Talking about a (r)evolution

(Dec 7 2009) CRM Blog

Categories:
Technologies: Cloud Computing, CRM, CRM Blog, ERP, ERP Blog, Green IT, on-demand, SaaS, web-based

Authors



  1. By Chris Bucholtz, CRM blogger


    The evolution of “social CRM” into just plain old “CRM” is inexorable. We’re not going to have two flavors of CRM (we don’t actually have that now, since the CRM vision of every company is unique, or at least it ought to be); the social component will be so tightly ingrained that saying social CRM will be the equivalent of saying “winged airplane” or “cold ice cream” or “irritating Adam Sandler movie.” If it’s CRM, by default there will be a social component to it.


    Now, inexorable does not mean that 2010 will be the year CRM goes all social. There’s a reason that “inexorable” is often use to describe the advance of glaciers. It’s very important to realize that a great swath of the business population doesn’t see social media as a vital, useful tool, or doesn’t see how that too can be harnessed. There’s still a perception issue. When you consider that many companies block access to social media sites (for valid and not so valid reasons), it should be immediately obvious that there are many who see social media as a hindrance and not a help.


    In a way, social media for business uses faces similar barriers to adoption as CRM. If you tell someone they must get involved in social media for their job – especially if it’s a sales job – it’s another activity perceived as taking away from that person’s basic role. The irony is that this attitude may well exist even if that person is using social media away from work – again, the dots are often not yet connected.


    I think that getting people to mentally connect these dots is also similar to the way you get users to buy into the ideas of CRM: make it part of their processes, then become very active in promoting successes that result from those processes.


    One of the most sensible and effective approaches I’ve ever heard aimed at this was the story of an insurance company that used a social media aggregation tool as part of its sales process. Before an agent could call a prospect, he had to consult the collected social media portrait that prospect had already created about himself. In a lot of cases, the information the prospect had already broadcast to the world was hugely helpful in selling insurance. Maybe he blogged about how excited he was about possibly moving into a new home, or his profile revealed that he had three children, or he was active on a community talking about restoring classic cars. All those nuggets are hugely useful in assembling an insurance pitch – but would the average salesperson hunt all this data down before making the call, or would he call and then have to pull details out of the prospect one question at a time?


    This is the most basic, first-generation sales-centric version of social media’s impact on CRM; the next generation will hinge on the true social CRM concept of a genuine two-way relationship. Like any sophisticated and revolutionary business concept, this is going to take a while to evolve.  You can scale data collection and you can scale “personalized” marketing, but scaling real relationships is not so easy and I think it will challenge CRM pros to make the best business use of the assets at their disposal, both human and technological. Challenge is the right word – this is going to be a new frontier in many ways, and difficult to design, implement and articulate to C-level executives still removed from this discussion. There needs to be an evolution in thinking at the top as well; a CEO who sees social media as a toy is not going to be terribly excited about devoting resources to using it to reinvigorate his company’s CRM approach.


    But someone in the next year, I predict, is going to hit a social CRM home run and have a concrete, irrefutable example of how using social media to understand the customer more completely through communication, data collection and collaboration has resulted in a jump in revenue, the launch of a successful new product, or some other success that will turn on lightbulbs over people’s heads worldwide. The end of the recession is bringing that moment closer, and when it happens I think the revolution is going to be sweeping and speedy.


    So the question now: are you working to build that success story, and if you’re not, are you poised to take advantage of the wave of change that success will release? 


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