Beyond the Bot: How Social Care is Revolutionizing CX- With Brooke B Sellas

"Remember when COVID was a thing?"

It's shocking to imagine something that completely flipped our world upside down is now casual conversation. But like any plot twist in history, it left us with a permanently different story.

The pandemic didn't just change us – it revolutionized how we shop, work, and connect. Suddenly, our smartphones and laptops weren't just gadgets; they became our lifelines to the outside world. And guess what? We got pretty comfortable in our digital cocoons.

Fast forward to today, and we're all living in a world that feels straight out of The Jetsons. From global retail giants to your favorite local bakery, everyone's set up shop in the digital neighborhood. Want groceries at midnight? Done. Craving that artisanal coffee? Just a tap away.

But here's where it gets interesting: how do brands retain that human touch in a world of pixels and algorithms?

Picture this: Someone's late-night pizza doesn't show up, and boom – they're on X (formerly Twitter) sharing their hangry thoughts, tagging that pizza chain for answers. Or scroll through TikTok, and you'll find your favorite influencer raving about their latest beauty haul. And don't get us started on the Dyson Airwrap tutorials-gone-wrong that somehow turn into viral gold – with Dyson themselves jumping into the comments with rescue tips (and sometimes surprise gifts!).

This is social care in action – the secret sauce in today's customer experience recipe. And who better spill the tea on this than Brooke B Sellas? She recently dropped by the CX-WISE podcast to chat with our host Nathan Bennett about how brands can master this digital dance of customer connection. Ready to dive in?

The ABC of social care

You may be wondering, what exactly is social care? As Sellas puts it, "Social care is a crucial part of your CX." At its core, social care means providing customer service and fostering positive buyer interactions through social media channels.

The goal? Building a platform for two-way communication between customers and their favorite brands, nurturing healthy relationships, and cultivating a loyal customer base.

We see brands practicing social care daily – answering questions, providing customer service, engaging with consumers in casual, fun ways, conducting satisfaction surveys, and much more.

By actively engaging in social care, brands signal their 24/7 availability to customers, showing they're more than just an online logo and proving that the joy of the buyer-seller dance remains alive and well.

A quick scroll through any social platform reveals social care in action. Spotify maintains @SpotifyCares on X, a dedicated handle for addressing customer concerns online. Nike follows suit with a similar approach. Zappos has always made it a point to refund incorrect deliveries, while Air France regularly jumps on X to help customers with flight delays, changes, or lost luggage.

Sephora stands out as another social care connoisseur, according to Sellas. Managing numerous brands under their flagship store, they handle an enormous dataset covering every brand, product, and service. Through AI-powered chatbots, they address customer queries accurately while freeing human agents to tackle more complex, time-sensitive tasks.

A common misconception? That social care exists purely for query resolution and escalation management. In reality, it's designed to nurture online customer relationships and create an environment where customers become loyal fans through trust and reliability.

Many brands mistakenly focus solely on social media complaints, overlooking potential sales opportunities. While researching for her latest book, Sellas discovered that at least 20% of online client conversations centered on acquisition questions rather than retention complaints.

While social care aims to simplify customer experiences, brands must carefully balance resolution times across social and traditional channels. If social care delivers significantly faster results than standard conflict resolution channels, it might inadvertently undermine customer trust in the brand overall.

Social monitoring vs. social care

In the vast world of B2B SaaS, every second term sounds the same. So, it's easy for beginners to get common phrases mixed up. But it's also common for brands to look at social monitoring as social care. But Sellas is here to clear this up.

Social monitoring is what every company is (hopefully) doing all the time. Somebody comes in, they leave a message, you respond, and everyone lives happily ever after.

But social care in its essence is not reactive. Traditional customer support or service is reactive, where you let the customer come to you (with a problem).

Successful social care, in its essence, is proactive in nature. You make the first move as a brand; and successful social care starts with social listening.

Customers don’t sit in front of their screen with the intention of tagging a brand for a job well done. The service needs to be so exemplary and have a unique touch, one that the brand is known for, that it is easy to identify who they (the customer) are raving about.

The AI of it all

Did you really think we'd get this far into the blog without mentioning AI? After all, it lives and breathes in almost every online interaction.

When it comes to customer care, Sellas's agency employs a simple yet effective classification system for incoming queries: green, yellow, and red.

Green = Standard FAQs and readily available information that frontline agents can easily handle

Yellow = Questions that spark doubt or uncertainty, requiring specialized team assistance

Red = Critical emergencies, i.e., forgotten passwords, hacked accounts, incorrect deliveries

All these color-coded situations share one common thread: the desired outcome of a seamless customer journey. Integrating AI into this process not only frees up agents' time but also adds a layer of accuracy.

Sellas recommends that organizations leverage AI for their green and yellow situations: answering standard questions, surfacing relevant offers and discounts, and directing customers to appropriate departments. Meanwhile, human agents should handle code red situations personally. While AI can streamline the process, human touch remains vital when dealing with critical issues.

Think about it – have you ever forgotten your password or experienced account interference? In these scenarios, direct human interaction provides essential reassurance that everything will be okay.

In the previous episode of CX-WISE, Andy Crestodina shared a key insight: Don't rely entirely on AI; instead, use it as Another Input (A, I).

Sellas echoes this sentiment when it comes to social care.

While AI can map out pathways to customer success, these aren't linear journeys. The road to customer success resembles a 16-lane highway project with exit tunnels – all roads lead to your destination, but each takes a unique route.

