Social Media's Impact on Care & Marketing: Rahkim Sabree Q&A

Editor's note: Through the Voice of the Khoros Core Q&A series, we highlight the voices, thoughts, and experiences of digital customer engagement innovators using Khoros. Join us to learn expert insights and tips.

Meet Rahkim Sabree. Rahkim is a program manager in the financial services industry, where he manages the implementation and oversight of email, chat, and social media programs — including training, policy and procedures, and escalation guides. In his role, Rahkim has seen first-hand how social media is constantly evolving as a platform to engage with customers throughout their journey. In this Q&A, he shares some of his experiences and key lessons he's learned through cross-department collaboration.

My social why is to use the power of social media and customer engagement to educate and empower people to believe in their infinite potential and remove the mental barriers to leadership and success.

The world is changing and social media care and marketing have a symbiotic relationship. Customers are opting to go with the digital offerings for prospecting and customer service. With a focus on customer retention and satisfaction, our efforts to gain customer buy-in and grow our customer base will be complemented nicely.

All in all, brand recognition is happening faster through social media than anywhere else and that is where we need to be.

Brand recognition is happening faster through social media than anywhere else.

What inspires me is inspiring others. Truly! When I see someone's eyes light up at a piece of advice I give or some knowledge imparted it makes me want to do it more. When I hear that someone has taken action based on my own actions it drives me to take broader actions to keep encouraging them and others.

I'm included in the "others" group as well. When I sit back and reflect on who I was 5 or ten years ago and think about what I've accomplished and how far I've come, it makes me think about how I'll feel in another five to ten years. Inspiration is contagious!

The most important thing I've learned is that customers will find a way to reach you when they want to, and more likely than not it will be through social media first. Having a strategy to handle the "doomsday" scenarios on hand is an absolute must.

Customers will find a way to reach you when they want to, and more likely than not, it will be through social media.

My favorite quote comes from a poem by William Blake and it goes, "A robin's red breast in a cage, puts all heaven in a rage." I love that quote because it speaks of humankind's desire to capture nature's beauty and how in that act we are often disrupting it. It's like the difference between observing a flower's beauty from afar versus picking it and watching its beauty fade away.

The most interesting thing about me that you wouldn't learn from my LinkedIn is probably the number of tattoos I have. I have nine (and counting!). The tattoos all have some symbolic significance to me that reflects a particular learning affinity at different points in time in my life. They also reflect the budget and expertise of the hired artist I was working with!

The other thing you wouldn’t learn from LinkedIn is that I practice kung fu. I started practicing to focus on bridging the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of my life. My biggest learning was focusing on the “now.” I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression in the past and this has been such an outlet for me to not only “let go” but also to be present.

I'm passionate about mentorship, so much so that I wrote a book about it! I believe in the mantras of "find a mentor, be a mentor" and "pay it forward." I grew up in an area that is starving for active mentors.

I believe in the mantra of "find a mentor, be a mentor."

I think my brand of mentorship is different because I focus on empowering the mentee to own part of the interaction opposed to just being told what to do. I also focus on a mentor’s influence. There’s this thought that a mentor has to be someone much older or more experienced than you are and that’s simply not true! I consider anyone you choose to have an influence over your thoughts, actions and behaviors to be a mentor. That can include close friends or even people younger than you.

My proudest moment as a mentor is having my mentee tell me what I was doing wrong as a mentor. Imagine that! The reason for that is that he not only felt comfortable letting me know what was on his mind, but also it taught me that my vision for his progression didn’t necessarily align with his vision for his progression and ultimately that’s what it’s all about. Once a mentor, always a mentor.

I'm most likely to become famous for public speaking. I've started a speaking career that focuses on the topics of financial literacy, mentoring, and entrepreneurship, as they are the topics I’m most passionate about. I’ve made one of my 2019 goals to speak fifty times for different audiences and I’ve already had four speaking engagements this year.

My most recent event involved me going back to my old high school and speaking to a group of about 75 high school students on the topic of networking and relationship building. The students came into the space indifferent to having a speaker and had little to no intention to participate. Most were probably just happy to get out of two class periods!

I shared with them that I remembered sitting in their seats and I knew at that point that I wanted to come back when I’d accomplished something. I had them play a game called “two truths and a dream” that plays similar to the popular game “two truths and lie”. The difference was that they would share with me two truths about themselves and then one dream they intend on accomplishing.

By the end of the session, they were actively engaged. I even had the “class clown” of the group asking me for a copy of my book! Students were lined up to ask me questions about achieving their goals, taking my business cards, and connecting with me on Instagram. My hope is that I inspired a handful of students to crush their goals and “pay it forward” by returning and doing the same when they are ready.

I appreciate the responsiveness and subject matter expertise of the Khoros team. I remember the first time I connected with the Customer Support team at Khoros. There was an issue with connectivity between Khoros and the CRM tool we use. For some reason, I kept getting an error message when trying to attach interactions to cases. Not only did a Khoros rep get back to me promptly (and alert me of progress along the way) but they also ended up telling me exactly what I needed to share with my Salesforce admin in order to fix the issue!

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