Extending traditional and largely transaction based CRM strategies with social CRM and Web 2.0 tools empowers companies to truly engage customers and as a result advance their customer relationships along a continuum from initial buyer to repeat customer to collaborative partner to unsolicited advocate. Social CRM strategies recognize the change in managing the dialogue from the supplier to the customer. However, Social CRM empowers suppliers to employ tools which are user driven, collaborative and interactive in order engage customers at the time, place and method they prefer.
Social CRM
Social CRM (SCRM) includes the strategy, processes and tools to collectively engage customers in a dialogue that satisfies customers' increasing requests for access to information and resources while providing suppliers with unprecedented feedback, increased customer interaction and improved customer relationships.
Social media and social CRM tools are clearly in the limelight and many eyes are watching Jive Software closely. From their industry-first social business software introductions and progress to date, Jive is both a trailblazer in the social business space and a company worth watching for continued innovation and market successes. Here we take a closer look at Jive Software.
Radian6 cloud monitoring, and its integration to Salesforce.com clouds, offers a strong and synergistic combination. But not all customer experiences are positive or deliver payback. To make the most of this solution, social buyers are advised to evaluate the tool within the context of specific business objectives and pursuant to actual business use cases.
To tackle the questions surrounding social CRM planning and adoption—such as how to get started, top benefits, performance metrics, critical success factors and factors contributing to failures—we went to the source. Paul is blogger at PGreenblog and ZDNet's Social CRM: The Conversation and quite literally the guy who wrote the book on customer relationship management. Paul Greenberg podcast ...
Social CRM Thought Leader Brent Leary provides practical advice for SMBs planning or implementing a social CRM strategy and program—including goals, benefits, challenges, fluid customer behaviors, critical success factors, common reasons for failed programs, and why SMBs are leading the charge in social CRM adoption and success. Brent Leary podcast ...
How To Plan, Justify and Execute Your Journey from CRM to Social CRM
This CRM Search special report includes market research, expert insight and peer advice on the strategies, tactics and best practices to adopt and integrate social CRM with your existing CRM strategy and software system. With research references from Forrester and Denise's practical advice in recognizing the business opportunity, identifying social profiles and crafting social metrics, this guide delivers a road map for achieving customer engagement and Social CRM strategic success. Read from CRM to Social CRM »
While 64% of businesses think customers interact with them on social media to "feel connected," only 33% of customers say they do. And in an almost achingly sweet misperception, 61% of businesses think customers interact with them via social media to "be part of a community," whereas only 22% of customers actually do. Here we let the research show what social customers really want.
Business leaders understand the benefits of social media, however, often lack the experience and resources to develop a strategic plan that can be measured and continually refined. Outsourcing social media is one way to gain valuable expertise and ensure your plan becomes a reality. Here we explore social media outsourcing models, methods and evolution.
Business leaders are hearing more about the social enterprise and like the implied impression, but don't have the information to turn this nebulous concept into a solid business strategy. Here we examine what it means to be a social business and describe the process to build a business case with the benefits, risks, paybacks and steps to get there.
Here we share a six step approach and assessment to evaluate and forecast the business impact derived from becoming a social business. This approach provides the thinking and critical steps to build the business case so you can determine whether a social business model makes business sense for your company.
CRM gamification is coming to the forefront and promising user productivity and other bottom-line benefits. Gartner forecasts that by 2015, "more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes... and more than 70 percent of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application."
Social media advocates can influence your brand among communities of adoring followers and if strategically leveraged, these talkative enthusiasts can bolster your marketing efforts, produce volumes of referrals and generate qualified sales leads. Marianne shares what motivates these social promoters and how to identify and cultivate these influencers.
Facebook, Twitter and other social networks provide great channels to engage customers. However, lack of flexibility, cross channel support and unannounced social network changes or updates can stop that customer engagement in its tracks. Here's an approach to use a company-managed social CRM platform to compliment public social networks – and achieve strategic customer benefits.
The integration between social CRM (SCRM) and customer experience management (CEM) is a natural business strategy evolution which further depicts the changing business and customer relationship, advances customer centric strategies and results in increased customer satisfaction, advocacy, referrals and customer share.
