Customer Relationship Management

Tools are only part of the SCRM growth equation. We still have a long way to go to integrate SCRM processes into listening and engagement tools, but we are moving in right direction.

Lauren Vargas
Community Manager at Radian6
@VargasL

"...it is imperative to start measuring the benefits of Social CRM from the beginning...." SCRM is a great way to get a fresh start. Enterprises are generally bogged in a multitude of legacy data in all areas -- SCRM can act as the "refresh" button (whether welcome or not is another question).

You have a lot of good things in here (reputation, balanced scorecards, social analytics) but the model you have built needs to be a little more flexible.

I do applaud you for taking the first step towards building a scorecard for Social CRM as these are the things that help move the conversation forward, and you do have the resons for measurement well stated, but I would probably have built more flexibility into the balance scorecards (actually both of them) so instead of putting specific variables that may or may not apply to all circumstances you can put some non-specific metrics (for example, instead of higher cross-sell/up-sell, say instead something like improved revenues -- if the revenues come from other sources you are still covering them, and each company can then insert their own revenue scenarios).

There are a couple of other reasons I would add to why measure - ROI is actually not one I would mention about you have to align the reason with the strategy(ies) the company chose to justify their deployment. ROI is a tricky thing to manage (when you really calculate it as opposed to use a biased model like most people do) in new setups like this because we have not yet proven the costs and benefits. Besides, as we move to become social businesses the social channels become infrastructure -- and that is similar to asking ROI for a laptop you buy for a salesperson.... you just need it for business purposes, the cost should not be an issue.

To me the biggest benefit that SCRM provides is the direct collection of huge loads of data directly from the customer that can be used to obtain actionable insights through Feedback Management. And that means that measuring is not going to be so structured-- but also means that your balanced scorecard can have higher quality data.

Bottom Line: I like you approach and applaud the initiative. Now you just need to begin to improve it.

Nice Job!

@Lauren

Thanks Lauren for your comment.

With CRM itself struggling to find a foothold, yes SCRM has a long way to go in terms of integration and then making sense of the "noise"

@Janet - Thank you for your comments

It is important that we do nto get into another loop of applications via SCRM and then look to separate the "signal" from "noise". But, yes SCRM can give a very different perspective of your customers.
With apps like tweetpsych out there to find the cognitive and other behaviors of Twitter users,its a gold mine for marketers out there.

Agreed - when I said fresh start / refresh button I was envisioning integration not another app silo. SCRM just gives marketers that unedited, wake-up view from the individual market participants (vs. aggregated & generalized market reporting) that can kick start the integration. It can validated the "why we need to do this / this is important to address" in messaging, development, support - a multitude of areas. But I digress - only because I see it as a catalyst for overall improvement.

Can't wait to see more on the measurement AND the application of the information measured!!

@Janet - Thank you for your comments and clarifications.

With the Service Cloud2 SFDC did come with the integration that you speak about. The Twitter integration with the SFDC CRM application. It in fact encourages and uses the tweet of a customer to understand the issue and then cater to it. To digress a bit - aptly complementing it is the 'KaaS' from SFDC.

As of now companies like Comcast which continuously poll the tweets of their hash tags, have duly even helped customers in trouble. So for now SCRM has opened up a new service channel, BUT remains to be seen how it evolves "with" CRM. SFDC's service cloud might show the way.

Venkataraman,

Thanks for DMng me on Twitter, this is a very good article.
Now, if I could only get you to stop using Social CRM we could move this conversation further along. Social CRM is dead, as I note, here (sorry for the self-promotion :-) ):

http://www.customermanagementiq.com/article.cfm?externalID=1391

Onto more important points. It is crtical for all of us in the CRM world to remember that not all customers are in this social world that we proclaim as "common". According to some recent survey data from IDC, 54% of US CIOs are blocking access to social networks and this is up,not down, by 20% in the first half of 2009. The solutions, as great as they may be, only make sense if you are leveraging these systems to meet your customers where they are.

Now, for customers where "going social" makes sense you need to focus on Social Support Communities (SSC) first. Helpstream is making good strides selling into the SMB market and Lithium is doing the same in the Enterprise market. Dr. Natalie Petouhoff of Forrester as demonstrated some great examples of ROI that includes reduced operational cost and improved customer loyalty. This is an area companies need to investigate.

Great stuff.

John Moore
http://twitter.com/JohnFMoore

@John - Much appreciated; your time and comments on this piece. Good to connect with you on Twitter and yes! I self-promote too. Will send you some more blog links later. :-)

I appreciate your viewpoint on Social CRM w.r.t the very important points that you have mentioned.
Blocking of social n/w's, the physical touch required - which I do agree with but would like to share my experiences too.

My company for example, has taken the social CRM route too and encourages select individuals to improve the sense of belonging and the brand equity. Yes, we have the sites blocked too but where required my company helps individuals/departments. Kudos! On the physical touch needed yes definitely! but this can be done after some understanding of the customers needs via this social medium which will help comapnies better convert leads into customers. Better lead management, maybe? Your thoughts on this are more than welcome.

This is the first stage of Social CRM and it will evolve over time. CRM did as we all know and did meet with a lot of resistance from CIO's and alike. So with Social CRM, in my humble opinion. Your examples of Helpstream and Lithium are very apt in current scenarios and will become the stepping stones for further integration as myself and @Janet have discussed in the previous comments. Your point of Social CRM being a strategy and benefits from CRM needing to be fully utilized are some points that I advocate myself, couldn't agree more. Many CRM projects have been failures due to them being viewed as tools and not as a strategy. The battleground is strewn with all kinds of them.

But, I will not join your memorial service, but will visit this baby in the hospital nearby :-)

In this blog I have tried to bring to light the fact that Social CRM is something that is here to stay and to derive benefits companies need to start looking at and evaluating the ways of measuring the benefits, albeit in a small way - in terms of investment and the breadth of adoption - of this new wave. With CRM we were a bit late with Social CRM lets have a headstart, but first with CRM in place.

Once again, much appreciated for your POV and look forward to more of your experienced insights.

Folks -

Moving the scorecard concept along is a nice twist to raise strategic awareness of "being social"

JohnF makes a great case too - without social media interaction, a business' can only "know" about the conversations had directly.

What happens when those customers talk about a business in other forums - blogs, forums, social networking sites, etc ?

Recognising people do talk, then enabling the management of platforms (SSC) can help drive loyalty & improve organisational learning.

-= David

Thanks David for your comments. Much appreciated.

Customers interact in various ways using different channels. Having social media tools to capture them is a good thought. As you rightly say, "recognising people do talk", needs to be woven into the strategy called CRM and enabled via technology by setting realistic goals.

These goals will help guide the strategy which can then take the "Social" of CRM to act as an enabler to fuel further growth.

Would be glad to have more interactions on this space and looking forward to the same.