Cloud CRM Software Forum

Social service: a game changer, or oil for the squeaky wheels?

Three years ago, The Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University revealed data that showed that 30 percent of customers received what they considered to be poor service, but all but 2 percent said nothing about it. However, that was three years ago – I imagine that the percentage has gone up as the channels through which to complain have become easier and more widespread. More Social CRM service »

Backlash against jargon? Okay. Backlash against concepts? Dangerous.

There's been plenty of discussion of whether Social CRM is a flavor of the month, or if it's just a fad. I suspect there are two factors behind the Social CRM backlash. First off, many organizations are still grappling with the essentials of basic CRM. Even without the "social" in front of it, CRM is a daunting subject to put in place. It's not an IT project, although a lot of companies reduce it to that and set the stage for later CRM disappointments. It's a company-wide project that involves not just getting the software right but also getting your processes and the attitudes of your employees right. Those last two things are much more difficult than just implementing software – and Social CRM requires you to add even more complexity to that aspect of the CRM equation. That's somewhat scary – and I think it's led some people to write off Social CRM as a result. More Social CRM Backlash »

CRM Software Adoption Starts when Your People Realize There's No Alternative

Look at CRM and the people in your organization. Are there better alternatives to CRM for their individual tasks? Those of us thinking about CRM as a whole-business discipline enabled by technology would say nothing works to collect, disseminate and rationalize data about customers better than CRM. However, adoption's still pretty spotty in some places, especially in sales. Some sales reps are still clinging to old ways of doing things that may still work for them. Switching to a system that shares data and makes the sales rep part of a team is clearly a preferable thing for the entire organization, but for the individual sales rep that leap into the unknown means risking what works right now. In other words, he has an alternative. At least, he thinks so. More CRM User Adoption »

The CRM implications of fake recommendations

If you're paying attention you've seen that on-line recommendations carry a lot of weight with consumers. A study by Nielsen released last July showed that consumer opinions posted on line were valued second only to friend's recommendations in the degree of trust consumers placed in them. A full 70 percent of those interviewed said they trust "completely" or "somewhat" these on-line recommendations. That makes them a powerful tool. And like any powerful tool, that leads marketers to figure out ways to game the system. More CRM Fake Recommendations »

Taking Customers for a Scary Service Ride

Down at the Universal Studios Florida theme park, a ride debuted several years ago called the Tower of Terror. I like these things because of the technology that goes into them, and this ride is unique because it's almost endlessly variable. The computer controlling it allows it to send the riders to a different sequence of "dark room" scenes and drops over the course of the ride, and there are literally hundreds of different ways for that sequence to play out. Basically, it's never the same ride twice. This is an interesting metaphor for customer service. Ideally, your customers should not have to endure their own version of Tower of Terror when they need help; a sense of consistency builds confidence and comfort in customers seeking help. Unfortunately, many organizations are still seeking to get their service processes right, with the result being that unfortunately variable experience. And unlike the Tower of Terror, they generally aren't having fun as they negotiate this ride. More Customer Service Scary Ride »

The Social CRM Mandate - and Why Businesses Need to Heed It

Conversations at the Social CRM Summit drove home one point: if you have a hard time putting your finger on what Social CRM means for your business, you belong to a very large club. Unlike CRM itself, you can't go to a vendor and simply buy Social CRM; instead it pushes organizations to think about themselves and to think about their customers with a degree of stringency and thoughtfulness that has never before been required. It then requires a solid CRM foundation and the creation of strategies (and, only after all this is complete, the application of technologies) built around how the customer seeks to do business with you. More Social CRM Mandate »

Why aren't more CRM users part of the CRM selection process?

