Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What is YOUR view of what Social CRM will become in say 2 years?
Those of us in the industry all have our views and we are not shy about expressing them. I would be really interested in the views of those of our community here who are perhaps not vendors (like me) or recognised experts in the field. I am not looking for quotations of what others say, nor I am looking for hyperlinks to interesting pictures and strategies. I want your views and thoughts and maybe wishes. There you go. Simple :)
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
12 Answers
I agree Ben. As a software category in the 90's, CRM was initially client server. The term eCRM was used lot in the market to note emerging web based architectures at the time. This label quickly reverted back to CRM once as these aspects melted away.
Not too long ago, CRM 2.0 briefly held the moniker, mirroring the growth of Web 2.0, until it was replaced with Social CRM (see http://bit.ly/fgZZ9K for the heated debate).
The brief life of the CRM 2.0 label did manage to confuse market interpretation of Social CRM, as many assumed the Web 2.0 emphasis on enterprise collaboration was also the key focus of Social CRM (its related but not a core focus). We are past that label war now (hopefully).
Over the next few years, Social CRM will probably go the way of eCRM and CRM 2.0 as we begin to discuss more granular and insightful aspects Social CRM, which will be a good development indicating we are past generalized labels.
As for the future, Social CRM does note a new set of technologies and new needs for advisory services to navigate (hence all the focus on integrations with niche players and social strategy consulting). But the fundamentals of CRM have not changed. The majority of these new startups will get acquired over the next few years, absorbed into larger suites or be part of growing composite cloud platforms.
The parallels Sean drew beween 'eCRM' circa 2000 and 'sCRM' circa 2010 are right on target. The fundamental principles haven't really changed - even if the technology that organizations use to interact - and the manner in which they interact - has evolved.
Having said that, I've never particularly liked the 'CRM' acronym - as it implies a) that the key decisions are fundamentally about technology and b) that customer relationships can be 'managed. Both are incorrect and misguided.
More than ever, in the 'social' era, the customers are the ones 'managing' the relationship. So whatever letters and words we put in front of whatever acronyms, the market will evolve from being less about 'managing' and much more about 'responding' and 'interacting' effectively.
Firstly, the "SocialCRM" moniker will be dropped in favor of a new modus operandi. In other words, until social becomes a natural extension of the way we work, it'll be some soft of artifice.
So, what will our work look like? Open, collaborative, organic, fluid. The same way the organization of the future will look - http://distractedenterprise.com/?p=452&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&...)
It'll integrate information from disparate sources - internal and external of the organization, work and non work related. It'll mold to our own particular norms - in terms of device (mobile, tablet, in-brain, whatever) and particular context (today I'm in a suit pitching to clients, tomorrow I'm on the skifield trying to work at the same time).
It'll become the norm the way Facebook is today, and then we can all move on from talking about it to just getting on with work...
I hope that we stop putting "social" into its own silo. It's a communication channel, and although communication norms, behaviors and dynamics are different, the underlying business goals are the same. Or at least should have been this all along -- to meet more people, convert them to customers, to provide better customer experience, solve their problems, listen to feedback, have them tell their friends about the great experience they have. Lather, rinse, repeat. Collaboration is key -- SCRM is all about understanding your processes and making them better.
Also, because customers have different communication preferences, Social CRM needs to evolve to understand how and where each person wants to be talked to, and the different scenarios under which he / she may talk to the company -- get more info, get a demo, purchase, get support, provide feedback, ideate, share with friends, etc. So an organization must be able to work across channels and across silos to bring this to life.
Also, data privacy and security is going to come to the forefront. Because companies can cross-reference internal and external data about customers available to them -- uses of this data must come to the forefront of discussions. When is it creepy and when is it necessary to provide a well-rounded experience? How can social platform and data companies educate businesses and individuals alike? What disclosures do social platforms need to provide to their users?
Analytics are also going to be huge (already are) -- automated tools help understand at a customer level likelihood to churn, purchase, etc.
Also, lots of integrations! Platforms and tools must work together to allow companies and customers connect and collaborate in a way that makes sense for them.
