Company: StarHub
Entry submitted by: Darren Choo (darren) AVP of Social CRM
Community: StarHub Community (http://community.starhub.com/)
Lithy category: Excellence in Customer Satisfaction
StarHub Community, together with our social media agency Vocanic has worked to build a platform which is managed by consumers, contains info relevant to consumers and is moderated by StarHub. Visitors post their questions and topic experts from among our members step in to respond, thereby setting the scene for peer-to-peer support. Understanding that advocacy is the highest order in social media marketing, we have also built a team of super users – the Sparklers Club – who spend countless hours on the site for the sole purpose of helping others through troubleshooting, moderating conversation threads, and even defending the brand when “bashing” arises. Our initiatives have been recognized and we have won industry accolades in Singapore: Best use of Brand Advocacy (Gold) at the Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2013 and Excellence in Loyalty Marketing (Silver) at the Marketing Excellence Awards 2013. Read the details below.
Customer sentiments have changed, leading to a growing preference for peer-to-peer over topdown customer-service assistance.
With social media usage on the rise, it became easier for consumers to engage with their favourite brands, and in so doing sought to be a part of the brand’s activities – to have their voice heard.
Advocacy is the highest order in social media marketing but the brand had yet to explore the maximum potential of these advocates with the proper social media tools and platforms.
We want to position StarHub as a company that listens, understands, and cares for our customers and the Singapore community. At the same time, we acknowledge that endorsements are often regarded to be more credible and objective when they come from third parties that do not have a stake in the business.
In creating a new platform, it was crucial that it be instrumental in cultivating brand advocates, where in times of need, users could step in to defend the brand on our behalf from the “bashing” conducted by others. It was to also be a sanctuary for frank opinions, transparency and a hotbed for equipment testing by our loyal customers.
Hence, the aim was to create a community managed by consumers, for the consumers and moderated by StarHub – functioning as a lifestyle hub for the masses.
We required a platform that harnessed advocacy through positive customer support experience – thus, converting detractors to advocates.
StarHub’s social media strategy has always focused on engaging customers across all social media channels, hence establishing a dynamic social brand presence on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and occupies spaces on LinkedIn and YouTube.
However, we found that a more intimate approach was needed to complement StarHub’s social efforts and amplify engagement with present and potential customers — to handle their issues individually and to foster communication between customers.
While social platforms like Facebook and Twitter were excellent tools that encouraged brand to fan conversations, StarHub wanted a platform that specifically enabled consumers to talk to each other, and found that a forum-styled platform was the way to go.
StarHub Community was rolled out over a series of phases.
The first phase from concept to integration took two months, including design, development, testing and debugging. It was also important that before launch, to ensure that the tone of the site was right: a strategy was mapped out to define the right tone, and approach, ensuring that this was a friendly place for consumers to raise their questions and/or offer their own solutions to others.
As consumers today are heavily reliant on info-communications, StarHub and its counterparts in Singapore receive the most flak on social media, so StarHub's customer service team was roped in to manage customer complaints and guide complainants towards an understanding that the site was not a forum for complaints, but a place for a community to grow and learn together with a strong support from the brand itself.
We then moved to identify and select topics that were frequently discussed on StarHub's social media platforms. This pre-populated the Community as a searchable FAQ bank. StarHub Community was launched with these initial content pieces.
Once the site was launched, various marketing activities were carried out to create awareness, educate and drive registrations on the site. Every week, we created and managed wall posts on StarHub's two Facebook pages and two Twitter accounts to create awareness about the site among our existing fan base. To boost visibility and reach, Facebook ads were created from these wall posts to get more eyeballs amongst Facebook fans as well as interactions on our Wall posts that included comments, likes and shares.
With our member base, we kicked off the influencer identification and activation phase. The objective was to get as many influential online personalities as possible to spread the word about StarHub Community and invite their fans and followers to visit the site.
