Social Media - the consumers power

Social Media - the consumers power

Managing customer relationship in today's digital world has become quintessential for any business. Social Media marketing and presence has become of utmost importance for various reasons.

With personal experiences I would like to elaborate a little more: -

a) The power has shifted from the companies to the customers.

Earlier we saw that companies guided the discussions with their customers and now roles have reversed.
In India, mobile network service providers have "galleries" where they have "customer agents" to cater to new customers (EVEN HELP THEM FILL THEIR APPLICATION FORMS), handle customer complaints and also sell handsets amongst other things. But anyone who has been to one knows the customer agents have limited authority and always say we will revert to you on any doubt. The service is crap coupled with the waiting in line for long.

When I was in India Vodafone charged me with a service that I had not subscribed for. I knew going to the "gallery" means endless waiting. I used twitter to get my issue resolved.

See the message I send them.

Direct messages › with Vodafone India

15 Oct

Name » deep paresh mehta, no »98202XXXXX. I did not subscribe to Vodafone live. Your system had problems. Please revert

Within a day Vodafone sorted my issue, resolved the matter and gave me a refund. It was as quick as that and I had send them a message while I was laying on my bed. 

I was able to talk to them in a bullish way because it was no fault of mine and they did not want to get a bad reputation while the whole world, literally, watched. 

In return for their prompt service I thanked them and congratulated them for their fast response  which they "retweeted" and all their "followers" more than 20K+ got to see it. A win - win for everyone. 

b)  Information connects the world. 

With the launch of our blog "Innovation Technologies - SCRM" we started publish blogs similar to this. Online newspapers that spread awareness of this topic published our article in their news. We had no idea who the authors of the paper were but they found it a value addition for their customers. Its a "small world" they say. 

c) Promotional tool.

Social Media is no longer a platform to answer questions but companies also  promote their products and get in touch with their potential clients. 

We as Indians love cricket - its our religion so to speak. However, its almost an unknown sport in Spain and we did not know where we could go and play. We researched online and found "Madrid Cricket Club". We needed to know details. We send them a "tweet" to get a prompt reply. Now, we know where to play and get our regular dose of our favorite pass time - CRICKET. 

"Madrid Cricket Club" got new customers and more over they got players from the country that produces the worlds best cricket team every after year (it might be debatable but you know I am right).  

In a nutshell what I am trying to say is that not only do the customers have the power to hamper a company but also get their problems quickly at break neck speed, customers cannot only learn about the latest updates on various news items but can also spread information - the most powerful tool in the world, and can also get unlimited information at the tips of their fingers. 

For companies, its a new way and efficient way of connecting to their customers personally, promote their products, and get connect information without investing.

Social CRM is still in its infant stage, it is a technology that is still being defined and developed. But as the world gets more digitized Social Media Analytic will be KEY to a companies success.   

One step ahead from competition with Social CRM

According to a survey conducted by IBM, 80% of companies are present in social media.  These days, having a "fan page" is not enough, they need to take it a step further.  People are already talking and each day this communication and pass of information is growing exponentially.  Bridging communication with companies and clients through Social CRM can help companies take a leap regarding to their competitors.  Browsing through the internet I found this interest case on how Burberry is using Social CRM to innovate and get ahead of the curve.

"You have to be totally connected with everyone who touches your brand." 

- Ahrends, Burberry CEO.

Burberry is using Salesforce.com platform to revolutionize the way they conceive business and shift to a digital level.  As Angela Ahrendts, Burberry CEO says they are blurring the line between physical and digital for this new decade.  First, they have understood that it is as equally important to listen to customers as to listen to employees.  Having a strong and unified culture is a great resource for this company in order to develop their brand and customer experience to a more digital one.  Anrendts and Creative Director, Bailey send messages management to employees during the week.  Also, employees can communicate back in real time.  This tool will increase employee satisfaction and loyalty for the company which is key in supporting Burberry's vision in the long run.

Another important tool that Burberry is using is through the use of Radian6 is to listen to customer's conversations and start interacting with them within 20 seconds.  They can witness what are they talking about, how they view the brand, how the brand is in relation to others, spotting new trends and how they can better serve their customers.  In their Facebook page they have over 14 million fans and when I looked it up 52,817 people were talking about it and 29,300 where on the site.  In addition, Saleforce Rand6 covers all blogs, online video sharing sites, top mainstream media such as Twitter and Facebook, forums and opinion sites.  Imagine for Burberry, to understand how well they are positioned in their customer's mind provides them with valuable information for launching new products and creating customer loyalty.

Lastly, Burberry is designing their strategy to bring their customer experience to the next level by partnering with Salesforce.com to create a virtual store.  The aim in this store is to have a personal sale staff with the customer to give the same experience as if entering in a physical store.  The customer will have the option to customize their purchases and know when and how the article was created.  The vision that Burberry has into turning their customer experience and interaction to a digital base in this decade already has put them ahead of many competitors.  If business or brand where worried once how they were going to track ROI through social media, Social CRM are a great way to create not only customer interaction but tangible results and an improved ROI tracking for the company.

