Social media is a relative newcomer to popular culture but already it is showing a lot of potential to change the way how most of the modern world communicate, relate, socialise and interact with each other. The continued meteoric rise of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is no less than amazing, especially among the younger generation. It is unsurprising that businesses everywhere are searching for ways how they can tap into social media and the potential markets that they represent.
A key feature of social media is that they are not so much dependent on the strength of each individual network, but rather on the constantly evolving ecosystem resulting from their "openness" to be shaped and moulded by the needs of their users and third parties who use these media as platforms from which they can indulge in a wide range of activities, from entertainment, to selling goods and services, to education. In layman's terms, this inherent willingness to share control with users as well as the focus on user-generated content has been a fertile breeding ground for the likes of application development, network integration and content management for businesses. Thus, the stage is set for customer relationship management (CRM) to enter the scene.
CRM strives for the ultimate goal of maximising customer value through the process of managing business interactions and relationships with customers at the right place, at the right time and in the right manner. Social media and its potential in CRM to forge a truly and completely satisfying experience for customers and a rewarding long-term relationship between customers and businesses are getting sending waves of excitement throughout the industry, and with good reason too.
Here are four ways how this new media is changing the landscape of the CRM industry and the way we do business.
Social media changes the way how businesses listen. Social media networks are treasure troves of information just waiting to be gleaned for details of what customers are saying about your business, your competition and your products and services. Businesses who want to tap into this wealth of information must be willing to listen to what the customer wants. No longer is it sufficient to treat social media as just channels for public relations or as a medium to conduct regular brand audits. Listening to the pulse of social media should be an active process which will lead to insights that will shape all your business activities, from product design and concept, to marketing campaigns, to website content and management, and to customer service training.
Social media changes the way how businesses respond. Social media and networks allows businesses to listen to and respond to customer sentiment and feedback in real time. It also yields more opportunities to engage with the most active customers, market influencers and prospects in a timely manner, whether it be actively reaching out to customers or identifying and addressing problems before it results in a PR disaster
Social media allows businesses to gather and process more detailed information about customers and prospects and consolidate them into even more detailed profiles. It is difficult to overemphasize the added layers of information, detail and potential ROI which social media can bring to CRM and the benefits businesses can gain from it. It can also transform CRM from being merely an end-to-end process in the customer-business transaction into a focused proactive player. It helps to provide essential background information to sales staff, especially in business-to-business situations and sales cycle management. Information gathered can be used to directly address individual concerns and thus, create more opportunities to improve customer satisfaction and subsequently leading to more business and repeat purchases.
Social media changes the way how customers and prospects can choose to participate in CRM. Social media and networks now give users considerably more control over how they want their information to be shared online as compared to practices in the past. Websites originally established by businesses to provide information to customers and act as self-service portals have moved past online message and forum boards and evolved into communities where the relationship between businesses and customers is more collaborative and information flows both ways. This change is apparent not only in business-sponsored websites but also in the wider realm of public social networks.
As can be seen, these four trends have the potential to drastically revolutionize the way businesses approach CRM as well as greatly improve the impact of CRM in organizations. However, despite their growing popularity, organizations wanting to incorporate social media into their business models must proceed carefully, taking into consideration industry standards, market demographics, their business's maturity, and their own CRM goals.
Hasan Reynore is a freelance writer and is keen on a number of subject areas. He has also written about compare CRM software and CRM online.
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