Its actually interesting though to see how people refer to social media channels as social. Which is fine really but my point is that WORDS MATTER.

Ultimately that’s part of the issue at hand with people misunderstanding and focusing on only the social media channel.

Because even if we all agree SCRM isn’t just about social media, we interchange social media with the word social. And how ridiculous is ‘social media’ term really? If I go to a party and I talk to you, am I not being social? As someone who loves to socialize… It’s social whether its through social media or by phone or other. ☺ We should just call it online interactions or WEB networking. Personally I preferred Web 2.0 (even if some would argue its too TOOL-centric). SOCIAL is human and has nothing to do with channels.

And that’s why the term SCRM is misleading.

Why not just stop saying SCRM and just continue or go back to just calling it CRM? Because ultimately, SCRM is the same thing as CRM.

Additionally, it seems to me that « S » in SCRM is redundant with the « R ». Doesn’t a relationship with a customer ultimately mean you’ve had some sort of interaction with them through some sort of communications channel : in person, phone, email, fax, social media, etc.

Drop the S!

And while we’re at it, we should also drop “Social Business” though I admit to using it regularly. I preferred Enterprise 2.0 (even if some would argue its too TOOL-centric or too INTERNAL sounding).

Its as though we’re saying that we weren’t social before… We have always been social, we just have easier ways of reaching each other now and there are opportunities as a result.

Again, great post… and I’m glad I got the opportunity to vent my frustrations with the misuse of the word “social”.

Cheers

F.

1) If we’re talking about selling – converting, not just conversing – all that matters is OUR customer’s journey. And, more specifically, what questions/concerns they have and where/how they want them to be answered. If we meet this expectation successfully, changes are excellent for us making the sale. When we think of this as a buyer – how often we go to a site or salesperson with questions and walk away with them unanswered – we can see how far all businesses still have to go in this regard.

2) Thousands of customer interviews have convinced me that our current customers can literally teach us how to sell to future customers – to meet the requirements I just stated in #1. They have been through the process of buying our product/services, and have experienced our products/services/company, and they have so much to teach us about them – and us – and what we could be doing better to support and streamline that buying journey. Buyers won’t tell us what they’re thinking when we’re selling to them, but afterwards, if you ask them the right questions in the right way (again, in my book), they open right up and lay everything out for us.

We don’t have to follow the herd; we don’t have to waste time on stuff that won’t pay; we don’t have to guess or test endlessly, groping around in the dark. We can get very sure, very fast, even with only a half-dozen in-depth interviews. Yep, I see absolute, bankable patterns by the 5th to 7th call.

So everything you say about touchpoints is correct. I just know from experience that we don’t have to guess about what they want. We can call current customers and reverse-engineer successful sales to be ready with just the right answers/concepts at just the right time, for future customers.

Great article. Your thinking is right on the money.

kz

As is often the case, the comments about your post are almost as interesting as the post itself.

I was particularly taken by @Ludo’s comment and your response to @Mitch’s comment.

@Ludo’s comments highlights that customers have many more social touchpoints with brands than the 1% through formal social media. In fact, evidence suggests that they have far more touchpoints through their social network of real friends than through social media. Chistakis & Fowler show unequivocally that the influence extends beyond their real friends, through their friends’ friends all the way to their friends’ friends’ friends. To people they don’t even know. Most of these contacts are not measured, and are probably not measureable. That’s where the real power of social lies.

Your response to @Mitch’s comments highlights how difficult it is to enter a meaningful social conversation with most companies. Unless there is a sales opportunity in it for the companies, that is! Most of my work is with top-tier multi-national banks, telcos, auto manufacturers and so on. I get to see both the social tools they offer to customers and what they really do behind the scenes to deliver the social promise too. It is very hard to start a social conversation with any of them. They don’t provide mechanisms that are relevant, where they do they don’t work when customers really need them, and when you look behind the scenes, the companies are as CUSTOMER-UNCENTRIC as they have always been. Their SocCRM is six parts slick PR (read: lies, more lies and damned lies), three parts self-delusion (read: “we are doing social, aren’t we?”) and only one part meaningful social conversation.

SocCRM has huge potential. But it will be limited if it is implemented as purely social media, or worse, just technology. Only when companies start to look at the entire customer journey and identify where they can provide AND deliver more value using social at key touchpoints during the journey can it hope to deliver all of its potential. From the customer’s perspective, very few of the touchpoints will probably have anything to do with marketing or sales.

You know it makes sense.

Graham Hill
Customer-centric Entrepreneur
@grahamhill

Actually, the data suggest 400% growth in 5 years. No doubt the growth is there, but I think the low percentage actually reflects more on the resistance to change of companies rather than customer expectations.

Now that I have started to really take a step back and look at how my interactions go with organisations – from airlines to public services to cinema chains – I am struck by the low level of interaction possibilities. In order to get through and have a meaningful conversation you really need to be very determined to peel back each layer to get to the core.

I keep hammering the message because I see Social cRM drifting to being limited to interactions – or worse, just communication – through Social Media, and I fear this will lead to another bubble of inflated expectations. Social Media has tremendous potential to fundamentally change the way customers interact with companies and with each other, but it requires a completely different mindset from what is prevalent in current businesses.

Thanks for your comments!

Mark

Good post, apologies for not coming along and adding my $.02 earlier. From a reader viewpoint, wearing a social hat, your data suggests a 400% increase in just one year, correct? Now, you know that is simply an attempt at humor, but it does highlight the kind of thinking which might have brought us to the point we are at.

I have had the great opportunity to spend time in Australia this past week, and I am excited to see and hear the tempered, rational approach being taken. Organizations are not simply ‘jumping on’ social and they are asking (of themselves) the critical questions which need to be asked. In conversations, some are almost a bit nervous in taking the slightly controversial viewpoint – for example “After I jump on, can I jump off?”

Your post also speaks to some of the recent conversations around social ‘this and that’ – your continued diligence in focusing on what customers actually want and need to do is critically important – thanks.

Mitch