Patent Publication Number: US-2015081571-A1

Title: Methods and systems for facilitating customer support using a social channel aware publisher in a social post case feed

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of the following U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/877,698 filed Sep. 13, 2013, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by this reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Embodiments of the subject matter described herein relate generally to customer service platforms and, more particularly, to computer systems and applications for automatically configuring and publishing responses to social media posts using a case feed. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Modern software development is evolving away from the client-server model toward network-based processing systems that provide access to data and services via the Internet or other networks. In contrast to traditional systems that host networked applications on dedicated server hardware, a “cloud” computing model allows applications to be provided over the network “as a service” supplied by an infrastructure provider. The infrastructure provider typically abstracts the underlying hardware and other resources used to deliver a customer-developed application so that the customer no longer needs to operate and support dedicated server hardware. The cloud computing model can often provide substantial cost savings to the customer over the life of the application because the customer no longer needs to provide dedicated network infrastructure, electrical and temperature controls, physical security and other logistics in support of dedicated server hardware. 
     Multi-tenant cloud-based architectures have been developed to improve collaboration, integration, and community-based cooperation between customer tenants without sacrificing data security. Generally speaking, multi-tenancy refers to a system where a single hardware and software platform simultaneously supports multiple user groups (also referred to as “organizations” or “tenants”) from a common data storage element (also referred to as a “multi-tenant database”). The multi-tenant design provides a number of advantages over conventional server virtualization systems. First, the multi-tenant platform operator can often make improvements to the platform based upon collective information from the entire tenant community. Additionally, because all users in the multi-tenant environment execute applications within a common processing space, it is relatively easy to grant or deny access to specific sets of data for any user within the multi-tenant platform, thereby improving collaboration and integration between applications and the data managed by the various applications. The multi-tenant architecture therefore allows convenient and cost effective sharing of similar application features between multiple sets of users. 
     Robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and applications have been developed for use both within and outside the multi-tenant environment. In addition, automated systems for gathering social media content from the internet, such as the Radian6™ system available at www.salesforce.com, have been developed to assist customer service agents in locating and responding to customer queries. At the same time, consumers are increasingly interacting with brand agents using on-line social networking sites such as Facebook™ Pinterest™, Tumblr™, Google+™, Hootsuite™, and Twitter™. Presently known CRM applications, however, are not equipped to allow agents to communicate with consumers through on-line social networking sites. 
     Each social network (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.) has its own publishing idiosyncrasies and protocols. This can be cumbersome and time consuming for a customer service representative (CRS) to navigate among various social network channels when responding to customer inquiries. 
     Systems and methods are thus needed for integrating a customer service platform with social media channels, and to automatically detect the particular social network from which a customer service inquiry originates, and to auto-populate a response using the protocols associated with the social network, to thereby facilitate communication between customer service agents and consumers. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
       A more complete understanding of the subject matter may be derived by referring to the detailed description and claims when considered in conjunction with the following figures, wherein like reference numbers refer to similar elements throughout the figures. 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram of a multi-tenant computing environment in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram of an internet bot configured to retrieve social media content from a plurality of website channels in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic block diagram of a customer support system including a social media content database, a social hub rules engine, a customer relationship management platform including parser, and a customer service portal in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  is a screen shot illustrating a case page including social publisher and a case feed in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 5  is a screen shot illustrating a more detailed view the case feed of  FIG. 4  in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 6  is a flow chart illustrating a method of integrating social media posts into a customer support case page in accordance with exemplary embodiments; 
         FIG. 7  is a screen shot illustrating a case page including social publisher configured to respond to a Twitter post in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 8  is a screen shot illustrating a case page including social publisher configured to respond to a Facebook post in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; and 
