A couple of years ago, most of my conversations with eBusiness leaders about the future role of Facebook and customer service concluded with cautious skepticism: “Why would customers go to our Facebook page for customer service when we have plenty of other channels for them?”   The most frequent verdict was that Facebook might become important to customer service but it wasn’t a priority.

The verdict is now coming in.

And Facebook is important.

The Facebook UK team ran a number of polls recently asking consumers about why they talk about brands and what they talk about.  They found that 23% of Facebook users want customer service and expert advice when they become a fan of a company’s page.

Savvy eBusiness leaders now understand: you need to go to where your customers are.

And if your customers are on Facebook, then Facebook needs to become a higher profile in your overall cusotmer service strategy.

Audio brand Shure recognized an opportunity to go to where its customers are: Facebook. With RightNow CX for Facebook, Shure extended  its customer service reach to Facebook. Customers can find answers directly from a customer support tab on the company’s Facebook page and pose questions privately to an agent via Facebook.

Live chat is beginning to appear Facebook. Nykredit,the largest provider of mortgage lending in Denmark, offers chat via their Facebook page through vendor Netop.

Earlier this year, virtual agent vendor NoHold launched a virtual agent on Facebook for consumer electronics company View Sonic.

Several weeks ago, I blogged asking for insight into the contact center costs of login recovery to help inform a project I was working on. Many companies responded — for which I thank you  — and I wanted to share some of the insights that were provided.

In the words of one eBusiness executive, “Helping customers resolve login issues is by far the largest call driver to our contact center. The costs are high — probably higher than we fully realize. But we look at it as the cost of doing business.”

Among the companies surveyed, the percentage of login issues among B2C contact center contacts ranged from  3% to 40%. Only one company was on that lower end and, while their 3% may seem small at first glance, their call center receives more than 10 million calls per year so 3% represents a hefty number of contacts. The higher end  of 30 to 40% of call center volume related to login was more common. Overall, among the companies who responded to my request for information, the operational cost of login issues ranged from $250,000/year to well over $1,000,000 per year.

These high dollar figures do not have to be the cost of doing business. Instead, eBusiness leaders should:

• Ensure their login recover adheres to best practices. My document called “Mastering Login Issues” will hopefully provide helpful insight.
• Consider social login, which lets users log in to your site with their social identities from Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. This may be particularly useful for news, retail, media, entertainment.

There is growing urgency among eBusiness leaders to consider the impact of agile commerce on customer service. In the weeks since my colleague Brian Walker’s “Welcome To The Era Of Agile Commerce” was published, I have had many conversations with eBusiness executives and leading customer service vendors to discuss on agile commerce’s implications to customer service.  The result of these conversations is my recently published document called “The Metamorphosis To Agile Customer Service."

Technology has had a dramatic impact on when, where, and how consumers want customer service:

• The number of connected devices is increasing. Today 59% of US online adults have more than one device that is connected to the Internet. One in five US online adults — or 37 million people — own five or more devices that are connected to the Internet. (For more insight into this, see our January 25, 2011m "Welcome To The Multichannel Multi-Connection World" report.)
• Consumers are connected everywhere. Mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous: According to Forrester's US Mobile Technographics®, 88% of US adults own mobile phones, and 21% of US adults are Superconnecteds who use their phones for information, research, and commerce.

The cost of login issues can be staggering.

According to research released by Janrain, a vendor providing user management solutions for the social Web, 45% of US adults admit to leaving a website instead of resetting their passwords or answering security questions when they have forgotten their passwords.

Failed logins also can have a huge impact on contact center costs. I’ve spoken with eBusiness executives who have told me that login issues represent as much as 50% of their contact center volume.

I’m working on a project and trying to get some deeper knowledge into the impact customers or clients telephoning due to login difficulties (i.e., lost password, user name, etc.) have on contact center costs.

And I’m hoping you might be able to help me.

I’d be grateful for insight into:

• The number of telephone calls your call center receives (weekly, monthly, annually, or whatever time frame you break it into).
• The percentage of contacts to your call center that are due to log-in difficulties.
• The cost per contact for login difficulties.
• Alternatively, perhaps you could provide the annual cost -- or approximate cost -- of assisting clients or customers who are having trouble logging in.