambassador’ and provide him or her with the right information.
• organise a “what if session”. Put together a group of people that is representative of
the organisation and sit down to discuss what terrible fate could befall all of them if
webcare was to be introduced. Put this on paper and suggest solutions. It’s a comforting
exercise, if only because you will have given it some thought.
• of course, the fact that your boss isn’t keen isn’t an excuse. After all, you are
responsible for customer communications. Just start (and don’t make it a half-hearted
attempt either) and you will see it will all go smoothly. After a few days, show what you
are doing and how things have evolved. This is exactly how many other webcare teams
have started.
• Are you afraid of starting without commitment? Then start by listening, analyse what
you hear being said about the organisation and report this to your manager.


If necessary, bring someone in to make the
preliminary analyses and presentations.
Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to put
things into proper perspective!
How do you keep people interested?
Webcare belongs to everyone in the organisation. Make sure the initial enthusiasm does
attention not ebb away – keep it alive.
• celebrate the successes you have and make sure they reach every corner
of the organisation.
• communicate extraordinary feats (the first one thousand tweets, positive posts,
posts by celebrities…).
• Show the organisation that you are communicating and be proud!
• Use a projector to create a twitter fountain in the reception area or in the restaurant.
• Share remarkable posts via the intranet.
• Show the organisation what you and your organisation learn from
analysing internet buzz.
• Help your customer service people feel like rock stars!

go here8 to see 9 Ways Top brands Use Social Media for better customer Service


#to measure
is to know


Step 4 Decide what you
want to measure

How do you measure?
online buzz is a feature of many platforms and networks, from Twitter to Facebook.
It is impossible to keep track of what is being said about your organisation all the time.
online buzz When the buzz is intense, you need a central focus to analyse the volume, sentiments,
trending topics, source types, sources and authors. At the same time, you and your team
need to be able to steer corporate accounts on the main platforms and to work together.
This is where a tool comes in handy. You may consider purchasing one. Many of the tools
available on the market today allow you to monitor, communicate (engagement) and
organise work (workflow management).

once you have decided on which tool to use, don’t just think short-term. Think long term
too. In the beginning you may just want to listen, but soon you will be asked to provide
long term analyses and reports. consider the registration of customer communications, which you
may need in the longer term. can the tool be coupled to a customer database? Evaluate
the tools based on the following four aspects:
• Data collection (measuring);
• Data processing (analysis);
• Insight delivery (for instance by means of dashboard);
• Engagement (collaboration, campaign management and ScrM).

Some tools can be adjusted to your specifications, others are more or less
tools ‘pre-programmed’. When you start your webcare services, go for simplicity, so you
won’t get swamped by the many options.

According to Wikipedia, the term buzz comes from word of mouth marketing9.
Last but not least: remember to include the use of social media in customer satisfaction
surveys. Ask customers to provide feedback for a representative image of webcare and its
added value. customer satisfaction about webcare can also be compared to satisfaction
about the customer contact centre for instance.


Which search words should you choose?
You want to know what people are saying about your organisation’s services on the
internet. This is what is referred to as monitoring your ‘buzz’. To do this properly, you
must carefully consider your search words. Finding the right words may seem easy, but
may prove surprisingly tricky. After all, the terms you consider standard may not be what
your customers use at all. As civil servants we tend to use the terms we are familiar with,
but they may mean nothing to customers. So what are the right words?
• Are there any customer panels or surveys? Listen in and discover the words
search customers use to discuss your organisation.
terms • Subsidy applications may be restricted to specific periods. relevant search words will
often draw a blank outside these periods.
• Keep a finger on the pulse. If your organisation or a particular regulation features in the
news, add new search words where appropriate.
• Find smart combinations of words, and filter out what you don’t need.

