The Challenge
New York State was launching their state health insurance exchange – the ObamaCare exchange, but the site was not tested enough for launch and Katherine knew it was going to crash (and it did).
The Strategy
Katherine suspected the NY Health Exchange (NYStateofHealth.NY.gov) might have a bumpy launch.
While she was hired to provide social media promotion, Katherine convinced the client to let her launch a social media customer support/crisis plan instead so that she could service NYers while the site was down.
Katherine launched social media customer support across 4 handles:
- Google+
- YouTube
Katherine also set up social media monitoring for the larger conversation around health in New York at the start of the campaign. She also integrated:
- Hootsuite
- Brandwatch
- Desk.com
That data allowed her to generate FAQs for the site, capture reviews and stamp out rumors that would have generated negative press.
Katherine wrote the social media protocol for the customer service team and the brand’s voice that should be used on the handles.
She also pulled together and trained a social media customer support team in less than 3 weeks. The effort was powered by a team of Ketchumites she trained who manned the handles for three months mirroring the call center’s hours (8am-8pm M-F and 8am-1pm on Saturday).
The social media support and crisis plan was first put to the test when the health exchange was opened, as the site quickly was overwhelmed with traffic and crashed.
Katherine worked to provide what information she could on the social media handles during that server crash, future crashes and planned server outages.
Based on her work directly with exchange customers and with the data for social media monitoring, she was able to alert the developer team to bugs and glitches that were reported on the social handles and was able to get them prioritized in the development queue.
The Results
As expected, the site crashed when it launched. However, the social media strategy worked.
The NY Exchange was one of the top enrolled health exchanges in the nation. By the end of the year Katherine transitioned the social media customer support role to an internal team that she helped recruit and train.
We can help you with your social media strategy as well – whether promotional or focused on customer service.
