Social CRM – is it that straightforward?
Social CRM is the buzz word in CRM circles today, be it marketers enthusiastic to dig and tap into this gold mine of information, albeit unstructured, or CRM implementers at the prospect of taking CRM technology and infrastructure to the next level.
All is good about the intent of Social CRM and how it will benefit all involved. But a few nagging questions have not left me, and hence this blog.
CRM is about building relationships with the right customer segment. For CRM to be effective and profitable, it is imperative to have a targeted approach for each customer segment. With Social CRM, businesses are touting about getting access to reams of consumer conversations on the web, and be able to get insight into their needs, issues and proactively act upon them. All rightly said, but what is the use of information without correctly identifying the customer segment it is coming from?
Is all the information that businesses require to profile these customers into segments available and accessible to them? Is that all correct? Most likely, not! Many users on the social media may not share correct personal demographics. Besides, not all information required for customer profiling may have been captured. And most important of all, are these information accessible without breaching customer privacy terms and conditions?
Social CRM has been hailed as the online word-of-mouth mechanism which has an immense reach and so greater impact than traditional offline communities. Another underlying assumption for the effectiveness of this online word-of-mouth communication mechanism is that users trust fellow users of the communities to which they associate themselves with, more than companies. I would agree on the reach potential of this mechanism vis-à-vis traditional offline communities, but with user anonymity being rampant on the web, do people actually trust each other’s opinions on the web? How much credence can be given to anything that is said on the web?
In many an online community forum, I have read people lashing back at strong advocates of a product or service, asking if the latter were company insiders trying to promote their products and services. There I feel, although social CRM has tremendous reach, it loses out to traditional offline communities in terms of trust within the communities. Traditional offline communities used to be among real people – friends, relatives, neighbors, clubs, etc – people one knew and so could trust. With businesses tapping into online communities, I wonder whether trust will erode or enhance in online communities, which makes me ask, how can the credibility of the information available on the web be established and enhanced?
Please share your views and reflections. They may help to clear my mind off these questions, or provide more fodder for thought 