What do you report and to whom?
Different target groups within the organisation have different information needs.
The scope and depth of reports may vary from one target group to the next. general
reports often contain volumes, trending topics, specific organisational issues, etc.
Think carefully about the specific information needs of each target group.
Typical information needs would be:

Board and management Internet division Communication
• costs and benefits • Topics and links to the website • Sentiment analysis
Information • complaints • number of followers
needs • Satisfaction • Traffic to website via social
media
• number of retweets

Also give careful thought to the frequency of your reports. Some managers may want
feedback instant feedback on escalating incidents. SPocs generally need a weekly update on the
number of complaints, the nature of these complaints and the solutions. The board
generally settles for a quarterly report on remarkable issues and key data.


#legal
aspects
and
security

Step 5 Know the legal
aspects of webcare

What are the key issues?
We can be brief about the legal aspects. There are three key areas:

1 You are communicating on platforms that aren’t yours, and, in principle, that makes all
the information you put out there public. Where possible, in your answer, include links
public to the organisation’s website or to other information the organisation makes available
online. Provide general feedback, never give direct answers. Webcare is never about
personal responses. Instead, its effectiveness lies in serving several customers with one
answer, the so-called ‘one-to-many’ concept.

2 once information is released on social media, you cannot control it and it can become
up-to-date outdated. Where possible, provide links to your own website which you can control.
And don’t worry: regular users of the internet know to put more faith in a week-old
post than in a three-year old post.

3 The customer is entitled to privacy: never send any personal information via the social
media. Start by checking the availability of general information to solve a question and
privacy refer customers to your website for information. If you do need to exchange personal
details, be careful which channel you use. Dealing through the customer contact centre
is generally much cheaper than using a direct message. We recommend that you send
customers a direct message to ask for their telephone number so the ccc can contact
them.


What should you save and how?
The Dutch government Information Act specifies that, in principle, citizens and customers
have access to all government information. Webcare is public by definition, in part at least.
After all, the information is put out on a public platform that can be followed by anyone
with an interest in the subject.

If webcare contacts become privacy-sensitive, for instance when people want to know how
much benefit they are entitled to or how their case is coming along, we recommend that
individual you save and record the conversation, preferably in an existing database. If you do not
contact have a suitable database, you should think about developing one, temporarily if need be.
registration of individual customer contacts can prove awkward, because not all blogs or
tweets can be traced to a particular user for instance. nevertheless, register what you
can, and generate an account number for the registration wherever possible.

A number of monitoring systems have so-called ‘engagement modules’ (more about this
later). These sometimes offer opportunities to record customer data.

contact registration is an issue for government as well as businesses. After all, the more
social CRM you know about a customer, the easier it is to target your communication and sales.
A great deal of thought is going into how the social media can help to understand the
behaviour and preferences of customers. This new discipline is referred to as social crM
(ScrM).

How do you protect your account?
Security is something we can be brief about. In general, webcare password management is
the same as for any other login code or password. Don’t leave passwords lying around,
change them regularly and only give them to people who are authorised to use webcare to
speak on behalf of the organisation.

And if ever you do get hacked -
• Don’t panic;
security • change your password;
• Delete all spam.


#getting
started


Step 6 Use the
corporate style

What are the guidelines?
tips and The corporate style guidelines apply to all means of communication and therefore also
tricks cover the social media. There are specific government style20 guidelines for social media.
If you have any special wishes or requirements, contact your communications
Department. Together with the general Affairs Department they will look at the various
options.

Have a look at the screendumps below. They show you who you are dealing with and the
elements you need to design your page.

NS10


citizenM11

Vodafone12

ING13


antwoord4
bedrijven14

What do you put in the general description?
clear Think carefully about the general description or the personal details on your page.
description be clear and specific to avoid disappointing your customers. If necessary, indicate:
• The topics you will respond to. If you don’t use Direct Messages (DM), make this clear.
If there are more accounts operating within the organisation (corporate for instance)
indicate this too.
• Specify the opening times.
• Specify which government unit you represent.
• Always add a link to your website to let people know that yours is a real account.
• clearly specify the topics about which you will communicate: when will I get my
subsidy, what does the inspection report say about …, do I qualify for…
• If you will be using the social media for a specific period only, for instance during
a campaign, then indicate this. As your space is limited, keep it short and simple,
like: ‘24/7’, ‘no DM’ or ‘Mon-Fri’.

