The advent of social networking has put a lot of the power in the hands of its users. In order to stay on top of their customer service, companies have to look beyond their contact centers and focus on what people are saying online.
Due to the expanding avenues of how businesses are servicing their customers, it should come as no surprise that market intelligence from Gartner dictates that CRM has bumped up on a long list of important technologies. Once at the number 18 spot, CRM has moved up ten spots, clocking in at the number 8 spot. While it’s not exactly number one, CRM is all of a sudden a bigger priority than it was, and social CRM is one facet of the cause.
There are some of myths surrounding the use of social CRM, that customers just aren’t on networks, that ROI is not measurable by using it. These are actually pretty far from the truth. Customers are aware of the behaviors surrounding customer interaction, and by ignoring the need to go social, opportunity growth is severely restricted.
Where traditional market research fails, social CRM prevails. By paying attention to customers online, a better idea of their habits can be obtained.
The research from Gartner (News - Alert) says that if companies do not embrace social media by 2014, the damage is just as bad as ignoring customers altogether.
“Our discussions with service providers and end users indicate that CRM services are shifting from a focus on point solution deployment cantered on application suites, to a ‘customer experience’ that brings together customer information, analytics, workflows, mobility and social CRM disciplines into a richer, multichannel access to capture the entire customer journey,” Gartner said.
By 2013, spending on social software to support sales, marketing and customer service processes will exceed $1 billion worldwide.
The $1 billion prediction for spending on social CRM compares with Gartner’s forecast of more than $12 billion for overall spending on CRM software in 2012, means that social CRM will encompass approximately 8 percent of all CRM spending in 2012, up from approximate 4 percent in 2010.
The bottom line is that social CRM works only if users want to participate in communities. At the same time, companies need to realize measurable benefits; otherwise, it makes no business sense to expend resources on social.
Edited by Stefanie Mosca