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Social CRM is a powerful tool tracks all information from a company’s social media. Then the CRM will figure out how the company will benefit from this information. This data is becoming more difficult to track, measure and analyze (Adams, 2018). Social CRM comes with many benefits. Some of these include:

• Better customer engagement 
• More brand advocates
• Gathering meaningful data

One can add social CRM to a company through many facets. The marketing department can use social listening. This means monitoring online customer activity to tailor the customer experience. The sales department should know what social media channels the customers are using. This will help to engage current and potential customers. The customer service department can respond to complaints much faster with social media. 

I have had some level of personal experience with this. The store I work at has a Facebook page and many customers message us through there. This way we are able to respond to customers solve their issues with ease.

It is important to listen to what the customer wants. This will help to create the best experience possible for them (Adams, 2018). 

Different CRM platforms will be suited to different types of businesses. You should consider business size, integration, ease of use, cost, support, analytics, monitoring and features. Some CRM platforms include Salesforce, Sprout Social, Base CRM, Hootsuite, and desk.com. Make sure the platform fits your current needs and will support future growth. 

            The success of Social CRM rests on organizational support and allocation of resources. It is very important to have support from the top levels of leadership (Adams, 2018). To get this support, you will have to make your case to the leadership team. Make sure the CRM fits into the organizational strategy. You should also consider the change that it can make on the culture, process and technology. When considering the budget, think of CRM as an investment in growth for the organization. You can also use analytics to emphasize the benefits that a Social CRM can bring. You should also develop a Social CRM team who will connect the brand and the consumer. CRM providers can provide training to the team as well.  

Develop Your Strategy

            Social CRM strategy should build a brand and create ambassadors. A brand should stay consistent across all platforms. Brands should also use humanization and personalization. This will help the customer connect with the brand to create a unique experience. CRM can help in this, as it can track brand image. CRM can also integrate social media with marketing and sales. 

            An organization should set standards for customer engagement. This includes tone, personality, auto responses, personalized responses and announcements. Make sure contact information is clearly posted on websites and social media. A social media account committed to customer support can centralize CRM activity. It is also important to reply to customers quickly. This will show commitment to the customer and builds a positive image. Adding the initials of the support agent can humanize interactions with the company. Make sure to ask for customer feedback. This will help you to improve your CRM.  

       Focused targeting is now much easier with Social CRM. It can help to segment the audience and individualize content to the customer. It can also analyze your campaigns to see what performs best so you can keep using the strategies that work. Organizations should also recruit social media influencers to be ambassadors for the brand. This will increase engagement and conversions for your organization.  

Manage Social CRM

Influencers have the potential to drive thousands of people to your brand. Utilizing influencer marketing builds relationships with people who build relationships for you. To identify influencers, you must look at audience and advocacy. Relevance reach and engagement should also be considered. The best way to find influencers is through social media monitoring and hashtags. When collaborating with influencers, encourage content creation and provide your product to them. 

            To engage with prospects successfully, you must understand them. Make sure to know where they are in the sales cycle and what interaction they had with your brand in the past. Put content that is value oriented and engaging in front of your prospects. You can also use a Social CRM tool to lead score. This will “quantify the level of the relationship a prospect has with your brand” (Adams, 2018). 

            CRM can help create long term relationships through customer service.  CRM is all about customer retention, issue prevention and fast resolution. Best practices for customer service include:

• Monitor: understanding what the audience says about the brand
• Identify: Determine problems the customer is facing
• Contact: Take action immediately
• Acknowledge loyal customers
• Intelligent relationship routing
• Handle channel hoppers

To handle negative feedback, track social media and bring grievances into customer support. Then, have employees work on the issue and create resolution for the customer. Every issue that arises is a PR opportunity, so make the most of it. Figure out the best way Social CRM can be integrated into your organization.

Your Toolkit

            Implementing process documentation is important for long term success. Consider the 7 business processes when assessing a CRM process. These are ownership, goals, metrics, interfaces, documentation, integrity and alignment with business vision. The organization should also have three main goals to make sure employees are on the same page. The first goal is to create a new standard for customer relationships.  Next is to build meaningful connections through new technology. Finally, you should use new channels to create a personal connection. 

            Implementing Social CRM will create an impact on organizational processes. It is important to know the impact it will have on sales, marketing and customer service. You should also decide how and when social monitoring will be performed. Process documentation will always be more important than tools. When it comes to analytics, start with the basics. Some analytics that an organization should focus on include:

• Customer feedback
• Behaviour
• Psychographics
• Engagement levels
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
• Customer lifetime value

Conclusion

I have not had any experience using a Social CRM tool, but I have interacted with companies who use them. The one that I have interacted with the most is the Walt Disney World guest service twitter account (@WDWGuestService). They decided to create a separate account specifically for customer service and centralizes CRM activity. In my experience, they have replied to my tweets in a timely manner and with an enthusiastic tone. Disney also makes sure to have the name of the customer service employee at the end of the tweet to add personalization. 

Guests can tweet the company to communicate grievances or good experiences that they had at Walt Disney World. They have even implemented a hashtag (#castcompliment). Guests can use this hashtag to praise an employee which Disney calls “Cast Members”. This encourages positive interaction and can give cast members incentive to go above and beyond for guests. When I worked at Disney World last summer, receiving cast compliments always made me feel appreciated. Managers would even print tweets out and put them up in the break room! Whenever I was a guest in the park, I would always make sure to tweet out a cast compliment whenever I had an awesome experience with a cast member. 

Bibliography

Adams, M. (2018, April 11). Social Media Marketing: Social CRM. Retrieved from LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/social-media-marketing-social-crm/what-is-social-customer-relationship-management-crm