Contact centers must embrace social media in order to satisfy customers. However, just creating a Facebook page or opening a Twitter account will do nothing to win mindshare with new social customers. In fact, it can make you look really lame if you don’t attack social media with the same degree of thoroughness, strategy and investment as other business tools.
Initially viewed by some as the bane of corporate infrastructure and a drain on employee productivity, social networking sites now are increasingly being tapped as a way to directly funnel consumer engagement into businesses' CRM strategies. Tying this invaluable data into a CRM solutions creates sales leads, product ideas and amplified company brand.
Gamification—a process of using game thinking and game mechanics to solve problems and engage users—is nascent, but as analyst Denis Pombriant hypothesizes, will ultimately infuse CRM software as a tool to engage, reward and retain customers. In this article, Denis explores some of the big ideas that may seed the next methods of customer interaction and loyalty.
Despite the absence of proven frameworks and best practices, social media has evolved to the point that if you have not incorporated a Web 2.0 strategy and tools into your contact center operations, you have started down the slippery slope of not only losing touch with your customers but losing control of your company’s brand and reputation.
The social CRM revolution is going to come only after the basics of merging customer strategy, processes and software technology have been effectively implemented. To achieve lasting success, social CRM should be built on an effective CRM foundation in order to achieve organization-wide and sustained impact. Ad hoc or piecemeal social media solutions generally fail to deliver ROI.
Social CRM is complex to understand, challenging to implement and difficult to measure–causing some to question the real upside of this business opportunity. However, when forced to recognize a change in customer relationships, as a consequence of the change in the customers control of the conversation, leaders can lie behind difficulties, or seek competitive advantages over laggards.
Social CRM Video Illustration
Social CRM Thought Leadership Views
Stop The Social Networking Nonsense
Forrester Social Listening Report
Nucleus Research claims that "Twitter is for tweeting twits" and enterprise access to social networking sites is costing businesses 1.5% of their total office productivity. Go To ...
The Forrester "2011 Listening Platform Landscape" report cites top vendors and notes that social listening solutions have splintered into distinct groups. Go To ...
Social Media: 6 Choices You Need to Make
Social CRM Stalls in the Enterprise
Here are the six most important choices for you to make this year — the choices that will determine both the quality of your life online and of your relationships offline. Go To ...
When it comes to implementing social CRM in the enterprise, analyst Michael Maoz recommends IT is best served to take the lead. Go To ...
More References
Paul Greenberg's PGreenblog. Paul is the Grandfather of Social CRM and author of the best selling CRM at the Speed of Light, Fourth Edition: Social CRM 2.0 Strategies, Tools and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers.
Brent's Social CRM Blog. Brent is the Thought Leader of SMB Social CRM.
Michael Fauscette's What is "social" CRM anyway. Michael's blog offers a unique perspective in the topics of enterprise software strategies and emerging software business models.
Esteban Kolsky delivers a very insightful blog titled CRM intelligence & strategy. Esteban comes from Gartner, and his research expertise compliments his creative thinking and writings on CRM and social CRM very nicely.
Marshall Lager of Third Idea Consulting is a social CRM maven and journalist from CRM magazine. He is one of the few bloggers that can combine expert commentary and humor in a way that keeps readers coming back.
Social CRM Definitions
Following a two year wiki collaboration project intended to bring definition to CRM 2.0 or Social CRM, thought leader Paul Greenberg published a post titled A Stake in the Ground on Social CRM, which shared "Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company's programmatic response to the customer's control of the conversation." Visit the Social CRM Wiki for the complete conversation on this topic.
According to IDC analyst Michael Fauscette, "Social CRM is the tools and processes that encourage better, more effective customer interaction and leverage the collective intelligence of the broader customer community with the intended result of increasing intimacy between an organization and its prospects and customers."
Digital marketer Martin Walsh explains Social CRM as "A process to monitor, engage and manage conversations and relationships with existing and prospective customers and influencers across the Internet, social networks and digital channels."
Social CRM Facts and Figures
According to Gartner, market spending on social software to support sales, marketing and service will exceed $1 billion worldwide by 2013—representing about 8% of the $12 billion forecast for overall CRM software spending in 2012. The analyst firm further notes that 90% of current spending on social CRM is with B2C, however B2B spending on Social CRM is growing faster than B2C, and will account for 30% of the market by 2015.
"This market will be growing fast for a long time" predicts Gartner analyst Ed Thompson.
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