         FIG. 9  is a screen shot illustrating a branded community after a corresponding link to the community is sent from a case page social publisher in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Customer service and support has traditionally operated using a call center model, where customers needing support contact a call center to resolve their issues. In recent times, new communication channels have been created that enable more people to directly communicate with brands through social media networks, such as FACEBOOK and TWITTER. However, existing customer support systems lack efficient mechanisms for communicating with customers through social media channels. 
     An on-demand services environment may provide a social customer service platform that enables customers to quickly and efficiently communicate with customer service agents to resolve their issues. Through mobile devices, desktop computers, tablet computers, and other user devices, customers of a product may report service issues and receive support through communications with managed social accounts on one or more social networking systems, on-demand through the social customer service platform. 
     Interactions with social content posts may be implemented in various forms, including web browsers, web pages, applications, and the like, operating on various devices. A social customer relationship management (CRM) platform may automatically create a case based on a social network channel content item (such as a tweet or post). By recognizing which social channel is the source of a customer service case, the CRM platform can pre-configure a response based on attributes of the inbound social post in a customer service on-demand services environment. The CRM platform may also provide the ability to define roles and permissions for customer service agents to access managed/assigned social accounts, and customizable programmable logic for defining rules and workflow processes in response to social channel communications. 
     In an embodiment, the inbound and outbound social posts may be rendered as case feed items in an on-demand services environment, such as SALESFORCE.COM. When interacting with the social posts, the agent may be directed to the particular social network where the post was sourced from, where the agent is logged in as the brand or managed social account associated with the customer initiated communication. In this way, the agent may expect that each of the links included in the case feed item operate according to the particular norms and protocols associated with each respective social networking communication channel. 
     Additional features may also be provided by a social customer service platform, including monitoring social accounts, performing keyword searching within managed accounts as well as outside of social networks, and integration of social content with other on-demand environment features such as Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud. Additionally, other features may be provided, such as shortening URLs, conversation threading in particular social network channels, and routing cases by customer KLOUT scores or any other type of influencer score for users of social networks. 
     Embodiments of the subject matter described herein generally relate to integrating social media posts retrieved from the web into a customer relationship management (CRM) environment to facilitate interaction between a brand agent and a consumer, regardless of which social media channel the consumer chooses to engage for support (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and the like). The integration generally involves four components: 
     i) an application programming interface (API) for receiving social post data from a web-based retrieval module; 
     ii) a parser for configuring the received data into custom objects and presenting a customer service case (ticket) to a brand agent in a CRM portal; 
     iii) a social publisher for facilitating seamless interaction between the CRM platform and various social media channels (e.g., Twitter, Facebook); and 
     ii) a case feed embedded within the CRM case page for tracking and displaying communication threads between the agent and the consumer. 
     In an exemplary embodiment, a consumer may go to Bank of America&#39;s Twitter handle and tweet a customer service inquiry (e.g., “I need help transferring money from my savings account to my checking account”). As explained in greater detail below, this tweet is acquired and brought into the CRM platform, and a case is created and presented the case to a sales agent or customer service representative (CSR) using the CRM platform. Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to identifying the social network from which the inquiry originated, and pre-populating the CRM publisher with the particular protocols for the originating social media channel to thereby assist the CRS in responding to the inquiry from within the CRM case feed. 
     In an embodiment, the CRM console&#39;s social publisher populates the response in accordance with the originating social network&#39;s particular idiosyncrasies and sends the response to the consumer via Twitter (or whatever social media channel originated the inquiry). As a result, the CSR response to the customer inquiry is already compliant with Facebook or Twitter protocols, and the fact that the CSR may be operating from a generic CRM platform (as opposed to within Twitter or Facebook) is transparent to the consumer. This scheme avoids the CSR having to select a separate Twitter or Facebook publisher from the console; rather, the CSR can remain in the same social publisher regardless of the source of the inquiry, because the publisher is “social channel aware”—that is, the publisher automatically determines the source of the post (both the social network and the particular account) and configures/populates the response according to the protocols associated with the inbound social channel. 
