Benefits of CRM Going Social

Transcription

1 White Paper Beefits of CRM Goig Social The era of the passive customer is goe ad a ew cocept, that of the social customer has evolved. The customer of today is vocal expressig his thoughts about the products or services used; creative suggestig iovative ways to chage the products or services for the better; ad collaborative helpig marketig compaies decide upo their ext course of actio. All this has bee made possible by the pheomeal growth of social media. Social media is a icredible way to sell oeself to, literally, billios of people at the same time, provided oe ivests i learig how to do it the right way. It gives marketig compaies useful isights ito the customer s mid ad, if haressed well, ca make a huge impact o the sales ad brad value of a compay. With social media gaiig such immese importace, it is ow more tha essetial to try ad uderstad the customer s mid by trackig customer coversatios about the products ad services they use as this ca go a log way i improvig the compay s sales. The compay must also keep abreast of all such coversatios about themselves, their idustry ad their competitio. I this paper, we will look at how the power of social media ca be leveraged to icrease oe s market presece ad build healthy relatioships with customers by itroducig products the customers wat.

2 About the Author Chidaad Bollapragada Chidaad Bollapragada has over 16 years of experiece i the IT idustry. He has worked o umerous projects across various verticals, for example, HiTech, Healthcare, Telecom, Maufacturig, Govermet ad others. He is curretly headig the CRM Cetre of Excellece for HiTech ad the Professioal Services (PS) segmet, ivolved i providig techical solutios to HiTech ad PS customers. He has wo a umber of awards ad recogitios from GE Plastics ad Blue Cross Blue Shield. He is TOGAF ad Certified Software Quality Aalyst (CSQA) certified. Chidaad holds a Bachelor of Egieerig degree from the Uiversity of Pue. 2

3 Table of Cotets 1. Itroductio 4 2. Social CRM Needs ad Challeges 4 3. Social CRM Solutio 6 4. Busiess Beefits 6 5. Coclusio 7 6. Ackowledgemets 8 7. Refereces 8 3

4 Itroductio Customers today are o loger the passive users of products or services. They are vocal, creative ad collaborative usig the power of social media forums ad blogs to express their thoughts, ideas ad cocers. All this iformatio ca be very valuable to marketig compaies seekig to uderstad their customers mids ad how their brad is perceived i the market. Social media serves a dual role helpig a compay lear about how it ad its products are perceived ad also helpig a ew buyer gather feedback o a particular product or service before decidig to ivest i it. Accordig to a study coducted by DEI Worldwide (a leadig social media marketig agecy) i 2011, 70 percet of cosumers use social media to get iformatio o a product, brad or compay. Furthermore, a report from the Coferece Board foud that 77 percet of adult Iteret users cosidered blogs a good way to get iformatio about a compay or product. Sice the birth of Facebook ad other digital commuities, social media has bee deemed a territory of the marketig ad commuicatio departmets of several compaies. As the ladscape matures, compaies are begiig to realise ad embrace the medium s wider potetial. Social media ca play a vital role i ehacig customer service, obtaiig customer feedback ad eve developig the right kids of products. Hece, it is critical for busiesses to get social data out of a silo ad ito the hads of busiess leaders. Some of the leadig HiTech ad Electroic compaies are already goig social, usig the iformatio available o the various social media sites to aalyse customer buyig behaviours, their eeds, segmets ad so o, liste to customer coversatios ad take customer feedback. This has helped them to actively egage with their customers ad respod faster to customer queries ad coversatios. Social CRM Needs ad Challeges The busiess world today is icreasigly focused o improvig customer experiece, but some compaies lack the expertise ad tools to make this happe. Oe of the best ways to ehace customer experiece is to leverage what oe kows about their customers, ad to do that it is required to itegrate Customer Relatioship Maagemet (CRM) systems with the available social data. Traditioal CRM systems The purpose of a CRM system is to help compaies maitai costat coect with their customers. The previous CRM systems available as two-tier architecture systems, are ow available as web, mobile ad cloud-based services. These ca be used to sed automated s to customers o ew products or services. However, this coect ca be made with oly a subset of customers, details of whom who are recorded i the CRM system. Other ways to update customers o ew products is through campaigs ad evets. CRM marketig helps to budget, pla, orgaise ad lauch campaigs for the ew products or services. Campaigs or evets ca draw the attetio of oly a few customers. Traditioal CRM may ot be able to lik with social media ad coect with larger customer groups ad get their feedback o ew 4

