1. People and Social Media
The social web has changed the shape of customer relationships
People spread the word about the brands they like and, perhaps more importantly, don’t like.
Social media can direct people to company blog/space, which directs them to website/CC.
Monitor social media content with business rules and linguistic analysis.
Train “social ambassadors” to focus on contacting people who are voicing their opinions in the social media space. 

2. More Power to the Customer
Customer service used to be controlled exclusively by companies with customers having little say or impact in the process.
With the growth of communications channels such as forums and social media, poor customer experiences can be communicated to the world in seconds.
The customer increasingly controls the kind of service they would like to receive either by switching organizations, or communicating it through social channels.

3. Customer Service Challanges
Continous training efforts due to fast changing product or service cycles.
Well-informed and demanding customers.
High pressure on operational cost efficiency.
“Contact centers can embrace social media to get closer to customers, spot trends, identify influencers, and create customer advocates, but they must align with social media norms that reflect an understanding that their organization does not own these sites” (RightNow).
How to mitigate the challenge load?

4. Virtual Assistant Natural Language Interactivity for speech and text
Human-like conversational approach and understanding
Works in multimodality
Escalates to human agents when necessary
Delivers enhanced self-service
Is the “product/service specialist” that mitigates the CSR training effort
Helps both customers and call center agents