     In an embodiment, the CRM platform may be further configured to allow the CSR to retrieve and attach files (e.g., articles, videos, and the like) to the response. For example, in response to a customer query such as “How do I download an application?”, the CSR may provide a response which includes a public knowledge base article, a tutorial video, or other media, as appropriate. 
     In an embodiment, a CSR may respond to a customer inquiry by sending a link to a customer community, such as the Home Depot community described in greater detail below. In this way, the customer may be placed directly into a community where members of the community can assist in answering the customer&#39;s question. 
     In an embodiment, the response is configured to be compliant with the selected social media channel. For example, the character lengths of URLs, file names, and the like may be shortened to fit within the particular character limits imposed by each particular social media channel. 
     In accordance with another embodiment, the CRM platform is configured to allow the CSR to dynamically switch channels as needed. For example, if a proposed response would exceed the Twitter limit of 140 characters, the CSR may select an email tab on the CRM platform and respond via email, to thereby avoid exceeding the character limit. If the customer&#39;s email address is not contained within the social media post being responded to, the system may access a CRM database using, for example, the customer&#39;s Twitter handle to retrieve an email address or other contact information, as desired. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , an exemplary multi-tenant system  100  includes a server  102  that dynamically creates and supports virtual applications  128  based upon data  132  from a database  130  that may be shared between multiple tenants, referred to herein as a multi-tenant database. Data and services generated by the virtual applications  128  are provided via a network  145  to any number of client devices  140 , as desired. Each virtual application  128  is suitably generated at run-time (or on-demand) using a common application platform  110  that securely provides access to the data  132  in the database  130  for each of the various tenants subscribing to the multi-tenant system  100 . In accordance with one non-limiting example, the multi-tenant system  100  is implemented in the form of an on-demand multi-tenant customer relationship management (CRM) system that can support any number of authenticated users of multiple tenants. 
     As used herein, a “tenant” or an “organization” should be understood as referring to a group of one or more users that shares access to common subset of the data within the multi-tenant database  130 . In this regard, each tenant includes one or more users associated with, assigned to, or otherwise belonging to that respective tenant. Stated another way, each respective user within the multi-tenant system  100  is associated with, assigned to, or otherwise belongs to a particular one of the plurality of tenants supported by the multi-tenant system  100 . Tenants may represent companies, corporate departments, business or legal organizations, and/or any other entities that maintain data for particular sets of users (such as their respective customers) within the multi-tenant system  100 . Although multiple tenants may share access to the server  102  and the database  130 , the particular data and services provided from the server  102  to each tenant can be securely isolated from those provided to other tenants. The multi-tenant architecture therefore allows different sets of users to share functionality and hardware resources without necessarily sharing any of the data  132  belonging to or otherwise associated with other tenants. 
     The multi-tenant database  130  may be a repository or other data storage system capable of storing and managing the data  132  associated with any number of tenants. The database  130  may be implemented using conventional database server hardware. In various embodiments, the database  130  shares processing hardware  104  with the server  102 . In other embodiments, the database  130  is implemented using separate physical and/or virtual database server hardware that communicates with the server  102  to perform the various functions described herein. In an exemplary embodiment, the database  130  includes a database management system or other equivalent software capable of determining an optimal query plan for retrieving and providing a particular subset of the data  132  to an instance of virtual application  128  in response to a query initiated or otherwise provided by a virtual application  128 , as described in greater detail below. The multi-tenant database  130  may alternatively be referred to herein as an on-demand database, in that the multi-tenant database  130  provides (or is available to provide) data at run-time to on-demand virtual applications  128  generated by the application platform  110 , as described in greater detail below. 
