From CRM to SCRM: Is SCRM for the Businesses of Today?

Sept. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- CRM has come a long way. From traditional linear approach to today’s social CRM (SCRM), it is apparent that the internet has shaped the process of customer relationship management from linear to circular. While traditional CRM tends to focus on three things: sales, marketing, and service and support, cloud computing enabled SaaS CRM which reduced costs and made the process conversational, organized and systematic. Truly, CRM has become an essential part of the business process as it is the bridge that connects business intelligence and its audience. Coming to full circle, Social CRM is the newest face of customer relationship management. In a study conducted by Gartner, the social CRM market will rise to $1 Billion in 2012 with a more open-armed adoption in the US than in UK. Gartner also stressed that social CRM will encompass approximately 8% of all CRM spending in 2012, up from roughly 4% in 2010 showing promising results in the future.

SCRM’s greatest allies are social channels like Facebook (with its 500 million users worldwide) and Twitter (which generates an average of 140 million tweets per day) which have empowered customers to put their mark in the CRM equation. As seen with the example below, we can now track a brand’s social activity online. Some of the questions to be aware of are: Are they empathetic enough? Are they answering to our needs right away?

An example is a tweet from a Starbucks customer who is expressing a bad service experience from a Starbucks branch. It’s not even a direct complaint or question but Starbucks does a quick damage control by appeasing the customer with a response that they will be “doing something about it”. This kind of online public interaction brought by SCRM creates a good rapport between the brand and the customer and not only that, whatever you post on the internet is also amplified to your network of fans or followers.

As a customer centric model, SCRM focuses on customer advocacy and experience—we want instant connection be it online or personal. Having a presence online also relates to a person’s drive to establish identity. When one puts up their profile online, they expect companies to see what they want and what they need in depth. For example SCRM paved way for the transition of defined channels to customer driven channels. Traditional CRM uses e-mails (defined channel) to spread the word to their audience and prospects. Even though e-mails are still highly effective and recommended, posting something on Facebook or Twitter gives a feeling of visibility and contribution to the community. This new culture of sharing is motivated by being information leaders which can strengthen a customer’s individual presence, in other words; SCRM breeds a culture of collaboration. Other examples of online social activities that help companies gather customer information are responding to customer queries, posting trivia, and holding contests. But you have to be aware of the things you’ll post online. All information you put out there will be and can be seen by everyone; creating a good impression and building your PR is also an added element of SCRM as sales and support are immediately converted to public relations they are published for everyone to see.

We’ve heard about all the good things that SCRM brings to the table but what makes it the thing of today? According to experts, social CRM remains a part of CRM. It’s not discrediting the very foundations of CRM rather SCRM serves as a business strategy extension of customer relationship management. The evolved SCRM accommodates the new elements that come in the service equation such as social networking, technology integration, and customer-centric demands. SCRM has gotten good responses from consumers all over the world; in America alone, 81% go online to verify purchase recommendations; 60% of consumers regularly interact with companies on social networking sites; 55% of them read user reviews; and 43% search ratings on the web. Right now, with Google+ being named as a threat against the top social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, we can see that there is a great demand for online social identity. If companies realize that what worked for the last 15 years will not work for today’s evolving business environment, then studying a new strategy that includes social CRM integration will be beneficial to them.

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