e-CRM = social CRM

From Relationship Marketing to Customer Relationship Marketing to Social Relationship Marketing

Attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer relationships within organizations was the ‘definition’ given to relationship marketing back in the 80ies by Leonard Berry (a PhD in Marketing at univeristy of Texas).  Meanwhile times have changed….but the definition hasn’t and relationship marketing evolved into Customer Relationship Marketing (using technology (IT) in its advance to get to know the customer) and nowadays we’re speaking of Social Customer Relationship Marketing (where social media play an impotant role).

Case – Starbucks

The case of Starbucks shows us what Social CRM is all about

So what means Social CRM?  Well, first let’s take a look at what has happened to get from CRM to Social CRM.  The difference between these two is just one word, social.  Social brings a new element into CRM because now instead of just dealing with data and information we are dealing with conversations and relationships with the social customer.  These conversations and relationships take place not just from company to consumer but also from consumer to consumer.  Think of twitter as a simple example.  Let’s say you are a large brand on twitter such as Southwest Airlines.  You are building relationships with your followers but you also have the ability to build relationships with and listen to (and engage) customers that are having conversations about you.  Traditional CRM didn’t work with twitter or facebook or with any other social platform, it was just a collection of data and information.  So again, the big different between CRM and Social CRM is that we now have all these conversations and relationships to consider.

Paul Greenberg, a leader in Social CRM defines it as such:“CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”

Here are somevisuals that capture the shift from CRM to Social CRM. This first image is taken from the presentation by Deloitte.

The essential evolution from CRM to SCRM according to the Chess Media Group.

 

Understanding the social customer

Sources:

Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECRM
JMorgan Marketing – http://www.jmorganmarketing.com/what-is-social-crm-an-introduction/
MOL/BLOG – http://www.molblog.nl/bericht/social-crm-cases-van-abn-amro-orange-en-starbucks/
Social Media Examinor – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/what-is-social-crm/
INC.Com – http://www.inc.com/software/articles/201101/leary.html
Altimeter group – http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-crm-the-new-rules-of-relationship-management
Our Sociaél Times – http://oursocialtimes.com/index.php/2012/05/traditional-crm-vs-social-crm-infographic/