Lithium Technologies Acquires Social Dynamx to Deliver First End-to-End Social Customer Experience Platform, Launches Lithium Social Web™

Acquisition unites and scales social engagement across brand websites, social networks and mobile devices

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Lithium Technologies, the leader in Social Customer Experience, today announced that it has acquired Social Dynamx, an enterprise social customer care platform that helps brands respond to millions of social conversations in a cost effective way. The combined strengths of Lithium and Social Dynamx provide companies with a fully integrated social customer experience across communities on websites, public social networks and mobile devices.

The combined offering is available immediately as Lithium Social Web™.

Lithium Social Web allows companies to serve their customers on whatever social channel they choose, respond to their needs and enlist them as brand advocates or experts. The product -- which is already fully integrated with Lithium Communities™ -- improves agent productivity more than 25 percent and provides a seamless journey from social network traffic to community engagement.

Social Dynamx customers include leading companies such as Time Warner Cable, DISH Network and Convio, who join Lithium’s roster of more than 400 of the world’s most iconic brands that includes AT&T, BT, Best Buy, Indosat, Sephora, Skype and Telstra among others.

“Social media has radically transformed customer experience, yet 70 percent of complaints directed to brands via Twitter are ignored¹,” Lithium President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Tarkoff said. “This demonstrates the challenges brands face in responding to their consumers in a timely way, at scale and cost effectively. The addition of Social Dynamx to the Lithium platform reinforces and extends our ability to help brands drive down service costs and increase customer satisfaction and engagement by bringing community experts into the dialogue earlier.”

Social Dynamx CEO Mike Betzer will join Lithium’s executive team, reporting directly to Tarkoff, and will lead the Lithium Social Web business. Lithium plans to maintain Social Dynamx’s Austin, Texas office and all Social Dynamx regular employees are expected to join Lithium.

“Lithium and Social Dynamx set a new standard for scalable customer engagement through community,” Betzer said. “Combined, we have even more opportunities to drive real, meaningful business results for our customers.”

Customer & Analyst Quotes

• At DISH Network, Senior Vice President John Swieringa said: “Social Dynamx has improved our ability to provide superior customer service and, for the first time, given us access to detailed customer support metrics and analytics. We were able to cut agent response time on social media channels and increase our Facebook and Twitter response rates to 100 percent. We’re eager to see even more innovation unfold through the combination of Lithium and Social Dynamx’s strengths.”
• A September 2012 Forrester Research report entitled Win Funding for Your Customer Service Project states: “Customers want frictionless, personalized service contextualized to their persona and issue at hand, with 66% saying that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with superior service.” Forrester’s research also highlights the importance of delivering a superior customer experience, revealing that the revenue impact of a 10-percentage-point improvement in a company’s customer experience score can exceed $1 billion.

Addition of Social Dynamx Strengthens Lithium Solutions for Support & Marketing

The new Lithium Social Web identifies relevant customer conversations on social channels such as Twitter, Facebook, communities and the broader social Web. It then intelligently routes them to company agents to maximize efficient responses to customers and reduce costs. Publishing functionality improves outbound social marketing to deliver a better, more relevant care experience.

Importantly, the technology allows agents to easily embed suggested content from their Lithium-powered communities in response to customer issues. Brands can then direct customers – and anyone else following the conversation – to the right answers on lower cost, self-service channels.

Industry’s Only Complete Social Customer Experience platform

Lithium Social Web completes the Lithium Social Customer Experience Platform™, an integrated offering that grows brand advocacy, drives sales, reduces service costs and accelerates innovation. It consists of:

• Lithium Communities™ – enables brands to create vibrant, branded peer-to-peer customer experiences on their websites.
• Lithium Social Web™ – allows brands to deliver proactive customer care on social networks at scale.
• Lithium Mobile™ – extends the reach of Lithium to smartphones and tablets.
• Lithium Social Media Monitoring™ – provides insights, sentiment and quotes from social conversations.
• Lithium Customer Intelligence Center™ – measures the effectiveness of social programs across the entire portfolio.

“We have always been 100 percent focused on helping brands build their relationships with customers,” Tarkoff said. “I’m incredibly proud that we have now delivered on an even stronger promise of enabling a superior, integrated customer experience across social networks, the Web and mobile devices. Lithium is the one company that helps companies truly get serious about social.”

Already recognized as the leader in social customer support solutions, Lithium has previously announced inclusion in Gartner’s 2012 report “Critical Capabilities for Peer-to-Peer Customer Community Software,” and named in the “Leaders” Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Social CRM.

About Lithium Technologies

Lithium helps companies unlock the passion of their customers. Lithium software powers amazing Social Customer Experiences for more than 400 iconic brands including AT&T, BT, Best Buy, Indosat, Sephora, Skype and Telstra. Lithium helps companies grow brand advocacy, drive sales, reduce costs and accelerate innovation to create a brand nation that redefines the customer experience. For more information, visit http://www.lithium.com, or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and our own brand nation – the Lithosphere. Lithium is privately held with corporate headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. and offices in Europe, Asia and Australia.

The Lithium® logo is a registered Service Mark of Lithium Technologies. All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

¹ Twitter Study by Maritz Research and evolve24, September 2011

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