For this phase, we employed the theory of the 1-9-90 rule. 90% of the people on the site are consumers of content but did not participate much in discussions. 9% are people who consume content and also interact with it, for example sharing the content with their own networks and contributing their opinions. 1% of the people are very active on the site, contributing articles, blog write-ups, helping others solve their problems.
We worked to identify and activate the 9%, to drive them into the 1% bracket. We invited these people first to contribute on the site and later created events so we could personally meet them, show our appreciation for them and invite them to help StarHub further strengthen the Community with their recommendations. One of these events was graced by StarHub's Heads of Customer
Service and Marketing. Their presence further solidified the influencers' convictions that StarHub is indeed committed to listening to the public.
The launch strategy was executed in a straightforward, two-phase process.
Phase 1 – Establishing content: We began by populating the forums with existing articles like phone reviews, tech trends, general FAQs as well as information on all StarHub products and services.
Phase 2 – Creating awareness and recruitment: To drive visitors to the site to sample the content, we ideated and executed a contest hosted on a Facebook application, where participants had to register as a member of the community first before taking part. The mechanics were such that they had to search for an answer to a question that could only be found on StarHub Community. Prizes included a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and movie tickets.
We also leveraged on existing fans on the StarHub Facebook to grow the user base on StarHub Community. One example of how this was carried out was to post a summarized review about a particular mobile handset on Facebook, and then encourage the reader to proceed to the Community for the full article.
In addition, we tapped on existing databases collated from sales of products, for example, the iPhone. From there, we encouraged customers to log onto the Community to provide reviews on their handset. We also conducted a recruitment drive among our staff, inviting them to act as conversation starters and subject matter experts to address customer enquiries.
StarHub Community boasts multiple access touch-points, which means that we were able to garner traffic across a multitude of channels that ranged from YouTube to monthly newsletters, over and above Facebook and Twitter.
An application on Facebook was created to allow fans to have a taste of StarHub Community, by providing a “lite” version where they could have their account- or product/service-related questions answered. If they were keen to find out more, all they had to do was crossover to our brand new community. This encouraged users to find answers to their StarHub-related questions themselves instead of approaching our call centres or Shops.
To continue the drive for awareness as well as recruitment, we staged regular contests during popular occasions such as Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year. The contests required submission of entries on StarHub Community.
We also reached out to our senior and less technologically proficient customers via the Golden Gurus campaign. The aim was to get them involved in conversations that would answer questions they may have had about technology in general.
We appointed eight tech-savvy senior citizens aged between 58 and 77, who stood as information technology (IT) champions for their peers. Acting as StarHub’s ambassadors, they were committed to giving back to society by imparting IT knowledge to other seniors using the Community portal.
Our Active Ageing Hackathon showcased a contest to develop mobile apps that can and will enrich the lives of the elderly. For this, StarHub Community acts as the main platform for the call to action as well as idea submissions. In addition we have invited our Golden Gurus to mentor at workshops to educate contestants on what types of services and apps an older person might benefit.
Active Ageing Hackathon Phase 1 : The StarHub Golden Gurus initiative saw campaigns rolled-out on the Community targeted at including senior citizens in the online conversation. The brand appreciated that seniors often felt left behind and clueless when it came to IT, new media, the internet and the likes. Golden Gurus sought out seniors who were well versed in the intricacies of
technology to coerce and train their peers.
The Active Ageing Hackathon paired StarHub Community members with UP Singapore members to bring together experts, researchers, marketers, designers and developers over one weekend from 16 - 18 Aug 2013 to develop prototypes of solutions to improve the lives of our Seniors in Singapore. 2 best ideas clinched a Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 7.0 Tab each.
Results:
- 988 unique visitors
- 97 entries
- 2,305 votes
View the entries here: http://community.starhub.com/t5/Closed-Active-Ageing-Hackathon/idb-p/activeageinghackathon
Elderly segment – Active Ageing Hackathon Phase 2 : In a follow-up to the submissions from phase 1, we displayed the submitted prototypes on the Community and asked people to vote for their favourite ones on the forum, giving them the power of influence in helping the prototypes become a reality. Ten $50 StarHub vouchers were given away to lucky voters.
