Social CRM - How some companies are using it.
Yesterday we hosted an event titled: Social CRM: What is it? Should I care? Watch the recording here. Our panelists had a candid discussion about the merits of Social CRM. One of the areas that we did not have enough time to cover is real life examples of companies using Social CRM.
Lauren Carlson, a CRM Market Analyst at Software Advice, recently wrote an article titled: Social CRM, FTW!: How Real Companies are Going Social and Winning. I thought to share some of the most interesting highlights from Lauren's article.
1. Search Popularity. Since 2006 the term "social crm" has continued to rise in popularity with an over 90 point search rating according to google insights. The top searches are coming from India, Brazil, United States and United Kingdom.
2. Social CRM Defined. According to Michael Fauscette, a brief definition of Social CRM is "the tools and processes that encourage better, more effective customer interaction."
3. Case Study: Chordiant - an enterprise software company that develops customer interaction software, decided that there had to be a better way to manage the product requirements process. They wanted to roll out their products more quickly, engaging customers and decision makers throughout the process so that adjustments could be made as priorities shifted. Chordiant turned to Jive’s Clearspace product to power Chordiant Mesh, an online community where Chordiant employees, developers, customers and partners can collaborate. Clearspace integrates elements such as member profiles, discussion forums, Q&A’s, wikis and blogs onto one platform.
The response to the Mesh community was overwhelming: over 30 companies participating from more than 20 countries; 1,000+ individuals contributing; 6,000+ discussion forum posts; and 15 collaborative product releases.
4. Case Study. Linksys, a division of Cisco providing consumer and small office VoIP and networking solutions, was looking to expand their self-service offering. In an effort to reduce support costs while upholding a high level of responsive service, Linksys decided to create an online support community powered by Lithium, an early mover in social CRM. The community would work in conjunction with existing self-service options, such as a support knowledge base and online chat, empowering Linksys customers to help themselves.
Within the first year of deployment, Linksys experienced very high levels of community participation. Visitors to Linksys’s online community can solve their support issues through the exchange of ideas, tips and helpful information. This enabled Linksys to do away with email support entirely, without negative feedback from customers and without an increase in phone traffic – an astonishing success for a customer service operation. The most measurable benefit from deploying the online community has been call deflection.
5. Case Study. Enterasys Networks, a data-networking company based out of Massachusetts, employs 750 individuals around the globe. They required an enterprise social networking tool that would allow employees to communicate in real time to resolve service issues and collaborate across departments to support the sales process. After trying out other social CRM tools, Enterasys turned to Salesforce.com’s Chatter.
Product support agents have made extensive use of the software, collaborating in real time to resolve customer service issues. Chatter allows sales team members to watch deals closely and make suggestions as the deals progress. In the first quarter of their Chatter implementation, Enterasys reported closing a record number of deals.
6. Case Study. H&R Block, one of the biggest names in tax preparation, is using the technology of Radian6, a social monitoring software vendor, to accomplish their long term goal: shifting from reactive to proactive.
Radian6 offers trend analysis capabilities that help the company anticipate and resolve customer issues before they escalate. The software enables the user to literally take a “snapshot” of the topics being discussed by their customers. From there, they can take a closer look at the conversation surrounding that topic to determine if it’s something to which they need to pay more attention. The Engagement Console allows users to tag, assign, and respond to questions in the community.
7. Case Study. Pepperdine University George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management recognized the need for increased intellectual collaboration, not only among faculty and staff, but also among students and professors. In an effort to connect the university, Pepperdine partnered with Yammer, providers of a simple communications tool that functions much like Twitter.
They created two networks: one for faculty and staff, and another that included students. Bringing the user forum to a Twitter-like environment helped lower the barrier to entry for student users. Yammer has enhanced both the teaching and learning process at Pepperdine’s business school.
Social CRM is still in it's infancy. Part of the reason is because many companies are still catching up to participating in social media. While there are lots of tools that do specific parts of social crm, there is yet to be a tool that does it all. For those companies who are engaged in social media, they are now seeking better ways to track and monitor social conversations.
Lauren Carlson is a CRM Market Analyst at Software Advice. She writes about various topics related to CRM software, with particular interest in sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service. She has a background in the music industry, and when she isn't writing about software, you can find her running at Town Lake and singing at local venues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @crmadvice or contact at 512-364-0131 lauren@softwareadvice.com