5 products or services. This meas that the compay must create focus groups, purchase customer research reports ad coduct surveys to uderstad the customer better. Iadequate customer isight Orgaisatios are curretly faced with the challege of iadequate isight ito their customer s requiremets, their ideas ad grievaces. This ca be effectively met by aligig CRM busiess processes with social media. For orgaisatios seekig to uderstad their customers, their eeds ad wats, this is oe of the best ways. These social chaels cotai valuable customer iformatio ideas o iovatios, ad product ad service ehacemets. This iformatio ca be used as social itelligece, helpig to aalyse customer profiles, ad their behavioural patters a valuable iput to icrease sales ad ehace customer service. Operatig i reactive mode Most marketig compaies operate i a reactive mode providig sales ad service support oly whe the customer asks for it. This is ot oly costly but also ieffective, requirig as it does a special focus by sales ad service persoel to gai customer attetio. The reveue, profit ad growth of a compay deped o the creatio of prospective customer leads ad icreasig the lead-to-order ratio. The geeratio of leads is ofte associated with high costs as it ivolves advertisig, trade shows ad evets, camps, ad customer ad parter cofereces. A effective alterative to these expesive lead geeratio methods are marketig iitiatives such as social campaigs. Resposes from these campaigs (see as potetial leads) ca be directed to the CRM system ad further coect be made through chat, call or istat messagig. Improper aalysis of customer eed Other challeges iclude lack or improper aalysis of customer buyig behaviours ad their eeds, leadig compaies to focus o products ot etirely suited to their customer s actual eed, which may i tur lead to customer chur. Addig to this problem of customer chur is whe compaies fail to address customer grievaces o time. Such problems ca be effectively coutered through social moitorig. Social moitorig ca accelerate customer acquisitio ad decrease customer chur. Social moitorig ca also help with obtaiig customer feedback ad suggestios whe itroducig ew products ito the market. Typically a customer who opts to buy a product would have doe a detailed aalysis of the product available from other vedors ad will have a detailed kowledge of all such products i the market. This customer ca post a ope ad u-biased feedback o the products lauched, o social chaels as blogs, forums or discussios. With a listeig ad moitorig platform i place, all this iformatio ca be captured ad processed i the CRM systems for follow-up activities by sales persoel. This iformatio is also useful for the cross-sell or up-sell of products ad services. 5