     In practice, the data  132  may be organized and formatted in any manner to support the application platform  110 . In various embodiments, the data  132  is suitably organized into a relatively small number of large data tables to maintain a semi-amorphous “heap”-type format. The data  132  can then be organized as needed for a particular virtual application  128 . In various embodiments, conventional data relationships are established using any number of pivot tables  134  that establish indexing, uniqueness, relationships between entities, and/or other aspects of conventional database organization as desired. Further data manipulation and report formatting is generally performed at run-time using a variety of metadata constructs. Metadata within a universal data directory (UDD)  136 , for example, can be used to describe any number of forms, reports, workflows, user access privileges, business logic and other constructs that are common to multiple tenants. Tenant-specific formatting, functions and other constructs may be maintained as tenant-specific metadata  138  for each tenant, as desired. Rather than forcing the data  132  into an inflexible global structure that is common to all tenants and applications, the database  130  is organized to be relatively amorphous, with the pivot tables  134  and the metadata  138  providing additional structure on an as-needed basis. To that end, the application platform  110  suitably uses the pivot tables  134  and/or the metadata  138  to generate “virtual” components of the virtual applications  128  to logically obtain, process, and present the relatively amorphous data  132  from the database  130 . 
     The server  102  may be implemented using one or more actual and/or virtual computing systems that collectively provide the dynamic application platform  110  for generating the virtual applications  128 . For example, the server  102  may be implemented using a cluster of actual and/or virtual servers operating in conjunction with each other, typically in association with conventional network communications, cluster management, load balancing and other features as appropriate. The server  102  operates with any sort of conventional processing hardware  104 , such as a processor  105 , memory  106 , input/output features  107  and the like. The input/output features  107  generally represent the interface(s) to networks (e.g., to the network  145 , or any other local area, wide area or other network), mass storage, display devices, data entry devices and/or the like. The processor  105  may be implemented using any suitable processing system, such as one or more processors, controllers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, processing cores and/or other computing resources spread across any number of distributed or integrated systems, including any number of “cloud-based” or other virtual systems. The memory  106  represents any non-transitory short or long term storage or other computer-readable media capable of storing programming instructions for execution on the processor  105 , including any sort of random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, magnetic or optical mass storage, and/or the like. The computer-executable programming instructions, when read and executed by the server  102  and/or processor  105 , cause the server  102  and/or processor  105  to create, generate, or otherwise facilitate the application platform  110  and/or virtual applications  128  and perform one or more additional tasks, operations, functions, and/or processes described herein. It should be noted that the memory  106  represents one suitable implementation of such computer-readable media, and alternatively or additionally, the server  102  could receive and cooperate with external computer-readable media that is realized as a portable or mobile component or platform, e.g., a portable hard drive, a USB flash drive, an optical disc, or the like. 
     The application platform  110  is any sort of software application or other data processing engine that generates the virtual applications  128  that provide data and/or services to the client devices  140 . In a typical embodiment, the application platform  110  gains access to processing resources, communications interfaces and other features of the processing hardware  104  using any sort of conventional or proprietary operating system  108 . The virtual applications  128  are typically generated at run-time in response to input received from the client devices  140 . For the illustrated embodiment, the application platform  110  includes a bulk data processing engine  112 , a query generator  114 , a search engine  116  that provides text indexing and other search functionality, and a runtime application generator  120 . Each of these features may be implemented as a separate process or other module, and many equivalent embodiments could include different and/or additional features, components or other modules as desired. 
     The runtime application generator  120  dynamically builds and executes the virtual applications  128  in response to specific requests received from the client devices  140 . The virtual applications  128  are typically constructed in accordance with the tenant-specific metadata  138 , which describes the particular tables, reports, interfaces and/or other features of the particular application  128 . In various embodiments, each virtual application  128  generates dynamic web content that can be served to a browser or other client program  142  associated with its client device  140 , as appropriate. 
     The runtime application generator  120  suitably interacts with the query generator  114  to efficiently obtain multi-tenant data  132  from the database  130  as needed in response to input queries initiated or otherwise provided by users of the client devices  140 . In a typical embodiment, the query generator  114  considers the identity of the user requesting a particular function (along with the user&#39;s associated tenant), and then builds and executes queries to the database  130  using system-wide metadata  136 , tenant specific metadata  138 , pivot tables  134 , and/or any other available resources. The query generator  114  in this example therefore maintains security of the common database  130  by ensuring that queries are consistent with access privileges granted to the user and/or tenant that initiated the request. 
