CRM 2.0 - How do we get there?
I strongly agree with what Paul Greenberg states on his CRM2.0 related blog on Zdnet. He mentions - "You can’t just substitute CRM 2.0 for CRM 1.0 and expect to succeed".
Accordingly I believe that the process of transforming from a CRM 1.0 enterprise to a CRM 2.0 enterprise will be a phased process which will evolve as the CRM 2.0 concept itself evolves.
CRM 1.0, which is more operational or transactional in nature, is still very much a part of the CRM Strategy for most enterprises. Accordingly, CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment.
CRM 2.0 is an evolving concept. The CRM community on Wiki, which was formed to define CRM 2.0, defines it as, “CRM 2.0 is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation. CRM 2.0 is built around business models, strategies for interaction and engagement, where CRM 1.0 was around transactions and management.”
How does an enterprise get to a stage where it can call itself a CRM 2.0 enterprise? This is a very difficult question to answer because, though we realize the popularity of social networks is immense and understand that it would be a strategic steps for enterprises to reach out to their customers through this medium, the process to best achieve this is still not clear.
We are only in the early stages as some CRM vendors announce integration of Social CRM functionalities in their new offerings, provide links to communities they have created on external social networks and enterprises promote blogs, wiki and other social networking concepts internally.
Most of us would agree that this will be a phased approach and not a direct ‘switch’. Enterprises will need to go through some CRM 1.X versions before they can truly derive the benefits of CRM 2.0. I hope to follow this journey towards CRM 2.0 by posting my learnings on this blog and get some inputs from the broader community as we set out on this journey.
Comments
In my opinion, Twitter is making the biggest impact for businesses looking to leverage the social networks. MySpace and Facebook are too cluttered with ads and garbage that can leave a bad taste for customers. Twitter is simple and effective. Businesses can hear what their customers are saying and vice versa. Allowing customers to voice their opinions and know that they are heard is the best way to get customers feeling appreciated. I'm not saying Twitter is the Holy Grail social network, but it is working well for businesses right now. It will be fun to see where all this will lead us.
Posted by: Anh | January 16, 2009 2:45 PM
Thank you for your comment Anh. I agree Twitter is gaining popularity. However, we are only waking up to the immense possibilities of the Social Network. I think Facebook,MySpace, Twitter etc. are all good offerings enabling the Social Network. As we go along more innovative social networking solutions will emerge using a variety of mediums to enable anytime/anywhere access.
The important part will be how these can be integrated with the CRM offerings so that both customers and organizations can benefit from them.
Posted by: Haresh | January 28, 2009 8:41 AM
Even though MySpace and Facebook have loyal fans, they are not exactly cash cows and Twitter though immensely popular does not have a business model.
In these challenging and financially turbulent times, web innovators will play a key role as there are emerging trends in areas like location-based services and financial payment system that can be bolted onto existing sites.
Both Oracle and SAP have offerings in Web 2.0 which focusses more on colloboration and innovation (aka Sales 2.0). This however presents an opportunity for CRM vendors and SI to offer bolt-on services that will help companies provide competitive leverage.
Informal communication through social networks therefore must be shaped and cultivated to efficiently find and exploit innovations for tommorow. Welcome web3.0!!
Posted by: Ankit Dangar | February 6, 2009 2:18 AM
Ankit - Thank you for your comment. I like the term 'Cultivating communication'.However, as organizations fight their way through the recession, 'sowing the seeds of CRM2.0' may be slow and 'reaping the harvest' might take even longer. I believe, most people tend to use Web 2.0 for information gathering, recreation or at the best collaboration. Controlling Communication is a difficult task. I do not visualize organizations being able to direct or control the flow of communication. It is more likely that immediate use of Web 2.0 for CRM initiatives will focus on broadcasting information or receiving feedback. A 'win-win' situation would require organizations to observe the flow of communication as it evolves and use the information gathered for future innovations.
Posted by: Haresh Parmar | February 9, 2009 5:33 AM
What would be interesting to implement is to bring in user help content to merge with CRM 2.0 offerings. This becomes even more feasible when you consider that most CRM 2.0 tools are content-based collaborative platforms where user content and application content could merge to provide satisfactory and in-time help solutions.
Posted by: Sita Bhatt | February 25, 2009 5:15 AM
Sita - That is a very thoughful 'take'. Thank you for your comment. Vendors might benefit by providing 'user help' related content on their social networks. In fact, some communities are created with the sole purpose of helping the user (Ex: Wikis,blogs, product or service specific communities etc.)
Posted by: Haresh Parmar | February 25, 2009 11:23 AM