by tz4rgp | Dec 3, 2012 | Blog |
We recently conducted a small survey on the adoption and priorities of Social CRM in corporations. The results, of course, cannot be treated as absolute, as the sample size is too small. However, they correlate to research done by Jeremiah Owyang and the Altimeter Group. This especially relates to the modest available budgets and somewhat to the way ahead. The Altimeter group research can be found here. Btw: Jeremiah’s blog is a worthwhile reading for anyone who deals with social CRM. Back to my main topic, our survey results. The top findings are that [unordered_list style=”green-dot”] only 12 per cent of our answers indicate that companies are not using social media at all, and are not planning to do so. There is a quarter of the answers saying that social media usage is part of normal business processes. more than fifty per cent of the respondents say that they are using social media for marketing, but not via formal campaigns about 90 per cent of the respondents claim that they are working with a budget for social media that exceeds 10,000 dollar a vast majority of 80 per cent of the respondents think that the importance of social media will increase for their company in the next year. Companies are using a plethora of unintegrated tools to manage their social media efforts a staggering 40 per cent of the respondents see it as unlikely that they connect their CRM system with their social media efforts. [/unordered_list] Now the last one puzzles me, especially following the statement that the usage of social media is important, especially in the marketing. This...
by tz4rgp | Dec 3, 2012 | Blog |
Some days ago Bob Thompson interviewed Graham Hill about his take on Social CRM. The interview covered a lot of topics, most notably the future of Social CRM about which Graham has a particular view and led Bob to ask the question whether it is necessary to have a CRM system to have Social CRM. On a first glimpse this question sounds simple, but it really isn’t. From a business perspective it only matters that CRM is executed upon, if CRM is a topic. This is totally independent of systems, as are the possible paths into the future of Social CRM that Graham sees, which is a deviation from this post that I likely will look into in a later post. My answer to Bobs question is a clear No – but Yes! Sounds odd, doesn’t it? So let me explain. CRM is a business strategy; so is Social CRM. In an earlier blog titled CRM vs. Social CRM – what is the difference? I discussed differences as I do saw them at that time. My view has slightly evolved since, but this is another side track. Let’s have a look at good definitions of CRM and Social CRM. Wikipedia defines CRM as “a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the...
by tz4rgp | Dec 3, 2012 | Blog |
Just by looking at the terms Customer Relationship Management and Social Customer Relationship Management one can see that they are sharing the same roots; Social CRM is either a limitation to or an enhancement of (traditional) CRM – or is it something entirely different? Let me take a brief view at what CRM and Social CRM are and are not and then come to a conclusion. CRM – Customer Relationship Management – is a business strategy. If you do a brief research on the web you will find many definitions with their own tweaks. What most of them have in common is that they all say that the strategy is about the customer and about how to engage a customer so that the company applying the strategy [unordered_list style=”green-dot”] gets most knowledge about the customer (groups) and is able to action upon this knowledge to maximize the own results (be it market share, revenue, margin, win, …) [/unordered_list] As such a CRM strategy covers all relevant actions to market the right products to customers, sell the products and potentially provide service afterwards. CRM by no means is a technology, although sometimes this is still peoples’ thinking. A CRM application/system or suite enables and supports the business in pursuing its CRM strategy. The software does this by providing the tools to perform the necessary tasks and by providing the data that is necessary to control processes and to take necessary action. Something that is not explicitly said is that one fundamental underlying premise of pursuing a (traditional) CRM strategy is that the business owns and/or governs the communication with the...
by tz4rgp | Sep 27, 2012 | Blog |
Inspired by a blog post by Dr. Harish Kotadia I started to rethink about what the real key success factors for a social CRM strategy are. Harish used Walmart as an example, based upon their introduction of the “local” Walmart on Facebook. Walmart, being a retailer with more than 3,500 stores is surely a company for which the concept of (physical) proximity is important. From the outset I contradicted him (how dare I 😉 ). My point was, and is, that companies like Amazon, Dell, even Apple, arguably have a social CRM strategy but are not exactly local (there is not even a single Apple Retail Store in NZ …). They all manage without being physically local. Some brick and mortar retailers are even able and willing to bring their store to their customers by various technical means (e.g. Tesco but also others). So, I argue that proximity is more defined by ease of access, availability, interaction, rather than physical distance. This, in turn, means that physical proximity is not necessarily a key concept. This is especially true as being close, physically or otherwise, but irrelevant doesn’t bring a company anywhere, except into bankruptcy. So, relevance seems to be key. What is relevance? Relevance is the ability and willingness of companies to create value together with their customers. This goes beyond the mere transaction – giving money in exchange for a product or a service. Value for the company is not created by a single transaction, nor does the product itself create value for a customer. Value for the company is created by sustainable business. Sustainable business is not...
by tz4rgp | Sep 27, 2012 | Blog |
We recently read Peter Shankman’s raving experience report about Morton’s Steak Houses where essentially the management of the restaurant chain went out of their way to provide a loyal, valuable (and influential on the web) customer with a surprise meal after he jokingly tweeted that he is hungry and would really enjoy a porterhouse steak on the airport. Morton’s made this happen and excited a customer who created a buzz on the web in terms of tweets and re-tweets, an intensely discussed blog post, numerous mentions in other blogs (including this one here). The consequences of this not so simple action are obvious: [unordered_list style=”green-dot”] An influential and already loyal and happy customer turns (even more) into an advocate. He talks about his amazing experience – and justifiably so A customer originated marketing message is sent that promotes the brand Morton’s brand perception increased even more (I didn’t even know of them before, but then I am a German who lives in New Zealand…) [/unordered_list] I really would not be surprised if the incremental revenue that is directly attributable to this smart move of a company that is consequently and consistently active on the social web outweighs its cost by orders of magnitude. This episode clearly shows the potential for businesses that lies in actively using the social web. Unluckily it is still an outlier. Reality looks different. Let me bring three examples of very different businesses in Germany that could use Morton’s as a guiding light. The businesses are A major railway operator A leading mobile carrier An online bank Three very different businesses – yet they share...