Finally, I hope people realize that SCRM is not a one-way-fits-all solution, but rather a shift in process, caused by shift in mentality and culture, enabled by tech. Small business needs are very different from a larger organization. Their processes are different, human resources are different, tech. needs are different.
I see some important consolidation taking place in SocialCRM. So far we've proven some of the benefits but in ways that are not always reproducible of scalable. So we have success stories about outbound projects or inbound projects and crossing over from personal to business use has been uneven in many cases. I think what needs to happen is: 1. SocialCRM needs to link with analytics, no iff's about it. 2. we need to define the business processes that use SocialCRM at least to the point that we can clearly assign a role for analytics. A prototypical process might involve customer data capture, analysis of the data and then application of the learnings. Those who use similar three step processes will likely be the most successful.
Some great answers so far guys. This is truly interesting. I actually hate the term 'Social CRM' and am genuinely interested in the levels of personal opinion and reason. For those who have posted links, I will check them out but I really wanted answers to be as link-free as possible ... makes it easier to read.
Denis - excellent point about analytics. We deal predominantly with much smaller companies for whom social imperatives are vital but analytics are 'big people's' toys and have large price tags. We are investigating some ways of making it affordable but that is some way off. Right now we encourage clients to be creative about what they use. In out world of 'little guys', they often don't have the resource to be highly process driven in the way that we would all like...and in the UK alone that is over 4m businesses. A market we can't ignore.
Consider SaaS delivered analytics. Just to confuse things, SAS has a nice suite of SaaS based social analytics. Denis
Denis. Nice idea but your average 10 guy UK business is not going to do that...the cost will be prohibitive as will the technology (having being exposed to SAS over the years. We are actually looking at a SaaS solution...to add to our other SaaS stuff. But I will shut up now as I really want others' views rather than to spout my own :)
@Chris - there are actually some very low cost SaaS analytics offerings showing up. YouCalc (recently acquired by SuccessFactors) is one, and GoodData are also interesting. Off topic but analytics is definitely being democratized by the cloud
My view is that the world of Generation Y and Social Media will blur and merge to become just another channel of and in support of a CRM strategy
At present CRM supports traditional communications channels such as The Web of course, eMail, Phone and the old face to face routes and Laptop warriors.
Going forward facebook and twitter will interact seamlessly with CRM to
1. Promote offers and products or services.
2. Inform and entertain your customer and prospect base.
3. Make your destination "sticky" and get your audience coming back for more
4. Deal with negative customer service issues before they end up as Viral entertainment on YouTube.
Technologies such as Bing Twitter - currently in Beta from Microsoft allows you today to track conversations down to street level.
It's not a giant leap from here to see that you'll be able to target your customers in this way - i.e. down to passing your doorway or counter level.
Social CRM platforms and technologies are emerging now and in 1 year they will become robust, understood and an integral part of the mainstream tools sales and marketers use. Roll on.
I agree Chris. To the extent that the customer's control of 'social' can expose these CRM gaps, both in perception and approach, this will be a good thing. Many businesses back up their claims of having a customer focus by pointing to a large CRM technology program. Not sure if the analogy works, but its like an amateur photographer spending a ton on equipment and then claiming to be a professional.
Now that the tools are shifting to the customer via the 'social' flag, we all get a transparent view inside the business and can assess how their CRM investments are working out.
For the most part its been eye opening how little has changed in business operations.
I agree, maybe. We shouldn't lose sight of the idea that CRM was invented in a very different time. It was the end of the high-tech boom when products and whole categories sprouted like dandelions (recall the dot.com boom?). The CRM suite that evolved then was a perfect fit for order taking, which is all you really do in emerging markets. Today the scene couldn't be different. Categories are not sprouting or even metastasizing that fast and keeping customers -- as opposed to capturing them -- is all the rage. Few people have commented on it but we are actually in a new CRM era (the fourth if you go by Greenberg's book editions!) that is aptly captured by the Social moniker. In short, we have the CRM that's right for the times +/- and we always have. The big question I am always trying to answer is what's next.
Answer This Question