CRM is dead! Yeah, right – and Earth is a disc

by tz4rgp | Dec 2, 2013 | Blog |

A few days ago I came across a blog entry by @MikeBoysen titled Customers Don”t Want Relationships…PERIOD! A really intriguing title and read – perhaps written to stir up a discussion. Works for me, as it stirs me up from of my absence from this blog of mine… Mike, after this very strong claim the starts with another one: CRM is dead. Well, CRM seems to be pretty alive for a dead one; as a strategy and also as a technology. And here is exactly the point where Mike and other influencers – I had discussions about this topic e.g. with @bob_thompson from CustomerThink as well – are dead wrong (I couldn’t resist this pun). Their argumentation is solely based upon CRM being a technology. And then they compare CRM with another acronym that they claim is a strategy, concluding that the other one is far better. Apples vs. pears. Technology vs strategy. CRM is not a technology. It is also not a process area. CRM is a strategy. CEM is another, related, strategy. Buying a technology without a strategy to implement is bound to fail. It is like entering a road without a destination in mind. This holds true for whatever acronym is used, including CRM, SCRM, or CEM, but also “Loyalty Management”, or “Social Media”, or “Big Data”. What do I need “Big Data” for? Or what is the purpose of doing “Social Media” in an enterprise context? Are customers loyal to a vendor or does a vendor simply manage to create the impression that he is better able to deliver to customers’ needs than other vendors?...

SocialMeetsCRM and AreteN Limited partner up for reselling SocialMeetsCRM solutions

by tz4rgp | Apr 23, 2013 | News |

SocialMeetsCRM and AreteN Ltd are happy to announce our newly forged partnership. “Combining the solution strength of SocialMeetsCRM with the strong sales capabilities of the AreteN team will bring both of our businesses ahead and it will help SocialMeetsCRM enter an important European market and give us more momentum in our internationalization efforts. This is an exciting opportunity for us.” says Thomas Wieberneit, co-CEO of SocialMeetsCRM Ltd. AreteN will be the exclusive reseller for SocialMeetsCRM solutions in UK and Northern Ireland and initialy focus on the UK retail market, offering a uniquely integrated social mobile loyalty and couponing solution. This solution enables retail companies to efficiently get more reach via social networks while at the same time giving them the opportunity to engage with their customers on their smartphones taking advantage of toha, the mobile social networking app. Scenarios include the maintenance of loyalty cards and coupons on the phone, where thy matter to their customers, at reduced cost for the creation and management of loyalty accounts and coupon campaigns. Cards and coupons can be scanned at the POS directly from the...

SocialMeetsCRM exhibits at retail australasia summit and expo

by tz4rgp | Mar 26, 2013 | News |

SocialMeetsCRM is happy to announce our presence at the retail australasia Expo & Summit that takes place on May 21 and 22. Together with our partner AdvanceRetail we will exhibit our integrated loyalty and coupon solution for Retail. Offer your customers the ease and convenience of a mobile loyalty card and coupons sent directly to their smartphones and their redemption with a simple scan directly at the POS. Expand your reach and have direct communications with your customers on important social networks and smartphones leveraging our Social-Mobile Collaboration Platform and our toha app. toha is available for iOS and...

Social CRM needs a CRM system, doesn't it?

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...

Traditional CRM vs. Social CRM – What is the difference?

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...