Results:
- 106 unique visitors
- 381 votes
Community post:
http://community.starhub.com/t5/Closed-Active-Ageing-Hackathon/idb-p/activeageinghackathonphase2
To engage our female audience, we leveraged on the popular lifestyle magazine show Lady First Singapore, which was localised from a Taiwan format and produced by StarHub. We engaged a targeted group of our influencers and advocates to begin seeding beauty-related content on topics such as skincare, fashion and make-up on StarHub Community. This, along with discussion generated about each episode of the programme, effectively sparked an influx of female chatter on the community. This successfully integrated online and offline engagement activities, thereby extending the “Lady First Singapore” experience beyond the traditional TV screen for its customers.
We sent out emails that led customers to perform a simple survey in order to ascertain interests.
We targeted females whose interests included beauty, makeup, fashion, hairstyling and write their own blogs. The survey acted as a filtering process to find legitimate female bloggers. 20 bloggers were then invited to attend a briefing where they received topics and social tasks to share with their followers that in turn led to activities, conversations and buzz on the Community.
Visit this link for a video of the event: http://community.starhub.com/t5/What-s-New/StarHub-Community-s-first-offline-event-Meeting-up-with-the/m-p/26076#U26076
Lady First Campaign Results:
- 7,143 unique visitors to StarHub Community’s Lady First board
- 470 Topics written
- 1,274 replies to topics
- Out of 20 original bloggers, 5 remain active to this day, close to 1 year after the activation. 2 of them are members of our Sparklers super user group.
The success of the drive to include the female target audience in the conversation prompted the brand to plan for and launch a sequel activation set to take place mid-2014.
Link to Winners Announcement post: http://community.starhub.com/t5/StarHub-Community-Announcements/Lady-First-Bloggers-Challenge-Winners-Announcement/m-p/36223#M10
Screenshot of winning bloggers:
We organised an event to strengthen ties between users, and more importantly between StarHub and our advocates.
Among the thousands on StarHub Community, there lies a select few who shine. A select few who spend countless hours on the Community for the sole purpose of helping others – through troubleshooting, moderating conversation threads, and even defending the brand when “bashing” arises. These heroes – influencers and brand advocates - are recognized by the brand and invited to the Sparklers Club.
We put in place a gamification framework identify Community members and advocates and invite them into the Club in order to be groomed as brand guardians.
To encourage this behavior, a value-exchange was set up. As a Sparkler, one would be able to attend get-togethers to meet, greet and share ideas for improving the Community. Sparklers are also regularly engaged for co-creation, ideation and market research, giving them the opportunity to feel like a part of the brand, making the Community a fun and meaningful place to be and contributing to its ultimate growth and success.
Watch this video introducing the Sparklers Club! http://youtu.be/luUmeumI5YQ
Visit this link for a video and recap of the 2014 event:
http://community.starhub.com/t5/What-s-New/Sparklers-Club-Gathering-2014/m-p/72923#M83
In 2013, we won these local marketing awards:
• Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2013 – Best Use of Brand Advocacy (Gold)
• Marketing Excellence Awards 2013 – Excellence in Loyalty Marketing (Silver)
In January 2014, we hit our one millionth unique visitor. We recognized and acknowledged our top super users:
Members of our community have commended our Community managers:
Our members were surveyed for feedback on the Community and this is what they had to say:
Visit this link for the infographic and full story: http://community.starhub.com/t5/StarHub-Community-Blog/StarHub-Community-welcomes-its-1-000-000th-unique-visitor/ba-p/58529
We also work with the Customer Service team to create articles for The Knowledge Base (TKB) on StarHub Community. We also feature How-To videos available on StarHub's YouTube channel. The CS team then direct people with queries to these resources for answers and discussions on solutions. This reduces reliance on call-centre personnel.
TKB: 100,000 views over 55 articles
How-To Videos: 29,360 views
One of our articles on TKB:
Categories on our Knowledge Base:
Screenshot & Link of one of our How-To videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhlUa3zn034
