E-Governance and Social Media

The Internet has truly transformed the world and its connectivity, breaking down barriers across the world.

The advent of information and communications technology and the growing broadband penetration, in urban as well as rural areas, has helped in connecting the masses and laying down the foundation of e-governance.

The “Open Government” initiative, by the Government of India, focuses on bringing “Transparency” in various processes and systems. This includes sharing information with the public, improving the quality of government services and enabling greater citizen engagement.

Governments, like businesses, have quickly realised that it is essential to use communication tools that citizens and stakeholders themselves use. To meet these objectives, governments are increasingly using publicly available social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. 

Now, participation of citizens in raising grievances online is increasing, and their redressal by the government and its ministries is becoming more visible. A perfect example of this is the successful use of Twitter by Minister of Communication, Sh. Manoj Sinha, in timely redressal of complaints by customers of various telecom operators.

This new way of engaging with citizens to address their issues and problems has been much appreciated and lauded as seen by the numerous positive comments

Customer Service through Social Media: Why it matters?

These days it is impossible to avoid social media. It can be a real boon to brands that know how exactly to harness its potential as a platform to provide customer services.

The upside of this new rise in social consumer is that creating brand ambassadors and loyal fans can can have a powerful positive impact on company's image.

BSNL has created quite a stir by using twitter to address customer grievances.

Time is absolutely of the essence when it comes to responding to complaints and other issues on social media. BSNL has a standard response time of less then 1 hour for complaints raised by its customers.

This quick response and faster resolution of complaints has garnered lot of positive support from its customer base as seen by the good number of positive comments.

An opportunity not to be missed

The rapidly evolving shift in how we communicate and connect with each other is redefining the way companies interact with customers. Social customer service is rapidly becoming a new critical channel driving satisfaction and loyalty.

Organisations are at different stages when it comes to using social care programmes to interact with customers. Some are at a listening stage via social media which is typically known as ' Voice of Customer' and gathers information to improve products and services.

Others are regularly engaging with customers to realise positive outcomes for the organisation.

BSNL is one such organisation which has adopted social media to effectively listen to customer grievances and provide quick solutions.

A peek at its twitter handle @BSNLCorporate gives a good picture of how BSNL is successfully using this platform for positive engagement with customers.

BSNL 339 Offer: A step ahead

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has a launched a plan that will provide 2 GB data per day for Rs. 339 per month.

Recently, Reliance announced its new Jio Prime membership and plans to Jio subscribers. This has obviously forced other operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL to match them to stay in competition.

To cope up with Jio’s offer, BSNL has taken proactive steps to offer something more attractive. It has introduced an aggressive offer, which would stop its customers switching to Jio and will also shore up new customers.

While Jio’s 303 offers only 1 GB data per day, BSNL offers the consumer 2 GB data per day which is a huge benefit to data consumers.

But while Jio offers unlimited calling, BSNL offers 25 minutes free calling per day. After consumption of 25 minutes, a levy of 25 paise per minute will be levied.