Sites like Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter, and YouTube are no longer just for play. When leveraged properly, such sites can be powerful sources for mining customer perceptions and branding information as well as great source of referrals. The popularity of social media has led to a trend in social CRM and mobile care to further develop and nurture customer relationships.
The Social CRM and mobile care platform is centered on customers and their specific communication preferences, according to this Business2Community report. Such tools have made it easier to meet customer demands. The bottom line: social customer relationship management is altering the perception of business as usual.
Social CRM empowers employees to be able to provide the best possible customer service. This is because representatives have access to so many communication channels with which they can monitor feedback. Employees can put the feeders out across various channels to see what customer opinion is regarding the brand and overall product satisfaction.
Through interactive dialogue with customers, reps have the power to influence brand perception and take care of problems while they are still in their infancy.
Strengthening relationships with customers online or through mobile care can help spread the word regarding your company and your products for free. Social CRM can help increase word of mouth exposure and referrals, and this is because happy customers like to share their experience and recommendations with others.
It’s important to identify who the influencers are, though, so they can be prepped to spread the word to others. Developing a good reputation and building trust is a great way to subtly influence purchasing behavior.
Data collected by Nucleus Research shows that social CRM and mobile care can be used to increase return on investment. More and more companies are jumping on board to create social groups and programs aimed at getting to know customers better and providing a deeper level of customer interaction.
Because information sharing occurs in a more informal environment, many times more detailed customer information and feedback can be gleaned from social CRM efforts that would not have been provided otherwise. This information can then be used to make improvements in product and service levels.
In addition, information provided via customer profiles such as those found on Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert) can also prove useful for data mining. The information can then be used to develop sales data because it is plugged into a program and is used to predict which sorts of customers are the best match for your company’s products and services.
In short, social CRM and mobile care are creating ways to improve customer engagement and relationships. This translates to a more effective sales approach and better ROI. The rich information available through social networks is providing new opportunities to serve customers and influence buying behavior of the future.
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Edited by Brooke Neuman