Our Thinking

Social CRM: Establishing Strategy

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This post is going to answer some of the questions raised in my last post on driving customer engagement using Social CRM. With the customer at the center, Social CRM integrates with social media apps/tools like blogs, wikis, podcasts, and user communities. It can capture the emotional and behavioral insights of the customer.

This intelligence enables businesses to create an “experience” rather than focus on selling a product/service to satisfy customers. With Social CRM, the customer-company relationship is more of a collaborative effort. The focus is on engaging and enabling the “influential” nodes. A number of businesses are doing this successfully e.g. P&G’s innovative Connect + Develop program invites people to submit their ideas.

This is said to generate 50% of next generation products at P&G. Harley Davidson created a website and social community, totally funded by Harley riders, that revived Harley’s brand. HDtalking.com supports over 40k highly engaged users. American Airlines has a well-implemented Social CRM strategy focused on Marketing and Customer Service.

How do businesses implement it? The key is to change the Marketing process. Dump the idea of sending targeted and highly specific corporate messages to the customer using a generic mailing list. Focus on building relationship with the customer, engaging them in activity and empowering them to trigger conversations among the company’s prospects and other customers, using a CRM.

A large amount of this can be automated if you have an engagement strategy and some system knowledge. As a starting point, think about your ideal prospect and chart out a plan on how you would engage with them on the following venues: your website, social media, or at an event. Once you have a strategy, the next step is implementation.

Do you have a Social CRM idea that you would like to share?
Ashish Malik is Partner, Client Services at 108 ideaspace inc., a consulting firm that extends business strategies by innovating in Strategy, Technology and Design. A Certified Consultant, Ashish has helped several clients automate their sales and marketing and grow their business by implementing CRM. For more on Ashish Malik or 108 ideaspace, visit www.108ideaspace.com.