     With continued reference to  FIG. 1 , the data processing engine  112  performs bulk processing operations on the data  132  such as uploads or downloads, updates, online transaction processing, and/or the like. In many embodiments, less urgent bulk processing of the data  132  can be scheduled to occur as processing resources become available, thereby giving priority to more urgent data processing by the query generator  114 , the search engine  116 , the virtual applications  128 , etc. 
     In exemplary embodiments, the application platform  110  is utilized to create and/or generate data-driven virtual applications  128  for the tenants that they support. Such virtual applications  128  may make use of interface features such as custom (or tenant-specific) screens  124 , standard (or universal) screens  122  or the like. Any number of custom and/or standard objects  126  may also be available for integration into tenant-developed virtual applications  128 . As used herein, “custom” should be understood as meaning that a respective object or application is tenant-specific (e.g., only available to users associated with a particular tenant in the multi-tenant system) or user-specific (e.g., only available to a particular subset of users within the multi-tenant system), whereas “standard” or “universal” applications or objects are available across multiple tenants in the multi-tenant system. The data  132  associated with each virtual application  128  is provided to the database  130 , as appropriate, and stored until it is requested or is otherwise needed, along with the metadata  138  that describes the particular features (e.g., reports, tables, functions, objects, fields, formulas, code, etc.) of that particular virtual application  128 . For example, a virtual application  128  may include a number of objects  126  accessible to a tenant, wherein for each object  126  accessible to the tenant, information pertaining to its object type along with values for various fields associated with that respective object type are maintained as metadata  138  in the database  130 . In this regard, the object type defines the structure (e.g., the formatting, functions and other constructs) of each respective object  126  and the various fields associated therewith. 
     Still referring to  FIG. 1 , the data and services provided by the server  102  can be retrieved using any sort of personal computer, mobile telephone, tablet or other network-enabled client device  140  on the network  145 . In an exemplary embodiment, the client device  140  includes a display device, such as a monitor, screen, or another conventional electronic display capable of graphically presenting data and/or information retrieved from the multi-tenant database  130 , as described in greater detail below. 
     Typically, the user operates a conventional browser application or other client program  142  executed by the client device  140  to contact the server  102  via the network  145  using a networking protocol, such as the hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) or the like. The user typically authenticates his or her identity to the server  102  to obtain a session identifier (“SessionID”) that identifies the user in subsequent communications with the server  102 . When the identified user requests access to a virtual application  128 , the runtime application generator  120  suitably creates the application at run time based upon the metadata  138 , as appropriate. 
     As noted above, the virtual application  128  may contain Java, ActiveX, or other content that can be presented using conventional client software running on the client device  140 ; other embodiments may simply provide dynamic web or other content that can be presented and viewed by the user, as desired. As described in greater detail below, the query generator  114  suitably obtains the requested subsets of data  132  from the database  130  as needed to populate the tables, reports or other features of the particular virtual application  128 . 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram of an internet based data retrieval module configured to retrieve social media items (e.g., Facebook posts and Twitter tweets) from a plurality of social media sites and other website channels. More particularly,  FIG. 2  illustrates a system  200  including a computing cloud  202  configured to retrieve metrics and content from a plurality of websites  206  in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Cloud  202  may be of the type described above in conjunction with  FIG. 1 , and may be configured to access any number of websites  206 ( a )- 206 ( g ) over an Internet connection  204 . Websites  206  may be any type of site from which data is monitored, retrieved, or collected. Exemplary sites may include news sites, blog sites, social media, and entertainment venues such as, for example, Facebook™, Pinterest™, Tumblr™, Google+™, Hootsuite™, Twitter™, and You Tube™. 
     Multi-site data retrieval modules, such as Radian6™, gather social media posts from the internet based on a configurable rules engine (e.g., Social Hub™also available from www.salesforce.com). For example, an organization such as KLM airlines may configure its rules engine to instruct Radian6 to retrieve all “KLM” posts based on hash tags, @mentions, keywords, or any desired combination of metrics. In the case of Radian6, the social post data may be sent to the CRM platform in the form of a Java script object notation (JSON) string, a well-known plain-text format for data storage whose grammar is a subset of the JavaScript expressions. Each JSON string comprises plurality of data fields, for example: 
     
