Social CRM and 7 Key Attributes to Consider When Sourcing a Platform Provider

Today, consumers want timely, relevant content and communications that are easily accessible and quick to comprehend. Every day, everyone is swiping and typing rapidly on their mobile devices, engaging social media, eager to know what’s currently trending.  According to Digitaltrends.com, “People in the U.S. check their Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts a staggering 17 times a day, meaning at least once every hour, if not more…the majority of these compulsive social media checkers are adults between the ages of 25 and 54”. Social media strategies are where an organization’s CRM needs to drive toward and place a heavier focus on. Therefore, the question is, does your current CRM software help your organization strategize, segment and target consumers through the exponentially popular mobile and social media channels of today and the future? If the answer is no, don’t worry, there are solutions for you!

Social CRM (sCRM) is where many organizations are focusing their attention to really engage, listen and target their consumers on a much more robust and holistic approach. Traditional CRM focuses on collecting and managing customer data, such as transaction history, contact information, purchasing habits and demographics. Social CRM adds a richer layer of information to the traditional CRM capabilities by collecting data from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and many more social media platforms available today. This availability into additional CRM data will enable organizations to closely monitor customer interactions, social influence, and obtain the ability to source information outside of traditional direct communication. Having a full, deep-dive into your consumer’s social history and engagement is the key to managing these relationships much more effectively throughout each social channel.

Many, if not most of the CRM platform providers are offering more comprehensive programs to include sCRM as a plug-in or addition to your existing software and also obtain the capability to seamlessly integrate with a wide range of 3^rd party systems, but which platform is the right fit? When sourcing a sCRM provider you want to ensure their platform obtains the following key attributes:

1. The ability to provide a scalable and flexible platform to handle your business model, customer centric strategies and ensure it has the ability to adjust as consumer volumes fluctuate;
2. Social interactions and communications have the ability to be accessed in real-time;
3. Allow all-inclusive visibility into conversation histories to provide better and more efficient customer service, messaging and campaign creation;
4. Encompass the ability to provide robust, meaningful and customizable reporting dashboards;
5. Include the capability to set up account access parameters within your organization for publishing permissions, feature controls, and reporting access;
6. Have the capability to create and manage separate content/publishing calendars per each social platform;
7. The ability to monitor and effortlessly engage with social communities, consumers and their social conversations to promote and deliver brand messages exactly how your organization envisions them; 

As the consumer population continues to become more and more socially dependent and connected by utilizing multiple social media platforms, organizations are shifting away from a single CRM approach to adding a social strategy arm to their current CRM environment. Organizations can now closely listen to the opinions about their products and services and adjust course as needed. As the inbound customer comments, questions and opinions pour through social media platforms, organizations have the ability to structure messaging that resonates much more closely with their consumer base; this builds stronger brand advocacy, loyalty and  in turn, follows with increased sales and word of “social-mouth” marketing.

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