Social Customer Relationship Management
Social Customer Relationship Management is an approach which engages the customer in a 2-way dialogue. The result is a relationship which is transparent and based on trust.
The old fashioned CRM was a power based relationship that the corporation owned. Social Customer Relationship Management acknowledges that the customer has choice and as a result, ultimate power.
The following points are from Maria Ogneva, the Director of Social Media at Attensity, a social media engagement and voice-of-customer platform that helps the social enterprise serve and collaborate with the social customer.
Who Is the Social Customer?
The social customer consumes information in a different way, and learns about breaking news through Twitter and Facebook favoring what her network has curated and surfaced as important information.
The social customer learns about new products and brands through social channels and trusts her social network to provide honest feedback about it, as opposed to a brand’s one-way advertising message.
The social customer is savvy, doesn’t respond well to unsolicited SPAM in her social networks or overly promotional tweets, but is open to relevant information that meets her needs at that particular moment.
The social customer expects brands to be present and active in the same social venues where she hangs out, listening to her feedback, whether it’s negative or positive.
The social customer expects you to listen and engage with her, not only when it coincides with an e-mail blast or new feature release, but rather when she needs you. And you better respond fast, in real-time, or she will either move on to a competitor, or tell her friends about her bad experiences.
Because the social customer can talk to a brand through many channels at the same time, she expects everyone she talks to from your company to have the same background on her issue. For example, if I complain about an airline on Twitter, I want the representative who engages me there to know my itinerary and the full history of our interaction through various channels.
Bottom line
The social customer owns the relationship, and you need to earn her trust.