       
         
           
               
               
               
             
               
                   
                   
               
             
            
               
                   
                   
                 { 
               
               
                   
                   
                  ″first″: ″Jane″, 
               
               
                   
                   
                  ″last″: ″Porter″, 
               
               
                   
                   
                  ″married″: true, 
               
               
                   
                   
                  ″born″: 1890, 
               
               
                   
                   
                  ″friends″: [ ″Tarzan″, ″Cheeta″ ] 
               
               
                   
                   
                 } 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     As described in greater detail below in conjunction with  FIG. 3 , the CRM platform includes an API for receiving (“ingesting”) the JSON string from the social post retrieval system. A parsing module (e.g., in the form of an APEX class code snippet) associated with the CRM system then configures one or more of the fields within the JSON string into objects for use by an agent in a social post case feed. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a schematic block diagram of a system  300  for ingesting and responding to customer service inquiries from social media channels includes a social media content database  302 , a rules engine  304 , and a customer relationship management platform  311 . The CRM platform  311  includes a parser  308 , a CRM database  306 , and a customer service portal  312  for processing and responding to the customer service inquiry. More particularly, the rules engine  304  cooperates with a social post retrieval module or database  302  (e.g., Radian6) and allows an organization&#39;s marketing or support group (e.g., KLM) to configure its business rules to find relevant posts, tweets, and the like, particularly from consumers desiring to interact with a customer service agent. 
     The parser module  308  may comprise APEX™ class code configured to parse the JSON string into objects, and to automatically create a customer service case (ticket) from the objects and present the case to an agent for a response. In an embodiment, the parser  310  creates at least the following two objects from the JSON string: i) a social post; and ii) a social persona. More particularly, the social post object corresponds to the posted message, for example “I lost my luggage.” The social persona object corresponds to the author of the post; if the author is not already represented in the CRM contact database, a new contact may be created for the author. Consequently, when a subsequent post is arrives, the CRM system can assign it to an existing case, as appropriate. In addition, by using information obtained from the contact profile, the case may be given appropriate treatment (e.g., priority). In this way, it can be said that the social hub “pushes” these two objects (social persona and social post) to the on-demand database service. 
     With continued reference to  FIG. 3 , once a case is created, the CRM system (e.g., the parser  308 ) presents the case to a customer support agent via the CRM portal  312 . In the illustrated embodiment, the CRM portal  312  comprises a case page  310  (displayed, for example, on a computer monitor or display screen) which includes at least a social publisher module  314  and a case feed  316 , as described in greater detail below in connection with  FIG. 4 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , a schematic block diagram of a screen shot shows a case page  400  including a case identifier field  402 , a social post identifier field  404 , a social publisher  406 , and a case feed  410 . In the illustrated embodiment, the social post identifier field  404  indicates the author of the incoming (the social persona, Sutthipong) as well as the source, type, channel, or nature of the incoming post (for example, a tweet from Twitter or a post from Facebook). 
     The social publisher  406  configures a response based on the particular protocols of the inbound social network, to thereby allow the agent to respond by publishing a reply via the inbound social channel (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) from a single social publisher within the CRM portal. 
     The case feed  410  may be configured as a scrolling list or “feed” of communication threads (posts) representing communications between the agent and one or more consumers. In the illustrated example, the case feed  410  includes an inbound identifier  412  (e.g., “Sutthipong Sent a Tweet”), corresponding to the post  414  “I Lost My Luggage” which @mentions KLM. The case feed  410  also includes an outbound identifier  418  (e.g., “Agent Sent a Reply”), corresponding to the post  420  “What&#39;s Your Flight Number”, which @mentions Sutthipong; that is, when using Twitter, for example, one may direct a message to a known recipient by appending the recipient&#39;s user name to the symbol “@”. 
       FIG. 5  is a screen shot of a case feed item in the context of an exemplary social publisher, shown auto-populated with data based on the parsed inbound post. More particularly, the parser  308  parses the inbound message into individual components, and automatically populates these fields on a display viewed by a customer service representative to assist in responding to the customer inquiry. In the illustrated embodiment, the following fields may be populated from the inbound message: i) the social channel  502  (e.g., Twitter); ii) the message text  504 ; and iii) the identity of the managed social account  506 . 
