CRM With Social Media

Today's customer is spoilt for choices. As soon as he plays with the thought of going for some product or service, there is a long list of providers in front of him. What is it that would differentiate you from others? The answer is how quickly you reached out and how completely you delighted him/her with knowledge about requirements and personalized suggestions. This is where Social CRM comes to the rescue.

​What is Social CRM?

Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is the use of social media services and technology integrated with CRM to enable organizations to engage with their customers. The information in a CRM needs to be constantly updated — and there needs to be a mechanism which helps you reach out at the earliest, to both prospects and existing clients.

​Why Social CRM?

We can broadly look at two use cases of Social CRM:

• Social Engagement with Prospects: Social CRM tools allow businesses to better engage with their customers by listening to sentiments about their products and services, tracking opinions on various features, and getting an idea of how influential that person is in their social circle.
• Social Customer Service: Social media is moving from outbound marketing towards inbound customer services. Rather than companies purely delivering marketing messages, it is the inbound customer queries that provide meaningful points of engagement and build brand advocacy and loyalty. When a customer has a grievance and voices it on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, one dissatisfied customer can attract attention of a large audience. Social CRM helps integrate with these social media platforms — as soon as a case is created, it prompts you to reply on the same platform without delay.

Research has found a 5% increase in customer retention boosts lifetime customer profits by 50% on average across multiple industries, as well as up to 90% within specific industries such as insurance. If you need to have an edge over your competition, you need to be the first one to reach out. Social media identities linked to your CRM give a 360-degree view of the customer possible.

​Social CRM Success Stories

• Best Buy: Employee communities grew to 2,200 employees within 3 months and responded to over 13,000 customers on social networks. The Twitter feed @twelpforce counts over 29,000 followers with an average of 100-125 questions per day — considered a key value-add by customers and the company.
• General Motors: Launched "Fastlane," one of the first blogs personally written by senior executives. Customer feedback through the blog saved the company $180,000/year versus traditional focus group research.
• FISKARS: This 300-year-old Finnish company created an online social community of crafting enthusiasts called "Fiskateers" to build relationships with small retailers — resulting in a 3X increase in company sales.
• Johnson & Johnson: An 8-year-old online/social media community connected and engaged 8,000,000 new and expectant moms in the U.S. (78% of total) and another 16.5 million in 21 countries — a major profit centre for J&J.
• Harley Davidson: Harley owners created a website and social community totally funded by users, with user-generated content, at least 7 mechanics on-call at all times, and a rich community of owner support.

​Summing It Up

Social CRM brings a new element into CRM — instead of just dealing with data and information, we are dealing with conversations and relationships. These conversations take place not just from company to consumer but also from consumer to consumer. The key benefit of Social CRM is the ability for companies to interact with customers in a multi-channel environment and talk to customers the way they talk to each other.