CRM Strategy, CRM Software and Social CRM

Customer Relationship Management is a customer acquisition and client retention strategy supported by customer affinity goals, consistent business processes and CRM software applications. Most CRM strategies are intended to achieve customer centricity and position the company to increase customer share and lower customer turnover.

CRM strategies and CRM software systems have become integral tools in the never ending pursuit of customer acquisitions and increased customer retention. For many enterprises, CRM software application suites include the three integrated modules of marketing management, sales force automation (SFA), and customer service. Other capabilities such as Partner Relationship Management (PRM), quotes, order processing, analytics and social CRM tools generally extend traditional CRM applications. New technology offerings such as open source software, remote delivery methods such as cloud computing, pricing models such as utility or subscription billing and outsourced IT management continually introduce new choices for CRM acquisition, implementation and operation.

Customer Relationship Management is a journey and not a destination. Benefits from customer management strategies and CRM applications include a change in organizational culture and a perpetual pursuit that adapts to changing customer needs and new enterprise capabilities. It's necessary to first understand that CRM is a business strategy and then recognize how CRM software can act as the supporting framework and automation component to help achieve the company's most important customer objectives. CRM systems can increase a company's understanding and response to customers' needs in a timely, effective and rewarding manner.

Experienced CRM participants have discovered repeatable methods and lessons learned which can reduce implementation risk and increase the ROI of customer focused business strategies. This purpose of community CRM advice is to communicate, collaborate and socialize information and knowledge that can be enhanced from a community of interested participants. Members are encouraged to share their experiences and insight for everyone in the community.

Social CRM

Traditional CRM systems have succeeded in the management and automation of customer-facing transactional processing and mining customer information in order to better serve customers. While there is clearly a normal transformation which will continue to enhance traditional CRM systems, the next CRM industry trend is clearly social CRM.

Social CRM was born from the seeds of Web 2.0 and the social media evolution characterized by new customer driven communication forums such as blogs, wikis and social networks. CRM industry thought leaders and forward thinking practitioners are piloting new ways to engage customers in the way the customer desires, changing the communication tone from monologue to dialogue and engaging the customer in a way that delivers a mutually rewarding experience for both customer and supplier. CRM practitioners recognize that social CRM is more than just making the customer feel relevant and instead strives to make the customer an integral part of the company's operations - by using their input and feedback to contribute to the marketing team, the R&D team or other departments that benefit from candid input by the final recipient.

Social CRM deserves new thinking and recognition that the customer relationship balance has changed from a relationship where the organization thought it managed the communication dialogue with its product and service directed marketing messages to one where the customer is proactive, part of a much larger virtual community, more intent on being heard and in control of the dialogue.

Uneducated company executives can exhibit a knee jerk reaction whereby they view social CRM as a threat rather than an opportunity to acquire and leverage new customer feedback into the development of products and services for improved market acceptance and increased market penetration. While the Web can put companies under a microscope of public scrutiny, it can also deliver unbiased product and service evaluations never before available. It's hard to imagine the goods or services that cannot be significantly improved from the candid feedback of social customers.

Most customers are not unreasonable. Social customers understand business economics and therefore social CRM need not be incorporated as a necessary evil. Customers will reward vendors that listen to customers and strive for a win/win result. As executive teams understand that social customers have new channels to get what they want, when the want it and how they want it, these executives will also note that they have an new avenue to eliminate market guess work, accelerate go to market campaigns, deliver goods which are more eagerly received and acquire more engaged and profitable customer relationships.