6 Social CRM Solutio The social CRM solutio is othig but a listeig ad moitorig platform that allows the real-time trackig of ad respodig to customer coversatios from withi CRM system across various social chaels. To optimise the use of such a solutio, it should be embedded withi the CRM applicatio so that customer support activities ca be carried out i a itegrated maer. The platform should be cofigured to coect to oe or more selected social etwork sites for it to capture all customer discussio about the compay s products ad services. It is also importat to separate the urelated iformatio or oise from the real coversatios so that oly the useful / filtered iformatio ca be processed. There ca be a added mechaism whereby compaies ca sed automated resposes to customer queries or participate i customer discussios, ad where a iterested customer is foud, track it as a lead or opportuity. Some of the advatages of this are better uderstadig of what the customer wats, their behaviours ad emotios; ad a costat coect with the customer. Further, loyal ad ifluetial customers ca be tured ito brad advocates, helpig to brig i more customers. Refereces ad quotes by ifluetial customers ca also serve to attract other customers. New ideas, if ay, ca be implemeted to ehace the products ad services. Busiess Beefits Orgaisatios are totally depedet o their CRM applicatios for trackig the customer from a prospect to a asset. Havig a presece i the social world ca really be a added advatage to uderstad the customer s views, thoughts ad cocers. The best CRM systems chage a compay ad its relatioships for the better. Implemeted well, CRM systems ca take a busiess ito etirely ew markets while solidifyig leadership i existig oes. Followig are a few of the busiess beefits of CRM systems goig social: Ability to access ad itegrate all the social media data comig through social etworkig sites, micro blogs or forums Augmets customer iformatio with rich social data eablig cross-sell ad up-sell Helps get isight ito customer behaviour ad their feedback o products ad services by aalysig the coversatio from social media sites ad commuities Helps gai valuable feedback o product ad services. This ca lead to iovatio. Helps i geeratig more leads ad hece, more opportuities Helps to respod to opportuities or customer grievaces from withi the CRM applicatio ad thereby reduce customer chur 6

7 Helps to respod faster to customer ad thereby icrease customer satisfactio ad retetio Lowers the total cost of owership (TCO) Helps egage i meaigful coversatios with the customers via cotests ad olie campaigs Several orgaisatios today are takig advatage of social media by buildig collaboratio ad egagemet platforms to coect with social etworks ad likig them with their CRM systems. Orgaisatios which have implemeted this solutio have had the followig beefits: Build social leads from collaboratio platforms Create product ad service forums for customers ad parters to exchages ideas Provide a likage to kowledge base to aswer techical queries Provide customers with timely iformatio, guidace or assistace Obtai rapid social respose from Facebook, Twitter ad other such social sites Ehace customer service Coclusio With the social web cotiuously growig, a good social CRM system would allow for costatly buildig up the profiles ad statistics of customers. CRM goig social ca have may other beefits, which are mutual to the orgaisatio ad their customers. Orgaisatios that are i costat coect with their customers ca uderstad their eeds ad grievaces ad take immediate actio. This would lead to higher customer satisfactio ad retetio ad improve the reveue, market share ad brad value of the orgaisatio. Orgaisatios should thik of socially eablig their CRM applicatios ad cosider this as oe of the buildig blocks of their growth ad iovatio. The iputs ad ideas received from customers ca also be used for future research ad developmet. With the ability to lauch social campaigs from CRM System the sales fuel would icrease ad result i higher prospect-to-lead ratio. Orgaisatios eed to adapt ad alig their CRM applicatios to use social itelligece ad data for buildig better relatioships with customer. Orgaisatios with good customer relatioships ca build trust ad cofidece i them. Customers with good relatioships ca ifluece other prospective buyers by sharig their experieces, positive feedback o the orgaizatio s products or services over social etworks. This would source or geerate ew customer coects which ca be a opportuity for creatig ew busiess ad reveue growth. Customers ow-a-days are creative, iovative ad exchage a lot of ideas over social etworks. This iformatio is valuable ad therefore becomes essetial for a orgaizatio to tap ad use it for buildig iovative products ad services which ca improve customer satisfactio 7

8 I the future, a kowledge base ca be created from the social iformatio collated. This ca act as a hub for all the social customers to coect with each other ad search for a possible solutio to their problem, submit a idea or propose a iovatio. Also, makig the CRM system itelliget eough to process the social data to create leads, opportuities without the itervetio of sales agets ca be cosidered as a future developmet of the solutio. Itegratio with loyalty systems for automated scorig ad rewards based o the profiles ad buyig patters of ifluetial social customers is also a possibility. Ackowledgemets I would like to thak Mr. Moha Masso, HiTech TEG Head for his costat support i authorig the white paper. Refereces [1] The Art of Social Sales The customer collective by Oracle [2] Social CRM goes maistream Market Aalyst report 8

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