     With continued reference to  FIGS. 3 and 4  and also referring now to  FIG. 6 , a flow diagram of an exemplary use case will now be described. 
     A method  600  for integrating posts retrieved from social media channels into a CRM platform typically begins with a consumer reaching out for customer service and/or support, such as a passenger sending a tweet (@mentioning KLM) “I Lost My Luggage” (Task  602 ). The consumer post may then be retrieved by the social hub  304 , which sends a JSON string  307  (See  FIG. 3 ) to the CRM platform  311  (Task  604 ). The method  600  further includes the parser  310  parsing the JSON into objects, such as a social post and a social persona (as well as additional custom objects, as desired), and saved the objects to that organization&#39;s (e.g., KLM) CRM database within the multi-tenant environment (Task  606 ). 
     With continued reference to  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  6 , the method  600  further involves creating a new case (or updating an existing one) based on the objects, and storing the case in the organization&#39;s CRM database (Task  608 ). The new case may then be presented to an agent in the case page  400  (e.g., message  414 ) (Task  610 ). The agent may then process the case (Task  612 ), for example, by formulating an appropriate response, taking corrective action, or the like. Typically, this involves pressing the “Reply” button  416 , which opens up the social publisher  4006 , allowing the agent to type in (or otherwise enter) a reply into the publisher, such as “What is Your Flight Number?”. In an embodiment, the APEX class  310  may also be configured to prepopulate the publisher with the consumer&#39;s handle (e.g., @Sutthipong), an appropriate hash tag, or other metrics appropriate for the particular social channel through which the agent desires to respond. 
     When the response is complete, the agent may press the “Send” virtual button  408  to thereby create and save a new social post object, namely, the reply @Sutthipong “What is Your Flight Number” (Task  614 ). The Reply may then be sent to the consumer (Task  616 ). In an embodiment, Task  616  may involve the APEX class  310  calling an API associated with the Radian6 module and/or the social hub module  304  to thereby send the reply to the consumer via the designated channel (e.g., Twitter). The consumer (in the present example, Sutthipong) then views (Task  618 ) the agent&#39;s Reply on the same channel through which the initial query was sent, for example, via Twitter. 
     Upon viewing the agent&#39;s reply, the consumer may respond via Twitter with a new social post such as: @mention KLM “Flight #991” (Task  620 ). The consumer&#39;s response is picked up by the Radian6 module and presented to the agent (Task  622 ) as discussed above, whereupon the process essentially repeats steps  602 - 610 . That is, the new post “Flight #991” is passed to the CRM platform as a JSON string, parsed, and presented to the agent as either a new case or appended to an existing case thread in the case feed, as appropriate. 
     Each of the various functional modules and/or steps shown in  FIGS. 2-6  may comprise computer code embodied in a non-transitory form in a computer readable medium. 
       FIG. 7  is a screen shot illustrating a case page  700  including social publisher  702  configured to respond to a Twitter post in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
       FIG. 8  is a screen shot illustrating a case page  800  including social publisher  802  configured to respond to a Facebook post in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
       FIG. 9  is a screen shot illustrating a branded community page  900  opened by a customer after a corresponding link to the community has been sent from a case page social publisher as described above. 
     Methods and systems are thus provided for responding, from a customer service management (CRM) portal, to a customer service inquiry received from an inbound social media channel. The method includes: receiving the customer inquiry from the inbound social media channel; creating a case based on the inquiry; presenting the case to an agent at the CRM portal; automatically pre-configuring, by the CRM portal, a response to the inquiry based on attributes of the inbound social media channel; and transmitting the response from the CRM portal via the inbound social media channel. 
     In an embodiment, receiving the customer service inquiry comprises receiving a Java script object notation (JSON) string. 
     In an embodiment, creating a case comprises parsing the JSON string into a social post object and a social persona object. 
     In an embodiment, the CRM portal comprises a social publisher and a social case feed, and further wherein presenting the case at the CRM portal comprises displaying information obtained from the social post object and the social persona object in the social case feed. 
     In an embodiment, the method further comprises: prompting an agent to compose a reply to the customer service inquiry based on the pre-configured response; and pre-populating the reply with information obtained from the social post object and the social persona object. 
     In an embodiment, the customer service inquiry comprises one of a Twitter tweet and a Facebook post. 
     In an embodiment, receiving the customer inquiry comprises receiving data from one of the following channels: Twitter and Facebook; and transmitting comprises transmitting the response using the same channel from which the consumer post data was received. 
     In an embodiment, parsing the JSON string comprises parsing using an APEX class parser. 
     In an embodiment, the method further comprises prompting the agent, using the social publisher, to select one of Facebook and Twitter as the channel for transmitting the response. 
