Social CRM Comes of Age (PDF) - Oracle
Social CRM Comes of Age (PDF) - Oracle
Social CRM Comes of Age (PDF) - Oracle
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<strong>Social</strong> <strong>CRM</strong> <strong>Comes</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Age</strong>, by Paul Greenberg<br />
Overview<br />
Since 2003, there has been a revolution in communications that impacts every institution.<br />
<strong>Social</strong>, political, economic, leisure and business organizations have been affected by a<br />
transformation that not only changes how people interact with the institutions they care to be<br />
involved with, but also changes what it takes to do business everywhere.<br />
This is a transformation driven by the Internet. It gave unknown U.S. Senator from Illinois,<br />
Barack Obama the presidency <strong>of</strong> the United States. Obama and his staff understood that the<br />
Web was not just a place to exhibit information, but instead was a vital integrated<br />
communications framework one that could and did drive volunteerism and donations to record<br />
levels e.g. in one month, $55 million raised via the Web. They understood the power <strong>of</strong><br />
interaction in an era where people were emboldened by their ability to communicate in real time<br />
with their peers in ways that could move organizations, entire industries or even the political<br />
process.<br />
The change is a social change that affects all institutions including business. Unlike the past,<br />
business has no substantial or even marginal advantage over any social, political, economic,<br />
government, or other form <strong>of</strong> institution. In fact, business may be the least equipped to handle<br />
the transformation as <strong>of</strong> 2009.<br />
Over the past decade or more, Customer Relationship Management (<strong>CRM</strong>) has been the<br />
strategic approach that most companies had taken in trying to figure out how to supervise their<br />
customers’ behavior. Typically, it was via technology and processes and analytic algorithms that<br />
were tied to an <strong>of</strong>ten amorphous management strategy. Gathering data about the customer and<br />
tracking all customer transactions were the way that <strong>CRM</strong> was used to ascertain the individual<br />
customer’s thinking. Hopefully, the insight it provided about the customer and the effectiveness<br />
<strong>of</strong> the processes put into place led to some kind <strong>of</strong> increased level <strong>of</strong> purchasing or decreased<br />
costs. Additionally, <strong>CRM</strong> was (and is) used for making some sales and service processes more<br />
effective and for sales and service management tracking the customer facing activities ranging<br />
from qualifying a lead to closing a deal to servicing an order to solving an issue. The strategies,<br />
technologies, processes and workflows are all operational focused on the enterprise tracking the<br />
customer and capturing data.<br />
But that is <strong>CRM</strong> 1.0 traditional <strong>CRM</strong>.<br />
Since 2003, the impact <strong>of</strong> the social communications makeover has shifted ownership <strong>of</strong> the<br />
customer/company relationship to control in the hands <strong>of</strong> the customer which changes how<br />
businesses must respond to that customer. Discussions <strong>of</strong> the value <strong>of</strong> the company moved<br />
outside the company’s walls to the enclaves <strong>of</strong> the customer who publicly chatted about the<br />
company without participation <strong>of</strong> the company in any way. The customer’s conversations were<br />
no longer in control <strong>of</strong> any company. Additionally, the customer simply did not believe what<br />
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