Although i dont quote myself to be a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) expert, i definitely see a need for a right mix of CRM and SCRM (Social CRM) co-existing within the available tools. To make my statement more clear i would like to first touch on the trend change that we had and are witnessing in terms of customer relationships and support. There is an element of confusion between Social CRM and Social Media Monitoring which me thinks will disappear to an extent if CRM tools can address the subtle changes that we are seeing in following areas.
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Social Space:
Trends have increasingly changed at customer relationship front in way they are engaged. Community appears to be the way forward than each customer management. With the success of social netoworking there is an expectation that the product support will be simplified via the social networking sites than traditional call centers and support forums. Following diagram gives a quick view of the change that is being witnessed at customer relationship end.
Customer Space:
The purchasing process from a customer point of view has also changed quite a bit with gradual shift from shops>>websites>>devices(apps)>>what next? It is hard to imagine that anyone would design a CRM tool that has features to enhance relationships on websites and not mobiles or tablets these days. Lets see what changes are we seeing from customer experience point of view laying down some trends for how CRM tools should be shaped up for future.
Sales Space:
Sales and Marketing of any product should change from traditional ways and consider changes highighted so far. That by no means is a small change. Sales mindset has to completely accept that its not just $$'s but its relationships in true sense that now matters, getting customer loyal that matters, the positive vibe on product within the community that matters over planned profits. To highlight a few changes that are clearly visible in current day:
Before going further i guess i should make it clear that by no means i intend to say transactions, lead generation and product marketing are no longer the heartbeat for a product but what i intend to say is all of them are going to get better should we approach it via social marketing. Current sales strategies ofcourse will work but may not see the desired results with the changing customer mindset.
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