In the last ten years or so Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions have blessed the business world with amazing management tools. Although they were introduced as on premise software systems for storing customer details and contacting customers, they have improved amazingly from there to on-demand, mobile and wireless systems which can handle almost all business practices. According to CRM vendors, the next big revolution is the social CRM software solutions, and many leading CRM vendors have already released them. This article will focus on the features, advantages and limitations of the new social CRM solutions.
Unfortunately no one can define what a social CRM is, and most of the social CRM softwares you can find now are just superficially modified traditional CRM softwares with little modifications in display. According to experts, social CRM software is CRM software which most effectively utilizes Web 2.0 techniques to enable its end users to implement their own plans and ideas. These systems are meant to exploit the social behavior of customers to better marketing products. The major difference between social CRM and traditional CRM software lies in the nature of marketing administration; unlike traditional solutions social CRM solutions gave sales representatives the power to modify or develop marketing strategies for their own customers. This enables them to plan strategies based on their customer types, buying potential, customer’s taste and territory; and to maintain constant customer contact by forming communities, discussion forums, mail groups, etc.
In social customer relationship management softwares, the standard CRM features are modified to meet the socializing demands, such as customization of dashboards and customer contact details, enhanced geographical search facility, graphic rich tagged product libraries and catalogs, etc. These CRM softwares will offer a more user-friendly interface, as in social sites like facebook and myspace, with simple but more powerful tools. Many CRM vendors like SalesForce are also opting to take advantage of the user base of social sites for building communities and socializing the service.
The proposed advantages of social customer relationship management software solutions include easy to use and implement, enhanced user adoption rates, simplicity in use, reduction in marketing costs, more personalized customer support, improved customer response tracking, and improved after sale support, etc. It is believed that social CRM software systems can reach more customers in a broad geographical location in the cheapest rates. The personalization of customer support is mainly the result of division of labor across the organization, and improved power to sales persons who better knows the customers. One added advantage is the open-source nature of these new softwares and there adaptability to add-ones and modules.
Social CRM software solutions have also some limitations. They may be less effective for small businesses with very low working capital and for businesses which are extremely territorial and are targeting small group of customers. Also the successful implementation of these systems requires innovative minds at every level. The increased utilization of social behavior customers can lead to increased opposition from customers, who want to keep their social life away from business life.
