The business case for social CRM

How to Profit from Connected Customers

The era of 1-to-1 marketing is over. It may seem odd to say this in 1to1 Magazine, but it’s true. And you can profit by it.

In the heyday of Internet 1-to-1 marketing, enterprises built vast databases detailing their customers’ demographic information and purchase histories, with the goal of presenting them precisely tailored web offers and personalized service at the contact center. Enterprises had much more information about customers than those customers had about the products they were buying.

With the advent of the social web, the balance has tipped. Most Internet users are members of multiple online communities and social networks, and at any given time they can participate in any of thousands of conversations about products or services that businesses are selling to them.

Savvy enterprises have already learned how to harness the power of social customers. For example:

•    Best Buy drives over €5M benefit through it thriving community. In an average quarter, the team sees activity of 600'000 customers in one region and posting over 20'000 messages and looking at over 22 million pages of content.
•    Sage Software has increased beta program participation by 300%, implemented hundreds of customers’ suggestions, and raised their Net Promoter Score by an astounding 20% by inviting customers to innovate with them.
•    Linksys by Cisco saves €10 million in support costs each year by creating an environment where customers can support their peers.

These successes are examples of Social CRM. Social CRM is the enterprise’s response to the customers’ ownership of the conversation. It is a business strategy buttressed by technologies that enable engagement, participation, and collaboration among members of an organization’s customer network.

Instead of 1-to-1, it’s time to think many-to-many.
How Does It Work?
While there are many details to an effective Social CRM strategy, leading practitioners almost always do three things well:

•    Listen to the conversations that customers are having, in whatever channel they occur, and extract meaning from them. If you're just listening to conversations that customers are having with you at the call center or via e-mail, you are missing trends that will impact your business.
•    Connect customers to one another, creating a customer network. In particular, if you don't know who your most influential customers are, you're missing a huge opportunity for authentic, low-cost promotion, support, and innovation.
•    Empower customers to do great things, and give them a platform to share those great things with everyone they know. When given the opportunity and the tools, your customers will constantly surprise you with how innovative, helpful, and -- yes --understanding they can be.

Implement strategies in these areas and analyze the results to refine those strategies, and you can unlock millions of Euros of value by turning customers into your secret weapon.
How Can I Learn More?
The best way to learn more is to listen to the conversations, connect with others, and empower yourself with facts. Some good resources are:
•    http://lithosphere.lithium.com - Lithium’s online community, where practitioners from leading companies like T-Mobile, Orange, and Best Buy are active every day.
•    #scrm on Twitter - search for #scrm on Twitter to find a wealth of information and a group of experts eager to share what they know.

About Lithium

Lithium is the leading provider of Social CRM solutions for the enterprise. Working with market leaders such as HP, Sony, British Telecom, Swisscom, Research In Motion Limited (RIM), Logitech, and PayPal, Lithium is delivering the next generation of customer relationship management by unlocking the value of the social customer network. For more information, please visit www.lithium.com .