Social customer relationship management is a new and dynamic strategy to connect with customers. Dynamically connecting with customers on social media platforms merges service, support, PR, marketing and sales into a single dynamic entity.
For 30 years customer relationship management (CRM) has acted as a backbone of business in connecting with their customers. Today, in such a technologically empowered world, social media has opened new doors to combine CRM and social media management.
What is social CRM?
Social CRM is a customer relationship management activity done on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora or Reddit. This allows connecting with customers in a customer-defined process which adds more flexibility and usability for customers.
Better customer relationship is possible if we connect with our customers on social media platforms. Thereby customers can communicate and customer-driven channels dynamically, instead of an organization-centric CRM platform.
Cone Online Influence Trend Tracker, 2010, the study reveals that 81% of buyers seek online recommendations before purchase and 61% search for service information and 43% search ratings. Over 5 billion people carry mobile devices with them to search for a new product or a business.
With such big numbers involved in social media activity daily, it is a necessity to combine the CRM platform and social media as PR management. Over 63% of businesses are already in the process of merging their social media platforms and CRM.
Why do we need social CRM?
Social CRM is a hit because it is dynamic and customer-centric. Customers communicate with businesses in their choice of medium like email, phone, text message, WhatsApp or Facebook. With this new way of interacting, the business will be able to gather information immediately about how customers feel about their products/services.
Social media is creating a more personal connection with the customer and also, we will have a rich knowledge of our customers’ interests, buying patterns and social involvement. This data is essential for running marketing campaigns or designing newer versions of your product or services.
The benefits of having social CRM include:
- Optimization of customer relationship
- Personalized or hyper personalized social media content
- Enrich our customer support
- Increases social advertising
- Suggestions and recommendation of your product
- Know more about your customers.
Over 80% of companies today claim to have wonderful customer service but only 8%of customers agree with them. By making your social media pages a place to address your customers, you can showcase how well you support them. Their reviews and recommendations will be a boost to your brand value. The study says 55% of buyers look at reviews, ratings, and recommendations before buying a product.
Top 3 social media channels for social CRM
The most influential factors to increase the bard value of your business you need to focus on:
- Personalized user experience
- Maintain a unique brand identity
- Recommendation
Out of which 88% of the time customers choose a product because of the positive reviews or a recommendation from an existing user like a friend or family. Social media pages are such platforms to exhibit your brand performance. According to the study of Cone Business in Social Media Study, 41% of the audience in social media platforms build trust over a product through a recommendation.
The following are the top 3 influential social media platforms for social CRM-
Yes, one can do wonders within the 140 characters of twitter and its hashtags. There are 465 million twitter accounts and the count is increased by 11% every second pass by. By using twitter, you can microblog, send tweets as tweet content or tweets with links to other content. You can also add Twitter to your CRM platform as you have a direct message, followers, retweets, and hashtags to filter out your customers.
By using Twitter as your social CRM-
- You can answer your customer complaint directly
- Convert your complaints into customer satisfaction
- Get recommendation that can be viewed millions of people
- Keep your customers updated
- Show appreciation or thank your customers
- Welcome new followers and organize your community
- Track customer information and interactions
CMB Consumer Pulse and iModerate Research Technologies report that 60% of followers of the brand are likely to recommend the brand. Similar to Twitter, Facebook also has many options to stay connected with your customers and keep them updated. Cover photos, timeline news feeds, like buttons, messengers, and advertising are all options of staying connected with your customers for addressing their grievances.
Apart from serving as a professional platform to connect professionals around the world, the platform is well known for social media marketing. Companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Lenovo, Apple, and Microsoft are using the platform to interact with their customers.
With social CRM, take your customer relationship to the next level. Use the social media page to connect with your audience more personally.