     In an embodiment, transmitting comprises using the APEX class to direct the response to the selected channel. 
     In an embodiment, the customer service inquiry is ingested into the CRM using a configurable rules engine. 
     A customer service portal configured to communicate with at least one social media channel is also provided. The portal includes: an interface configured to receive a social post retrieved from the at least one social media channel and to transmit a response to the social post via the at least one social media channel, the interface including code configured to parse the social post into at least one object; a database communicatively coupled to the interface for storing the at least one object; and a display module including a case feed configured to display the at least one object retrieved from the database to an agent, and a publisher configured to allow the agent to respond to the social post via the at least one social media channel through the interface. 
     In an embodiment, the at least one social media channel comprises at least one of Twitter and Facebook. 
     In an embodiment, the interface is configured to receive the social post in the form of a JSON string from the internet using a configurable rules engine. 
     In an embodiment, the interface is configured to parse the social post into at least a social post object and a social persona object. 
     In an embodiment, the display module is configured to display indicia of the social post object and the social persona object in the social case feed. 
     In an embodiment, the portal further comprises a processing system configured to: prompt the agent to compose a reply to the social post using the publisher; pre-populate the publisher with information obtained from the social post object and the social persona object; and prompt the agent to select a channel from among the at least one social media channels. 
     In an embodiment, the processing system is further configured to transmit, from the customer service portal, the reply social post via the selected social media channel. 
     Computer code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium for execution by a processor is also provided for performing the steps of: receiving data for a consumer post from a social media channel; parsing the data into at least two objects; creating a case from the at least two objects; and displaying the case for processing by an agent in a customer service portal. 
     In an embodiment, the computer code is further configured to: prompt the agent to compose a reply to the consumer post; pre-populate a social publisher with information obtained from the at least two objects; create, by the agent using the customer service portal, a reply social post; and transmit, from the customer service portal, the reply social post to a consumer via the social media channel 
     The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the embodiments of the subject matter or the application and uses of such embodiments. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the technical field, background, or the detailed description. As used herein, the word “exemplary” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations, and the exemplary embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope or applicability of the subject matter in any way. 
     For the sake of brevity, conventional techniques related to computer programming, computer networking, database querying, database statistics, query plan generation, XML and other functional aspects of the systems (and the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail herein. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced in conjunction with any number of system and/or network architectures, data transmission protocols, and device configurations, and that the system described herein is merely one suitable example. Furthermore, certain terminology may be used herein for the purpose of reference only, and thus is not intended to be limiting. For example, the terms “first”, “second” and other such numerical terms do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. 
     Embodiments of the subject matter may be described herein in terms of functional and/or logical block components, and with reference to symbolic representations of operations, processing tasks, and functions that may be performed by various computing components or devices. Such operations, tasks, and functions are sometimes referred to as being computer-executed, computerized, software-implemented, or computer-implemented. In this regard, it should be appreciated that the various block components shown in the figures may be realized by any number of hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, an embodiment of a system or a component may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, or the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. In this regard, the subject matter described herein can be implemented in the context of any computer-implemented system and/or in connection with two or more separate and distinct computer-implemented systems that cooperate and communicate with one another. That said, in exemplary embodiments, the subject matter described herein is implemented in conjunction with a virtual customer relationship management (CRM) application in a multi-tenant environment. 
     While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claimed subject matter in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing the described embodiment or embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope defined by the claims, which includes known equivalents and foreseeable equivalents at the time of filing this patent application. Accordingly, details of the exemplary embodiments or other limitations described above should not be read into the claims absent a clear intention to the contrary.