To attract and retain the customer loyalty that will ensure future growth, corporations must invest as much in their customer engagement activities as they do in their customer relationship management (CRM). One way to do this is to leverage social media channels from within their CRM to meet consumers where they live by engaging with them through the digital portals of their choice.
With the availability of social media extensions to CRM applications such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, companies are taking advantage of specialized social media tools from within their CRM to capitalize on the social media explosion by converting social media insight into engagement opportunities. In other words, enterprises are gaining invaluable insights into customers' expectations and experiences by connecting directly with their social media activities and then using that data to better solidify and secure the relationships.
Expanding the Prospect Pool
Social media channels share one common trait: they engage not just with the individual customer, but they also connect with contacts of those individuals. Social networking through social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is an everyday occurrence. In fact, some experts believe that as many as 3 billion social media interactions occur every day. If a customer likes a company or product and shares it with his or her friends through a preferred social media channel, then all those who view that post experienced the perceived high value of the company.
Social media channels are the new "word of mouth" method of advertising, a significant fact considering that 92 percent of consumers accept recommendations from family and friends vs. other forms of marketing. Social media posts may offer the best opportunities to find new sales leads based not on what the company does, but on the activities of its existing clients and customers.
Conversing with Customers
Another value of CRM software with social media capabilities is that it gathers those social media posts into ongoing conversations. For example, if a company is set up to communicate with its customers through email, it also needs software that collects those emailed messages and ties them to the rest of the customer's file. Not only do CRMs now build that database, but they also ensure the customer can interact with the company through his or her preferred portal without losing the context of those communications over time.
From an administrative point of view, the CRM data guide decision-making by aligning organization activities to the preferences of the existing customer base. Customer-guided marketing and sales strategies ensure that the driver of success – the loyal customer – is always at the center of strategic business operations.
Bridging Communication Gaps
Before social media-enhanced CRM, many companies tracked their online presence by searching online sites where consumers posted opinions. Yelp gained significant success by providing a forum in which customers could talk openly about their experience with businesses. Today’s CRM analyzes the social media activity of its customers for emerging trends or rising concerns or issues and streams all social media content through a single screen so viewers need access only one portal, not a separate portal for each social media platform.
Having access to customer social media activities informs all aspects of the enterprise since customer preferences are the driving force behind every company action. CRM gives the customer service team the data it needs to address consumer concerns quickly and with the assurance that its actions are directly relevant to that individual customer. By engaging their existing and potential customer base, companies can be more responsive by getting personal with customers to better serve them.
About AllianceTek
As an IT partner and solutions provider, AllianceTek helps companies implement strategies unique to their businesses. We employ a global team of more than 100 skilled developers and consultants who approach every project holistically, providing around-the-clock attention to comprehensive, scalable, and extensible development roadmaps. AllianceTek specializes in Salesforce CRM integration, Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration, Siebel CRM integration, Sugar CRM integration or Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration, and, if necessary, can implement a custom CRM development solution.
