Social CRM and enterprise business
Summary: Social business has important implications for the enterprise. This post contains an important video that explains why.
Last week, I attended a two-day seminar on Social CRM, sponsored and led by industry guru Paul Greenberg, who also writes for ZDNet. The event, held just outside Washington DC, brought together many top Social CRM thought leaders to interact and mingle with 14 different software vendors.
The seminar coincided with a major snowstorm and blizzard, stranding most participants in the hotel for an unexpected day of airline cancellations, business discussions, and musing on the state of Social CRM.
Social CRM is part of a constellation of technologies and business strategies arising from the intersection of Internet-based consumer technologies with enterprise business goals and requirements. Related terminology and concepts include Enterprise 2.0 and social business.
In a seminal blog post on the subject, Paul Greenberg defines Social CRM this way:
CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It's the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation.
As a school of thought, Social CRM recognizes that current technologies enable customers spontaneously to form large, ad hoc interest groups at remarkable, sometimes even viral, speed. The reality of large, self-aware customer power blocs forces companies and organizations to rethink important aspects of their customer relationship strategies.
We are still in the early stages of social business thinking and proliferation. For this reason, certain grandstanding bloggers, analysts, and self-appointed enterprise pundits occasionally speak out vociferously and negatively about these trends.
Please recognize such negativity as little more than transparent chest thumping from those who seek personal attention by espousing extreme and contrary positions.
Do not be taken in by misguided, self-serving, and shortsighted chest thumpers.
Social CRM holds profound implications for the traditional enterprise. To gain a deeper understanding of the underlying dynamics powering these trends, I spoke with two top-tier industry analysts. IDC group vice president, Michael Fauscette, and Natalie Petouhoff, principal analyst from Forrester Research, have each built a solid reputation for helping both buyer and vendor organizations understand social business.
This video is essential listening for anyone interested in Social CRM, Enterprise 2.0, and state of the art thinking about the social enterprise.
Esteban Kolsky prepared a PDF document containing all the #scrmsummit tweets from the event described in this post. Take a look to witness an exciting community in action.
[Disclosure: I write analyst reports for IDC in my copious (yeah, right) free time.]
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Excellent Video, and a Great Interview
Excellent video -- but I want to higlight the
million-dollar sentence / quote from your post
(IMO).
"Social CRM recognizes that current
technologies enable customers spontaneously to
form large, ad hoc interest groups at
remarkable, sometimes even viral, speed".
If we can get people to understand that your
definition of communities is what they are
dealing with (which I call impromptu
communities, but don't define nearly as well)
then we can advance social CRM faster by not
worrying about the channels (Facebook, Twitter,
Forums) and focus on the behaviors and data.
Great post!
The significance is clear, present, and obvious
Thanks so much for your comment.
Love the distinction and the the point Esteban makes...
The point you both make is serious and the issue at hand. Which is what most companies don't get... Which is that the customer is now and (finally) in charge of creating their own experiences by virally voting with their thoughts and opinions...
They are in charge of whether your company will exist in the future. What I mean by that is that if your company offers medicore to poor service, and customers can vote and influence millions in short order, how long do you think it will take to put you out of business?
This surge of customers virally controlling who they buy from, who they spread the word about and the ability to be heard, respected and taken seriously has just begun... We are at a tipping point...
And I foresee a huge tidal wave that will crush companies that are unconscious, that don't care or are still in the paradigm that customers don't matter, i.e., that choosing to see customer service as a cost center don't get the point: NO CUSOMTERS, NO BUSINESS.
The most customer-facing department is customer service. It is the face, the personality, the impression your company leaves with customers. Whatever that experience is-- is your company.
The only assest you have? Your customers. Don Peppers and Martha Rogers have been saying this for years. Now customers have a large megaphone in which to get the attention of smart, savvy companies that do want to stay in business.
Here's to tipping the viral, social customers power!
@drnatalie
RE: Social CRM and enterprise business
Thanks for posting this! It was really amazing to see everyone we interact with in twitter - debating and refining the topic of social crm...
thanks for asking us to do the interview! Great to be in the company of great minds!
natalie
RE: Social CRM and enterprise business
From the other side of the coin, it needs to be stressed that to dismiss it or ignore it for a little longer is an increasing risk in itself. Social networks exist (not only online) and are extremely active. Companies' products and services will be discussed regardless of whether a company employs a social CRM approach. However, without sCRM they aren't equipped to monitor, respond to or shape that discussion.
That in itself, is a huge risk.