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.