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How does social CRM improve your customer service?
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3 Answers
There are 3 fields I have discovered where CRM is, at least, very important:
1- Customer support
2- Strategic decision making
3- Collaborative work
All of them are positively affected by a CRM Strategy implementation; this Strategy, however, should be the driver for the whole company to switch to a Customer-centric business, instead of a traditional product-centric business.
Social CRM is one step ahead and I think not all companies are able to conduct such a high level Strategy migration, where the voice of the customer is so near the company's ears.
This kind of improvement is desirable but forces a drastic change in the way the company answers to customers. Trends are easy to be discovered but also change faster. Customers expect more direct answers and products/services offerred are needed to be more customizable.
Customer grouping, on the other hand, is easier to achieve because customers are constantly adhering to one or other group of interest. The company's Marketing Manager should use specialized tools to keep both eyes focused on those groups which conform his/her target market.
I think if all those conditions are met, customer service will be a proactive one, and customers will be more than happy to keep doing business with a company that demonstrates an special effort to hear them and walk with them to a better level of understanding (win-win relation).
It's difficult to know where to start, Shannon.
To begin with, social CRM has a growing definition that's beginning to encompass and co-opt everything from using enterprise 2.0 collaboration software to implementing strategies for cultivating online communities and participating in the social web.
What's more, sCRM blurs the lines between traditional functions such as customer service, marketing and product development, as it restructures the business to respond to the customer's evolving needs. How we answer your question, depends upon whether we consider 'customer service' as the objectives of the traditional Customer Service function or the wider service that businesses provide for their customers.
"Social CRM offers two main methods for improving the traditional customer service function:
1) Development of online customer support forums and communities: The thinking behind online customer support forums is that people are far more comfortable contacting their peers first when they want to air a grievance or find an answer to something. With an online support forum they have a community within which they can do just that. With common issues that you have resolved in the past, often the customer will find the solution to their query on the forum before they even contact your company directly. This kind of case deflection reduces the amount of resource a company needs to dedicate to responding to queries. That's not to say that you can't intervene, should your customers be sharing bad advice; but the role of the company in this instance is to monitor and occasionally step in if necessary (sCRM tools make this an extremely efficient process), rather than get tied up responding to the same queries over and over.
2) Social media monitoring and engagement: While there are a number of opportunities, one of the risks presented by social media is that - whether or not your company has a deliberate, coordinated online presence - unhappy customers are going to discuss the quality of your product/service amongst themselves online. Choosing not to engage in social media won't make those comments go away, nor stop them from spreading in seconds. Social CRM monitoring tools offer you the opportunity to intervene and post successful outcomes and resolutions.
Both of these elements offer your business value, actionable insight that can be reinvested into your customer service, or wider business practices. This is just a snippet, a pair of practical examples of how an evolving sCRM strategy coupled with the right tools can improve the dedicated customer service function.
This is a 'big' question but for now let's keep it simple - the whole idea of 'Social CRM' is to incorporate the fact that your customers are participating on social networks into your efforts to service them.
Done right, Social CRM should allow you to:
* better understand and operationalize your customers' needs & motivations by using their social participation to more effectively 'know' - and respond to - them
* utilize the social channel for service (where & when appropriate) - and monitor it for issues that you might not be aware of
* develop & leverage customer advocates who can use social networks to encourage others to do business with you - i.e. capture the viral effect, where happy customers bring in other customers (and unhappy customers do the opposite).
The Social CRM 'market' has become extremely cacophonous - because of all the noise & attention everyone wants to be and is calling themselves an 'SCRM' vendor these days.
Bottom line is to be clear about and driven by your business strategy: What does the fact that today's customer is more social mean to YOUR business - and how does that change how you interact with and service the?
Also - don't go overboard - in my experience the vast majority of consumers DO want better service, but they DON'T want companies following them, friending them, or otherwise tracking their activities TOO closely. There's a 'line' that separates 'good service' from 'creepy'. Be careful not to cross it.
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