How to choose your tone of voice?
Striking the right tone of voice can prove tricky. communicating via the social media is by
tone of nature casual, bordering on the informal, and not at all like the usual businesslike
voice government approach. now the same is expected from you, not only because of the
nature of social media, but also because of the space available to you. Don’t worry: it is all
part of the game and it will only bring you closer to the customer. only if the customer
takes a formal approach, should you respond likewise.


Anything else you should remember?
Emoticons and abbreviations
The use of emoticons and abbreviations depends on the style (and reputation) of the
emoticons organisation. consider for instance:
• Do the people you communicate with use emoticons?
• Is there any resistance to the use of emoticons or abbreviations?
• Emoticons and abbreviations are great tools to make the most of the space you
have to communicate.

If you opt to use emoticons and abbreviations, make sure they are applied uniformly and
consistently throughout the team.

Focus on employees
photos Always be aware that while your communications via social media are one-on-one, they
are more impersonal than a telephone call for instance. Find out about the possibilities
for including photos of the webcare team.

Findability
When you create your page, make sure that you can be found by search engines. consider
UrLs and SEo techniques. A UrL like www.agentschapnl.nl/webcare is short, powerful and
easily indexed by google. Also consider title tags and metatags. These determine the
page rank, and conversion. Ask your internet manager for assistance.

hastags # Make sure your topic can be found. Include hastags # in answers to topics customers will
search for. This makes you easier to find, and it will eventually get you more followers.

Include your twitter account in other communication tools (print too) and on your
promotie website. Promote your webcare team on your website and in other communication
materials.

How can you maximise your reach?
You can maximise your reach by following people who twitter about subjects that relate
to your services. realise that creating this reach is not what a webcare team should be
about. reach becomes a key condition only when the webcare team starts to put out
proactive information for its customers. For example, would it be a good idea to put your
twitter team on your website for instance?


38 #ELIcArE – EEn goED bEgIn…

#start!

39 #ELIcArE – EEn goED bEgIn…

Step 7 Start!

Which steps do you need to take?
To start webcare, you usually take the following four steps.

4steps Step 1 Acquire knowledge
Step 2 Start to listen
Step 3 Start to respond (often in Pilot project)
Step 4 Make the official launch

read this booklet and you will have completed Step 1. And after buying the right utility
you can start to listen. Usually, one month of ‘listening’ will be enough to get a feel for
the scope and nature of the online buzz. It is important to make agreements about what
to respond to and what not, and most of all how. These are very important, as everything
you do is visible and will generally stay around for a long time.

Which elements should your work instructions
comprise?
• What do you respond to, and what not?
respond • Who responds?
• How fast should you be?
• How do you respond?
• How to deal with complaints and negative comments?
• Do you refer people?
• What will you respond to and how?

Think carefully about what you respond to. And most of all – don’t let your focus be
drawn to the negative buzz only. A simple rule of thumb is:


We respond to
• Questions about our services, regulations and subsidies.
respond • Posts with complaints about or problems with our organisation.
• Posts that suggest a possible complaint or problem involving our organisation
(for this you may have to read between the lines).

We don’t respond to
• Posts that are not about our services or organisation.
don’t • Discussions held on the basis of opinions.
respond • Posts with excessive use of bad language and/or swearing.

When do your refer?
Social media are an excellent platform for a single government desk. customers deal with
all sorts of organisations, from the Ministry to the Tax Authority and the chamber of
commerce. If you don’t have the answer to a question, find out where the customer
should go. only refer customers, however, if you are absolutely certain that this
government organisation will be able to help.

