Navigate your move in to social CRM

The explosion of social media over the past several years has certainly begun to make its mark in the business world. What started out as a primarily consumer-driven concept has become big business on many fronts: companies are marketing to customers via social networks; supporting customers and identifying trouble spots via Twitter; and leveraging these new social channels for market research and to qualify leads.

While social channels present an opportunity, companies must not forget the core foundations that actually manage the data and processes within the organisation. Concepts like social CRM are appealing for many reasons, but ultimately are not a replacement for traditional CRM. Instead, think of social tools as a new means to enhance existing CRM strategies and systems to attract and manage customer relationships.

To navigate your move into Social CRM, it is useful to ask yourself these four questions before spending precious time and resources on a social media endeavour:

1. What are my business objectives for social CRM and how will I measure success?

Before entering the social media arena, it is critical to define your goals so you can plan effectively, measure results, and have a basis to gauge success. Are you trying to gain and retain more customers via social CRM? Do you want to drive innovation within your business? Will your initiative address all the areas of your company that are customer-facing: sales, marketing, and support? Do you have a plan to train employees on new processes that will be put in place to achieve your objectives? The more thorough your up-front planning, the greater the likelihood of a successful implementation.

It is easy for a social media initiative to create data silos, accumulating quantities of data without providing insight. However, if you tightly integrate your social tools and data with well-structured existing systems like a CRM tool, you can more effectively track interactions and outcomes. Put reporting in place prior to initiating your social media efforts and you will be able to quantify your success and identify areas for improvement and expansion.

2. How will this social initiative enhance the customer experience?

Just being social for the sake of being social may be counterproductive. For many B2B sales and support organisations, social media should be a means of adding convenience to the sales or customer support cycle—not an intrusive waste of time. Ensure that your social interactions are beneficial, not a detraction from the overall customer experience. Creation of a new social media channel for sales or support must accommodate customers’ preferences; otherwise, you may simply be creating a set of hurdles between you and your customers.

3. Am I using social media to hide deeper flaws in my business?

Some companies use social media as a façade to hide poor support processes or other problem areas. Customers who tweet about a bad experience get preferential treatment, but what problem does that really solve?  Before adding layers of social engagement, try to ensure your customer-facing processes are strong before exposing them to potentially hyper-critical social channels.

If you can honestly assess your customer-facing processes as satisfactory, social media will provide you with a unique opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to continuously improve those processes by accepting and incorporating public customer feedback, both positive and negative.

It is natural to be concerned over the possibility—actually, the likelihood—that some negative comments about your business will be received in a public forum. However, the act of accepting negative feedback and publicly working through issues by demonstrating concern and customer care will win over many more prospects and customers than it will dissuade. Therefore, it is important, prior to launching a social media initiative, to create a plan to deal with the inevitable negative communication openly and positively, thereby favourably positioning your business as responsive and customer-focused.

4. Who will be responsible for managing our social outreach?

This should be a significant area of concern for those looking to jump into social business. If you are going to generate leads, or attempt to handle customer complaints via social media, ensure that a proper escalation path is in place. If a customer reaches out via social media and gets no response, it is almost worse than not having a social policy. Avoid this situation by putting the right people in place to quickly and consistently manage inquiries received via social channels.

Again, social CRM is not a new concept in itself—it is just the implementation of new technology to do what we have always done in business: attract and manage customer relationships.
 

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