I've written "how to buy" articles about CRM for a while, and the widespread consensus from the thinkers is that users of the CRM system – sales pros, people in the marketing trenches, customer service reps – should be in on the decision process for a couple of reasons. First off, these are the people who use the existing processes now, and who will be best equipped to see how well those processes map to the CRM solution. Second, from a psychological point of view, including these people in the decision process gives them the sense that they are partners in selection and thus have a stake in the success of the solution, which can help kick-start adoption. More CRM Software Selection Process »

The de-evolution of Social CRM (courtesy of Devo)

One of my favorite bands is Devo. They're the ultimate insider's band; most people know them for their herky-jerky rhythms, bizarre videos and various weird new-wave personas, but if you pay attention to what they're saying you'll see some incisive social critics at work. They indict consumer culture, superficial status-seeking and human laziness in a cutting, almost misanthropic way. They're so effective at it that even when they sell out – like letting a beer company use their song "Freedom of Choice" or Target use "Beautiful World" in commercials—they still deliver a sting, because the points of the songs are the exact opposite of what the companies think they're communicating. (It's called irony, people.) Now, Devo is turning its sights directly on the Social CRM concept of consumer input into product creation. More Social CRM Evolution »

What's So Scary About Customer Service Technology?

About 15 years ago, I wrote about telecommunications. This was so long ago that, in addition to my other beats, I was told I'd be "the Internet guy" – after all, why would a magazine about telecommunications need more than one reporter covering the Internet? Besides the tiny topic of the Internet, I had some other beats as well. One of them was customer service software technology. Over the course of many briefings, I was treated to previews of some leading technology. Some of it would enable phone company service systems to collect data about a problem once, and then, if the problem needed to be handed off to a different department, pass that record off so that the customer didn't have to repeat it all again! What an idea! More Customer Service Technology »

SaaS CRM and the evolution of the IT guy

I'm having some conversations about IT's relationship with SaaS CRM, talking to some fairly senior people about the subject, and it's interesting to hear the vision that many people have of IT's evolving role. It's a vision that, I hope, IT people can develop for themselves. After all, for years they've been treated like drones, or simple behind-the-scenes "computer monkeys" who simply execute decisions made by other, "more visionary" people in the organization. That patronizing view of IT has to change – on both ends. It's very easy to internalize that kind of treatment and adopt the role of the last-generation IT guy—one who guards his turf, who wants little interaction with others in the organization, and who is always in reactive mode. More SaaS CRM and IT »

Arguing Social CRM

Anyone who's ever looked at the statistics of his or her blog realized that one great way to get a spike in views is to say something controversial. For example, I once wrote in my other, way-less CRM-centric blog about scale model contests and why proponents of a change to judging were misguided in their basic assumptions. Oh, snap! There was a spike in viewers—primarily from people who were bent out of shape. Getting people bent out of shape was not my intention, but at least my basic assumptions were right. If you're going to boost your readership by saying something controversial, make sure that you stand on firm ground. Otherwise, you'll just attract more spectators to see you demonstrating your lack of understanding of a subject. More Social CRM Argument »

Are we Moving Toward Social Service—or just Social PR?

Social CRM and social service is a fascinating field that is just in its infancy, but the ideas are very exciting. For example, we've all heard about companies monitoring Twitter and responding with fixes to problems quickly. We've all heard about customer communities, in which peers talk about products openly, and about the idea of companies participating in these communities (or starting them themselves). And we've all heard about the idea of taking the feedback of customers from any number of sources – direct contact from customers, blogs, Twitter posts, Facebook, etc. – and using it to fine-tune service processes. Add to this the increasing demands of customers to contact companies through the channels they want to use—the phone has been augmented by e-mail and chat, for example—and the result is a fast-evolving landscape that's requiring service organizations to develop strategies on the fly. More Social Service or Social PR »

Putting the Cuss into Customer Service

Calling into the service number is itself revealing. After the initial prompt about language, and a request for your phone number to pull up your account records, the first options you have to get past are all about how and where to pay your bill. I have no statistical evidence on this, but I'm guessing that the vast majority of callers to the service number are not calling about bill payment – they're calling about service issues. The powers that be, however, prioritize incoming revenue over anything else. Nice message they're sending. More Customer Service Experience »