SALES FORCE INTERESTING SOCIAL CRM PROPOSAL

People in general around the world is adopting social networks into their daily live activities. Businesses have realized the importance of this phenomenon and that taking advantage of the information and the power that social networks have is imperative in order for them to improve their relationship with their customers and at the same time to access to more and more customers via the social networks. 
Many companies around the globe already use CRM's  religiously  in order to keep up with the necessities of their clients but now that the social networks are so powerful and can either  provide or communicate amazing information, there is a new phenomenon in which some companies have detected an opportunity to improve their relationship with their clients even more via what is called a Social CRM.  
Social CRM consist  basically of using  social networks as a new way to  make the relationship between business and customer better and stronger.
One of the most powerful CRM's in the market is Sales Force and it offers among others this two very interesting proposals (http://www.salesforce.com):
Twitter CRM from salesforce.com
How to fast-track your Facebook CRM
Social CRM and changing customer dynamics

Salesforce for Twitter gives you a direct way to use the popular social network to enhance interactions with prospects and customers. Suddenly you’re part of customer-driven conversations about your brand, products, and services that previously weren’t within your reach.

With upwards of 500 million users, Facebook is the Internet phenomenon of the current era. Needless to say, Facebook CRM should figure prominently in every company’s Social CRM strategy.

Historically, organizations have exercised great control over their relationships with customers, but social networks have altered the balance of power. The rise of Social CRM signals that companies understand this transformation and are trying to play by the new rules. But they’re having trouble adapting for several reasons:

Customers are connecting directly with one another. Most customers harbor an informed skepticism about advertising, marketing, and customer service, but they’ve never had meaningful alternatives until now. Today, customers have myriad ways to connect and engage with each other about products and brands—Yahoo! Answers, Twitter, Facebook, Get Satisfaction, Yelp, and the blogosphere, to name just a few—and they’re using these communities in spadesmm

Through Social CRM in general and Twitter CRM and Facebook CRM in particular, companies are scrambling to establish a presence within these networks and offer worthwhile experiences to their customers.

Real time isn’t fast enough. To stay ahead of the curve, enterprises need to foresee customer responses to various events, anticipate fallout from adverse incidents or bad publicity, and quickly provide context and damage control. For example, when children’s Motrin was recalled in 2010, Johnson & Johnson addressed irate mothers within 24 hours—which turned out to be too slow. The immediacy of Social CRM can check the loss of goodwill in such potentially calamitous situations.

You can’t just scale there. Head count alone won’t do the trick, because no company can hire as many staff members as it has active customers. Effective Social CRM requires purpose-built tools for implementing and managing Twitter CRM and Facebook CRM initiatives with realistic resources.

Customers expect seamless support. Social CRM shouldn’t be siloed off from your other sales and service channels; customers want a consistent experience across all your touch points. They’re looking for accurate, up-to-date information and assistance regardless of where it resides within your organization. That’s why it’s critical that your tools—those for Facebook CRM and Twitter CRM, for example—tie back into your existing CRM and knowledge base systems.

Past and Future of Customer Relationship Management

PAST AND FUTURE OF CRM

Over the past couple of years we have seen a broad shift in the use of Internet and one that continues to accelerate. With the rise of websites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube companies now recognize that every potential/existing customer is engaged in some form of Social Media. Gone are the days where customers waited for even a few hours for a reply from their suppliers for their queries or problems, the response time is down to a FEW MINUTES.

Recently, one of our group members Deep Mehta was having problems with his AntiVirus Protection. Instead of the traditional way of contacting Norton either with a phone call or writing an email he tweeted to them asking for a solution. Deep got a reply withing a FEW MINUTES!!!  

 

















Social Media is connecting customers across geographical boundaries and forming virtual relationships between people. Customers now reach out to each other to get an honest feedback about a product or service, to know more about a company amongst other things. So where does this leave the traditional "Customer Relationship Management" (#CRM)?

This increased interface between customers and companies has led to the advent of a fairly new concept "Social Customer Relationship Management" (#SCRM or #SocialCRM). Social CRM recognizes that instead of managing customers, the role of the business is to facilitate collaborative experiences and dialogue that customers value.

Traditionally, conversations with the customers were either managed by calls, emails or in-person meetings but now there is a whole new level of conversation with the customer, that is, through SOCIAL MEDIA. More and more there is an increasing expectation from the customer that the companies are there to listen to them across all social media channels and that the company is expected to have an overview of all the conversations that they have with them across all channels. This is where Social CRM comes in.

"Social CRM is a philosophy and business strategy designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide a mutually beneficial in a mutually beneficial trusted and transparent business environment"
                                                                                           - Paul Greenberg, Godfather of CRM. 

 
Social CRM enables companies to harness the energies of their customers to enhance customer relationship. As we saw in the twitter example above the Deep (customer) guided the conversation with Norton Antivirus (supplier). This is a paradigm shift from the way traditional CRM process and is a more "REAL TIME" conversation. 

There are different successful examples where companies have used Social CRM for marketing, sales, support and even to build partnerships. One of the most successful application of Social CRM is by Jet Blue, an airline company.

 

JetBlue has been able to use social media to enhance customer satisfaction through social media by answering their queries, providing alternatives for problems facilitating them to build everlasting relationships with them through "REAL TIME" conversation, improve brand image, and most importantly increase sales. PROOF? Their 1.7 Million followers on Twitter.   

Social CRM does not end only through conversation of customers but it goes further and integrates the main value of CRM - build customer relationship. Social CRM software's such as Nimble help companies track participation metrics such as number of replies, number Twitter mentions and video views. It also helps us track top content or "mileage" generating "tweets", "posts" or "videos" so that the companies know exactly how to build relationships with customers. Ultimately, Social CRM is used to measure how increase in participation is used to increase in ROI, productivity and customer success.

Hence, in times where information moves faster than light through the 500+ million active users of Facebook, and 140+ million tweets send per day it is imperative that the companies use Social media to their advantage. Social CRM is in its infant stages but we can assure that unlike a lot of technological innovations Social CRM is here to stay.