Who responds?
You can respond as an organisation, but you can also decide to personalise the members
of the webcare team. You can even do this on Twitter where you could end a tweet by
means of a cotag (the ^-character), followed by the two initials of the responding team
member. For instance:
Theo Zijderveld : ^TZ
Annet van Kruiningen : ^AK
The cotags are explained on the Twitter wallpaper or the special webcare team internet
home page. You could even include a photo


How do you respond?
When responding to questions repMen.com recommends an approach that is:

Businesslike
Stay focused on your goal at all times. For us that means helping customers.
Keep the conversation businesslike!

Empathic
Show you understand the situation in which the customer finds himself but
don’t get carried away.

Short
Keep your response short and succinct. The more you say, the more room
there is for ambiguity.

ZEKEP Efficient
formula carefully read the customer’s post and focus primarily on the actual question or the
information the customer needs. Do not put any information online that is subject to
change (amounts for instance).

Personal
We take an informal approach, unless the initial post demands a formal reply.
Some more tips
recap the question before you answer. To a question like:
• ‘what is the final submission date for the combined statement?’
– don’t answer: 1 June.
– but answer: The final submission date for the combined statement is 31 May.

Where possible refer to the website. Do, however, first check that the site does in fact
offer the information needed to answer the question. contact the web manager if you
think the page is unsatisfactory.

When should respond?
Aim to respond within one hour. Inform the customer if you are unable to do so.
Try to indicate why it takes longer to answer.


How can you deal with negative responses
and complaints?
Social media are perfect for showing disapproval and giving negative comments so don’t
don’t be be alarmed by them. If you read a nasty comment, first try to establish who wrote it. Look
alarmed up previous tweets and try to find out more about this person through google. This
should give you some idea about this person’s habits, whether he or she is habitually
negative or whether this was an exception. If the sender tends to be blunt all the time,
don’t respond. If the negative feedback is an exception, do respond. If you expect that
you will remain at loggerheads, try to contact the sender in another manner and involve
the customer complaints department if need be.

Is there any training?
There is no practical webcare training yet, inside or outside of government. on-the-job
training on training is an option, and has been practice in many organisations. There are a number of
the job businesses and freelancers who offer training sessions or who can help you implement
webcare. Don’t forget to look at how other government organisations are getting along.
And remember - we are all still learning. So use your common sense, steer your own
course and pick up practical knowledge along the way!


Last but not least

While technological advances may seem to have done nothing but widen
the gap between organisations and customers, social media have
changed this. once again, customers are hopeful that their input will
help organisations to cut the red tape. And staff are hopeful that the new
media will carry the voice of the customer up to the management or
board.

Social media offer organisations the opportunity to improve services
hand in hand with their customers.

Use the power of being able to think outside in!

As a member of a webcare team try to read the question behind the
question. In your organisation be the voice for your customers and help
improve services. Speak up for them and address colleagues if things need
to be organised better or differently. Provide feedback on changes and
improvements to your customers. This is how you really get the dialogue
going!

good luck! Let us know how you fare!

Tony nolde
Digital Services Programme Manager


Who did we talk to?

In alphabetical order (by first name):

