I am trying to collate a quick & dirty laundry list of the business benefits of social CRM so that I can flip it out for folks casting a doubitng glare towards me. May be to only intimidate them. ;) But then, the list should contain genuine benefits so that I can follow through during the course of my discussions with them. :)
Disclaimer - There is no academic or analyst rigour behind this list. This is just a dirty list.
- Customer retention
- Customer advocacy
- Lead generation
- Online reputation management
- Social influence marketing
- Realtime microtargeting
- Realtime customer service
- Crowdservice
- Customer co-creation
- Co-created personalized professional services
- Crowdsourcing ideas
- Community based design
- Mass collaboration
- Co-creating experiences
This is by no means exhaustive. So please do feel free to contribute to my dirty list or share your list. ;)
With all due respect, doesn’t Social CRM impact every customer facing process of traditional CRM? Social CRM brings authenticity, accountability, immediacy and most important of all, the foundations of trust with customers into the relationship. So in constructing the ROI of Social CRM wouldn’t every customer-based process in traditional CRM be nurtured, strengthened and made more genuine as a result? Just my opinion and I find this area fascinating. I am far from an expert either!
ReplyDeleteI defer to Brent Leary, Paul Greenberg, John Moore, Bill Band and many others following this area in an effort to learn. Yet I think the bottom line is that Social CRM is powerful catalyst, a fuel if you will, that can make CRM processes more genuine, focused, in short more real and therefore more trusted by customers. Thanks for your enthusiasm for the topic; you are a great teacher too!
Louis, thanks a lot for the comment! Yes, it was my oversight to not jot down the points you have noted. I will remedy that!
ReplyDeleteI learn from the same people as you Louis. :)
Another duo I cannot miss our are Graham Hill & Esteban Kolsky! Graham for his academic rigor & Esteban for his analyst pragmatism!
Louis, I consider myself as an aggregating-sharing person rather than a teacher which requires more commitment to the students. At best am a coach rather than a trainer! Thank you for the confidence in me. :)
I agree with Louis when he notes that "Social CRM impact every customer facing process of traditional CRM". It must deliver on the original promises of CRM first and foremost.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that, the notes on co-creating are a key differentiator, where I prefer to think of it as co-creation of value. This value might consist of co-development of knowledge base articles or the analysis of social media platforms for brand sentiment analysis.
While I am sure your list is incomplete there is nothing obvious missing from it.
John
Thanks a lot for joining in John. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, social CRM carries with it the promise of CRM, even those not delivered as promised while it was being pushed for acceptance.
I did not want to make a redundant list since the people I wanted to flash this list at are CRM "veterans" who are not so ready yet to start thinking coherently about social CRM. Not that they disbelieve, only that they have difficulty in understanding what additional benefits could it provide.
How about adding call centre staff retention - when this becomes part of the process there will be new skills required in the call centre and ppl will have something to aim for rather than call centre agent or call centre supervisor. Taken a step further this will need new skills in the call centre in order to proactively respond to customers and in order to take feedback, deal with it and channel it back into the organisation. Therefore, making the call centre a more desirable place to be.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take Mark! I not knowledgeable on the call center aspects, so others must chime in. :) I do however see retraining headaches in this. ;) Not that they are insurmountable, just that it would be a hurdle that change management folks will have to take into consideration. :(
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