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The second largest private bank in Brazil, Bradesco is now one of the main users of Scup Social. This interview with Marcelo Salgado, Bradesco’s social networking manager, explains Scup’s importance in operating the bank service in the digital world. He covers the challenge of creating ‘real’ connections with customers and considers the lessons social media has taught Bradesco.

Scup – What is Bradesco’s main objective in Social Media?
Marcelo Salgado - Everything we do is based on relationships with our customers. This demonstrates our focus and explains why the area of social media is not within the marketing area of the bank. It is part our communication channels, which serves customers.

And what is the major challenge?
To obtain scale. In truth, with money and communication, it would be very easy to have 1 million of fans on Facebook. Some brands have done this, right? But how do we do this with a focus on customer service and relationships? Our major challenge is to establish a connection and relationship with the customer on a much larger scale. Today, for example, our Facebook page has almost 25 thousand fans. We have not done anything proactive to attract them. They came spontaneously out of the conversations we have established. We want to reach more people, talk to more people. We want to speak to one million, two million people, if possible, but we want to talk to them properly. We really want to do this, not only one page with 2 million fans. We want to grow and preserve the quality of relationships we have today. If I just attract people to my page and do not have an operational base to talk to and assist real people, I will fail.

What is the importance of Scup in Bradesco’s social media operations?
Scup gives us the certainty that everything that is being said about Bradesco is captured and collected. The tool makes it easier to manage customer service, thanks to the historical record of interactions with customers. The person who begins attending to the customer is not always the one who finishes thanks to this. The possibility that Scup gives to include information on customer service is fundamental in these cases. Another point that is reassuring is the ease with which we can contact you (i.e.: Scup). The fact that the tool is Brazilian helps a lot.

Were there difficulties to implement the customer service operation in social networks at Bradesco?
For us it was a little easier because the bank already has a customer service history established. This is the DNA of the bank. In 1985, Bradesco created the first customer service center in Brazil only to hear complaints, called “Alô Bradesco”. Since then, the bank has structured its entire customer service network to attend to complaints. In consequence, complaints that customers make by e-mail and phone are recorded by the system, which everybody in the bank has access to. When people register a complaint via social networks, it goes to the same system. We take the advantage of a ready structure to do our work in social media.

“FOR US, BRANDING IS TO DO CUSTOMER SERVICE. IT IS THROUGH GOOD CONNECTIONS THAT THE BRAND IS BETTER COMMUNICATED”

How are Social Media and Marketing departments related within the bank?
We have a horizontal relationship in the bank. We are also in contact with marketing almost all the time because our work involves the brand. The first step we take is always to think about the value we deliver to the client. There is a dialogue between customer service and marketing all the time, it cannot be any other way. Our area of social networks is divided between the of strategy and relationships. We were used to understanding customer service totally separately from brand. I think the main thing that social networks have shown is that there is not a lot of difference between one and the other. The connection you make with your customer at any stage of service, point of contact, is branding. For us, branding is to do customer service. It is through good encounters and connections that the brand is better communicated.

How big is Bradesco’s social network team?
I can say that there are more than 10 people. All of used to work in the customer service area of the bank. They were selected based on the knowledge they have of social networks.

Bradesco’s Social Media department was highlighted last year after responding to a request from a client on Facebook with a poem. In your opinion, is the biggest difficulty of companies today to find the right tone with which to talk to people on social networks?
I do not see this as a problem for our team because it has two very important features. First is its customer service DNA, which allows my staff to know what it can and cannot say. Second, my team knows about social networks and has an accurate writing style, which allows it to be creative, responding to customers with smilees and other such touches. It is important to remember it is our policy to give responses in line with the language of networks, with empathy for the interlocutor, which often means different answers from standard answers in a database.

What are the main lessons that you take from Bradesco’s Social Media operations?
Social networks are a thermometer for everything. If an attendant from any area of the bank fails, the first place where this appears is the social network, even before the technical departments are aware that there is a problem. We also learned a lot about the language that consumers expect from us. We, as a bank, have a very careful and formal way of speaking to customers and it is not always what is expected. Sometimes the customer wants more flexibility and transparency. It is worth remembering that insights are produced daily by all of our conversations and interactions in social networks and that we share them with the executive board of the bank.

In relation to the way Brazilian companies are using social networks, what do you think needs to improve?
I believe that few companies explore the customer service potential conferred by social networks. I’m saying this from a personal experience. Only some companies are exploring the possibility that they have to engage with people, getting information and creating meetings with customers to transform the experience they have with the company. Some companies are managing to increase the number of followers of their profiles in a stratospheric way, but they forget the main feature of a social network: the connection. A network is not a large group of people; it is the connections that those people create between each other. That bubble can burst at any time. If you have 3 million people on your Facebook page, but do not know how to talk to them, the rate of engagement around your brand becomes non-existent. Not to mention that this seems false, like a TV advertising can sound false. To work within a network, you must have a relationship.