Use AI to identify your most common customer issues, frequently asked questions, and critical touchpoints where customers need support. Then triage these issues into green, yellow, and red situations, assigning either bot or human handlers accordingly. This approach clears the path toward a truly seamless customer experience.

The AI quotient of social care + listening

The key to maintaining humanity as a brand in this AI-forward world is active social care. It's about joining trending online conversations and showing your audience who you are beyond your logo. And yes, AI can be your ally here.

It all begins with AI-powered sentiment analysis – understanding the ins and outs of conversations, emotions, and overall vibes surrounding your brand online. This analysis serves as your first step toward either initiating or tuning into online conversations.

Virtually every social listening tool (99 out of 100) comes equipped with backend tagging or labeling features – tools that help you discover online conversations through keywords, prompts, and tags. Leverage AI to identify key points of interest that align with your brand voice, mission, and values. This enables you to actively participate in relevant conversations and stand out in the vast sea of digital voices.

Brand storytelling

What do great leaders, teachers, CEOs, and brands have in common? They know how to tell a compelling story!

Sure, we know what brands can do. Take Nike – we know what they sell, who they promote, and why their products stand out. But it's the narrative behind each campaign, each Instagram post, every audience interaction that truly sets them apart.

'Just do it' isn't just a slogan; it's their unique selling point. Nike crafted a narrative that positions the buyer as a fighter who can overcome anything, aligning them with superhero athletes and delivering a message of pure grit. That's a masterclass in brand storytelling.

Our world has become almost entirely digital. Our interactions primarily flow through AI-powered bots. In this increasingly digital landscape, fostering real-time human connections feels almost impossible. Without trust, without customers knowing you on a personal level, without that human element supporting your brand, customer loyalty remains an elusive goal. Brand storytelling offers one powerful way to connect with your customers and broader audiences.

Every brand has a story to tell. Yet most rely on AI to do the talking. While AI is capable of many things, telling a brand's story isn't one of its strengths. Sure, AI can craft a narrative based on provided keywords, but without truly understanding what a brand stands for, AI cannot authentically tell your story. Ever wonder why most content sounds eerily similar nowadays? It's because almost everyone leans on AI. As Sellas puts it, "Use AI to create commodity type content, but don't let it tell your story."

Think of AI as a Swiss Army knife. As a brand, you need to understand what purpose each blade serves and wield it accordingly. Use it to identify narratives, teach the system about your brand voice, product suite, goals, and previous work before asking it to write your tweets or lengthy documents. Let it help identify core elements of your story, but don't hand over the entire storytelling reins.

The onion theory

The customer-brand bond is a strange equation. Once a customer decides a brand aligns with their values and beliefs, they rarely switch. Yet these sentiments evolve with time. Consider this: 57% of Gen Zers in the U.S. report less brand loyalty now than before the pandemic. Forbes notes that people are growing weary of over-the-top marketing ploys and robotic-sounding sentiments online.

Building trust and loyalty has become increasingly challenging, leading to unreliable customer databases and fragmented relationships. Now, more than ever, it's crucial to forge lasting consumer connections. The first step? Humanizing your brand. While brand storytelling plays a vital role, deeper online conversations might be the secret ingredient you're missing.

Enter Sellas's onion theory.

Customer relationships are layered. Like peeling an onion, you must keep going deeper to reach the core of what makes your customers tick. Today's branded conversations typically stop at the first two layers: facts and clichés. That's not enough to build meaningful relationships. Push beyond your product lines and discount offers, and you'll peel back enough layers to reach the heart: authentic conversations.

The principle behind social care lies in having meaningful dialogues with customers online. It's about engaging in community discussions where your voice matters, transcending numbers, facts, and clichés, and moving past AI-written captions. That's where true loyalty blossoms.

Using the onion theory, brands can identify their customer conversation stages

• The orientation stage involves surface-level, non-intimate exchanges about widely accessible information.
• Beyond this, Sellas describes the exploratory stage: sharing behind-the-scenes content, employee stories to humanize your brand, and user-generated content to shed that robotic image.
• The deeper layers feature targeted communications: testimonials, polls, interactive Q&As, and livestreams – all showcasing your company's human side.
• At the core lies the loyalty stage, marked by reward programs, personalized communication, and exclusive content.

The key to bolstering your brand's online presence? Moving beyond fact-based content to create engaging experiences that foster genuine community interaction.

Conclusion

Think of social care as your brand's digital handshake – warm, personal, and impossible to replicate with code alone. While AI serves as our trusted sidekick, helping navigate the green and yellow zones of customer interaction, it's the human touch in those code-red moments that turns customers into loyal advocates.

Remember Sellas's onion theory: true customer relationships require peeling back the layers of superficial interaction to reach meaningful conversation. Whether it's Dyson jumping into the comments to help people with the airwrap, Sephora's AI-human tag team solving beauty emergencies, or Air France tracking down lost luggage, successful brands are mastering this delicate dance between digital efficiency and human empathy.

As we continue evolving in this digital age, the question isn't whether to use AI in customer care – it's how to use it wisely. Let technology handle the heavy lifting of data analysis and routine queries, but never forget that behind every tweet, DM, or support ticket is a human seeking connection.

In the end, the brands that thrive won't be those with the most advanced AI, but those who best understand when to let technology lead and when to let humanity take the spotlight.

Catch more such insights from Sellas, by checking out the full episode of the CX-WISE podcast below!

P.S. If something on the podcast caught your attention, call it out on your social platform of choice using #CXWISE and we’ll send you a free copy of Sellas’s book, “Conversations that Connect.”