Is your business leveraging the information contained in social media sites relevant to your current clients and future prospects? Most business have an internal data management system that records client transactions. More sophisticated databases combine transactions and client interactions such as inbound and outbound emails or associated historical document and merges them into a client profile.
SocialCRM Facebook Page
These information rich databases are the digital assets of a business. SugarCRM is just one example of a web-based or on-demand customer relationship management tool used by successful businesses.
Many businesses use these CRM databases to forecast future business growth, to obtain client comments related to service experiences, or to market new products or services. However, this information exchange is limited in scope due to natural barriers within internal communications.
Do people really say what they feel when a customer service representative calls? Would they speak freely as they would with a friend or coworker about how they were treated? For some reason, people have no problem saying exactly how they feel on their Facebook page.
Businesses are beginning to understand that their best and worst clients are speaking about their experiences everyday through digital voices. Relying on postage paid comment cards isn’t going to get the job done anymore. Whether it is a status update on Facebook, a tweet on Twitter, or through a comment on a blog post, people like to talk about their experience. SocialCRM and customer service are two sides of the same coin. Try a Google search with the name of your company and add the word sucks or great. You might be surprised at the results. Proactive business may use Google Alerts to stay informed in regards to positive or negative digital feedback indexed on Google.
SocialCRM Twitter Account
In addition to Google Alerts, some progressive companies are listening to comments made on Twitter. Whether by using the Twitter search tool or by using Tweetdeck, companies are tracking keywords directly or indirectly about their business.
All of the tracking in the world doesn’t make any difference unless you do something about it. Some companies simply try to have negative comments or posts removed from sites, which is almost impossible if it goes viral.
Within minutes, one post or video can spread through hundreds of websites. Many company policy and procedure manuals are being rewritten as a result of these new channels of communication. Not only is it comments from clients, but it is also comments from employees surfacing on the web.
Evidently, a lot of people are really bored out of their minds at work. People are being fired over tweets and status updates.
It is evident that companies are afraid of what they can’t control. The reaction of many companies is to block social media sites altogether, but at what expense?
What if there was a way to encourage the use of social media in the work place?
What if the channels were built in to the way business did business day to day?
Yes, it would require additional training and responsibility. The way society interacts is changing. Why wouldn’t our business communication models change too?
Who is the catalyst for change in your organization?
Is the Marketing Manger the one to initiate the change?
Is it the Customer Service Manager?
Is it the Chief Executive Officer?
Whoever is the person to bring about fundamental change in your organization, they need to have access to the information and tools in order to make change happen.
If you need help convincing senior management that SocialCRM is essential, here is a great video.
Imagine combining the information from Facebook profiles and Twitter updates and merging that data into your CRM tool.
How might that information be helpful in maintaining the best relationship with your clients? How might that information be used to provide relevant product or service recommendations to your future clients? How might your customer service agents benefit from knowing in advance the concerns of your less than satisfied customers?
LinkedIn Profile for SocialCRM
The information contained in a LinkedIn profile reads like an online resume. Current and previous employer, level of education, hobbies, plus business contacts are included. Think about the possibilities of leveraging that information to make personalized portfolio suggestions to your clients.
Imagine the possibilities of developing marketing plans that deliver custom content based on social media profiles. The effectiveness of a campaign built around a client’s preferences, this is the goal of every marketing manager.
Few campaigns are successful because they lack the raw data to really understand how the client feels about your products. Those feelings are now being expressed in 140 characters and can be indexed to better understand the true client to business relationship.
It’s time to set aside the fear of the unknown and put away all the excuses. It’s time to fully engage your clients. It’s time to empower your staff to listen, communicate, and energize your client relationships.
Creating your own SocialCRM Development Team:
- Begin by making a list of people you trust to speak on behalf of your organization.
- Select a small group of employees with great communication skills.
- Be ready to identify your biggest fans and find ways to build equity in their personal branding.
- Develop a process or workflow based on company name, products, or services mentioned in social media sites.
- Create your company branded Twitter account
- Create your company branded Facebook Page (Difference between Fan Pages and Group Pages)
- Set up Listening Dashboard – Tweetmeme , TweetGrid , Twitscoop
- Set up SocialCRM plugin – GetSocial
- Select other Social Media tools (35 Social Media Tools)
Research shows that companies who have a company branded social media site have greater client interaction than those who do not. This requires a shift in marketing philosophy altogether. The shift is from talking to people about your company to people talking about your company to others.
Building a 3D client view with SocialCRM is not limited to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles. Imagine what happens when you turn the SocialCRM cube 90 degrees. I’ll save that for another post. I hope this article has sparked your thoughts about the future of CRM and Social Media. I would love to hear your comments or feedback on what’s working for you or where the SocialCRM processes are breaking down. Is it technology? Is it policy? Is it people?
SocialCRM for Small Business
With the talks of cutbacks and budget reductions, now more than ever is the time to invest in the people and businesses that have been your loyal clients from the start. Even with the latest edition of Microsoft Outlook, it is very challenging to maintain quality ongoing relationships with your clients on an enterprise level. If you or your sales, service or support staff is tied down to working out of a shared database on a network in a PC environment, you are missing huge opportunities.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have made fantastic leaps in scalability and have become significantly more user friendly. Without having to sacrifice the comfort of working in a Microsoft environment, many CRMs have the functionality to integrate with Outlook and Word. Software CRMs that are installed on local machines are now being challenged by on-demand web-based CRMs making mobility affordable. Open source CRMs are gaining fast ground to rival “In the Box” vendors because of flexibility and complete customization to fit the way you do business.
4 Mistakes When Considering a CRM System:
• Wrong End of the Binoculars – The goal of your CRM system should be to raise the profitability of revenues: Lowering the cost of customer acquisition, increasing customer lifetime value, and reducing waste in sales, marketing, support and service delivery. Focusing primarily on the cost, rather than the business impact can leave you paralyzed in indecision.
• Goal Overloads – Better to have a very small number of goals for the system, each with a clear owner, metric of success and deadline. Every CRM goal should be prioritized with no ties. After you’ve registered some quick wins that demonstrate results and get users committed to the CRM system, add the next one or two goals as you build the system out incrementally.
• Using NASA Measurements – What proportion of your current business is represented in the CRM database, and how often are users accessing the customer relationship information? The first order of business is user adoption: How quickly and deeply are they using the system? The second order of business is the value of the orders flowing through the system per month.
• Roman World Domination – The warning signs of Caesar/Nero Expectations include: Infrequent project milestones; large, complex, monolithic project deliverables; little consideration of political or change-management issues; or overstated requirements, particularly for scope of system integration or historical data.
Here is a simple quiz to help you have the best perspective going into finding the right CRM:
What would be the net effect to the bottom line if your sales staff could close one percent of the deals they lost last year?
Who would benefit the most if you could reduce the prospect to client funnel by seven days?
What result would you see if your business reallocated 10 percent of its advertising dollars to speak directly to clients who have already bought from you and have confidence in your business, compared to trying to convince total strangers to buy from you?
Would your customer support cost increase or decrease if you could handle each customer issue with one less phone call?
If you are looking for more information on CRMs, here is a list of bloggers who are passionate about CRM:
