How has the way customers changed in the way they want to engage affected businesses?
The biggest change that has occurred in the past few years is that large companies have lost the ability to brainwash customers into buying products. Since the start of the decade, we have seen customers become ever more demanding of 2-way communications with companies about the products and services they buy. In years gone by companies that have spent the most on catchy marketing campaigns would tend to produce the biggest sales numbers. This was a time in which customers had very limited information available to them on which to make buying decisions. Due to this limited amount of information available customers would be heavily influenced by these marketing campaigns. As a result, we tended to see the big successful companies continue to grow and prosper as their big budgets ensured they had control of the marketing airwaves.
Those days are now very much behind us! The huge growth in smartphone technology and social media platforms has given customers both a voice and a platform to talk to each other in real-time. This has stimulated the creation of a world whereby minute-by-minute customer reviews have appeared with CRM Software customers talking to each other about the products and services they buy. No longer are customers expected to blindly trust the messages of a company’s advertising campaign – they are now seeking confirmation from fellow customers that the company does what they say!
This shift in customer behavior may have challenged companies to rethink how we best communicate with ouwithcustomers it hasn’t changed the basic fabric of doing business. As before, a business is there to make money and therefore any customers that a business has should be profitable for that company to survive. Businesses have historically invested in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software package to help them ensure that their customers are profitable. These products are still extremely relevant as companies are under increasing pressure to deliver sustainable profits in an ever more competitive environment. Whilst being relevant these software packages have had to evolve to be successful in today’s customer-centric, social media-driven world of business.
Early CRM packages allow a business would very much talk to customers but would struggle to listen. Features such as email campaign management would simply allow a business to talk to customers about their products but in no way facilitated a company to listen to what customers thought of their products. As a result, the CRM software industry has started to discuss the term ‘Social CRM’. The definitive terms of Social CRM are extremely diverse so I will attempt to define them in the following section.
CRM VS Social CRM?
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is the ownership and management of the customer relationship. CRM Software helps businesses manage and own customer relationships. As I have discussed above, today’s business world demands that businesses do much more than simply communicate with customers. Companies that want to become successful in today’s world of business need to be adept at conversing with customers to earn their trust and loyalty. Simply using CRM software to build marketing campaigns to talk to customers isn’t sufficient anymore. This is why Social CRM Software has been developed.
Social CRM represents the ownership and management of this newfound customer conversation. Social CRM is not simply a technology but more of a business approach. To be successful in owning the customer conversation a business is required to have a solid customer strategy and well-thought-through operational processes as well as good software/technology. The main output of Social CRM is to ensure that by collaboratively engaging with customers both the business and the customer get value out of the business relationship.
Can you buy Social CRM Software?
Social CRM is a concept, not a product, and therefore cannot be bought. Whilst software can help it cannot ensure that a company is strategically and operationally well-placed to own the customer conversation. CRM software provides a business with a set of tools to increase its knowledge of its customer base to facilitate value-adding 2-way conversations. Small businesses will find it extremely difficult to engage in genuine 2-way conversations with customers without having the knowledge created by having a CRM software package. But in summary, no software exists that will allow a company to own the whole customer conversation end to end. But using CRM software tools as a compliment to the right customer strategy and operational approach can deliver real ownership of the customer conversation.
CRM in today’s business world
Ever since the financial-economic crisis businesses have found life difficult; it has been hard to leverage capital and customers have been tightening their spending. That said, too many small businesses are allocating too much of their time to acquiring new customers at the expense of retaining existing customers. Small businesses should instead focus on meeting the demands of their existing customers in the way that they want to engage. If businesses continue to ignore customer demand for 2 way communication they will not only struggle to find new business but more importantly will struggle to keep their existing customers!