Albert Mallien Information centre operations Department
Anne-Marie IJsenbruk cIo office
bas van vliet government Service for Land and Water Management
bert Mackaay communications Department
bert van Loon national Service for the Implementation of regulations
Davied van berlo civil Servant 2.0
Deniece reith national Service for the Implementation of regulations
Fokelien Post FbTo
greta van bemmelen Information centre operations Department
Jeanine Lagendijk new netherlands Food and consumer
Product Safety Authority
Jitze baarsma Wonderland
John Kusters new netherlands Food and consumer
José otte Academie voor overheidscommunicatie
Koos van der Steenhoven AbD Top consultants
Lia Hommes cc You
Linda Duits Diep onderzoek
Maarten Hillenaar Dgobr
Mark Imandt Ministry of Education, culture and Science
Menno van Tartwijk Ministry of Education, culture and Science
Mirjam van Midden (UWv) Implementation Employee Insurance Schemes
niels Konijn De roode Ploeg
Pieter rietman Arabische Wijn
ramon de Louw cIo office
rogier Esselbrugge nL Agency
ronald van der Aart repmen.com
Sara Linders-Schlijper Tax and customs Administration
Saskia Thissen DDv programme
Stephan Jenniskens nL Agency
Tea van Lingen government Service for Land and Water Management
Ton Persoon TonPersoon.nl
Udo Hoeke Academie voor overheidscommunicatie
vernon Donraadt DIcTU
Wemke Steenbergen-venema national Service for the Implementation of regulations
Willy Loomans new netherlands Food and consumer



Glossary

Buzz
The term used to describe discussion and interaction characterised by frequent expressed
interest and/or mentions on social media: news items, tweets, status updates, etc.

CCC
customer contact centre, also known as helpdesk.

SPOC
Single Point of contact. SPocs can refer questions to colleagues in their own department.

Social Media
The use of web-based and mobile technologies that enable interactive communication.
Users place content online (user-generated content). Hyves, Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn are commonly used social media platforms.

Social Media Maturity Model
A number of social media maturity models are available on the internet, but for our
exploration we opted for Deloitte’s Social Media Maturity Model as used by nL Agency.
based on the Social Media Maturity Model we distinguished the following processes that
need to be addressed to improve the use of social media:
• Strategy & business operations;
• organisation & Processes;
• control & Management;
• Information Technology;
• People & culture

These processes are rated on a scale from 1 to 4. Level 1 (Ad-hoc) means nothing has been
arranged, while level 2 (Division) means arrangements have been made for the Division
itself or for the middle to long term only. Level 3 (organisation) means the entire
organisation is involved in social media and level 4 (network) that social media form an
integral part of the organisation’s work processes.

Webcare
Improving services to customers by listening to questions posed online and by
answering them.

Web monitoring
Listening in on the internet: what are people saying about you, your organisation or its
presence on websites and social networks?


References

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcare
2 http://venpop.com/2012/5-ways-social-media-improves-customer-service/
3 http://mashable.com/2010/04/22/social-media-iceland-volcano/
4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ygc4zoqozo
5 http://www.slideshare.net/thebrandbuilder/
olivier-blanchard-basics-of-social-media-roi
6 http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/
keynote-social-business-forecast-2011-the-year-of-integration
7 http://www.slideshare.net/wharman/social-media-handbook-for-red-cross-field-units
8 http://mashable.com/2011/10/28/social-customer-service-brands/
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_buzz!
10 http://twitter.com/#!/nS_online
11 http://twitter.com/#!/citizenM
12 http://www.facebook.com/vodafonenL
13 http://twitter.com/#!/Ingnl_webcare
14 http://twitter.com/#!/Antw4bedrijven


Digital Services Programme
The Digital Services Programme was set up by
the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture &
Innovation to optimise e-services for
customers. It develops facilities to enable
online business with the government for a
more efficient and customer-driven subsidy,
licensing, e-registration and basic registration
process, both at the Ministry and throughout
the government organisation.
To follow programme developments via blog
or twitter, visit ddvprogramma.posterous.com
– twitter.com/ddvprogramma

Colophon
This brochure is published by:
The Digital Services Programme of the Ministry
of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation

Postaddress
Postbox 20401 | 2500 EK | The Hague
T 070 378 43 13 | E ddv@minlnv.nl

More Information
For more information about webcare and the
Digital Services programme, please phone
+31 (0) 70 378 67 50 or send a mail to
ddv@minlnv.nl.

Text
Annet van Kruiningen
Theo Zijderveld

Illustration
Harlingseboys

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500 copies, january 2012

Webcare this is how!

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