You’ve got tons of customer data, but often your customers
aren’t talking directly to you. They’re talking to other customers and a lot of
people who aren’t your customers. This mass of unstructured data in the social
sphere (e.g., Twitter, YouTube, Facebook) is a goldmine not just for immediate
feedback, but for a host of unique customer service and product development
opportunities.
At the CRM Evolutions Conference in New York, I spoke with
analyst Ray Wang of
Constellation
Research
. He offered up three unique ways companies are taking advantage of
Social CRM:
Steal sales from
competitors
– By following your category and your competitors, you can
discover people in purchase mode you never would have found. This is the best
time to intercept and introduce yourself into the consideration mix.
New uses for your
product
– Videos of people with your product may introduce new ways to use
your product that you hadn’t considered. Feed this information back into
product development or new ways to market your product.
Triage a problem before
it blows up
– When a customer has a complaint, escalate that problem to
your company’s contact and action center and close the loop quickly so as to
solve the problem in real time.
Are you not ready for Social CRM yet? That’s quite alright,
says Wang. While you’re waiting to launch your Social CRM campaign, start collecting
Twitter handles from your users so you can connect their social activity with
your customer database.
Capturing social data is a problem a lot small business have a problem doing. Investing in tools early and utilizing those tools to, the the minimum, keep you informed on what your customers are talking about is a great start to any social media endeavor.
Hi David, great article. I like your take on the tactical opportunities that a Social CRM strategy can provide. I recently wrote an article defining SCRM and providing a point of on it. I'd interested to hear your feedback.