The Globetrotting SocialCRM series wraps up today - with the final segment coming from Latin America, a region which exploits social media very thoroughly (as one superficial indicator, I see more Quora tweets flying by in Spanish than I do in English presently). At the same time it is a region where SocialCRM itself, is still evolving.
According to Jesus Hoyos, a well-known CRM consultant in the region and an 'entire SocialCRM thinktank packed into one person':
"In Latin America [similar in some cases to the rest of the world] Social[CRM] is evolving fast with or without the use of traditional CRM technology."
Movistar Argentina
A SocialCRM example from the region is Movistar Argentina, an Argentine telecom service provider. According to Hoyos, "Movistar allows customers to cancel a mobile account via Twitter @MovistarArg.
"Movistar is able to accomplish this due to the fact that its community managers facilitate conversations. When they need to manage a social media transaction, they have specific integrated processes within their own call center to manage these [social media] transactions. Movistar has its own Social Media Agents to do this. I've seen firsthand many Argentine call centers looking for social media solutions that can help manage conversations within that Call Center. Customer service-related issues are the primary drivers of seeking these solutions.
"In Mexico City, on the other hand, I see more demand generation use cases. One example of that case would be where "the brand" has a Facebook presence to drive traffic to its community - and once profile information is obtained, they leverage CRM tools - for creation of email campaigns, to generate traffic, and more. Check out Sony Futbol Mexico which exemplifies this approach."
Learnings and results of a SocialCRM Program
"Companies are still jumping into Social Media without understanding why. It is not about pure marketing, it is about CRM. Many companies who've been early adopters, are now realizing that to scale and to manage customers via social media - you need both processes and CRM technology. That technology includes knowledge bases, CRM, community platforms, and workflow.
"There is also a boom in Latin America in hiring and nurturing community managers but there's a gap in how these community managers will manage a SocialCRM strategy. Social Media is global - whatever Best Buy or Ford executes in North America, it inspires Latin America to take the concept and adapt it for the market."
Advice for companies who are jumping into SocialCRM
Jesus describes functional Social Media as CRM. He advises setting objectives and solving CRM issues first - then start listening to these conversations and analyze them to identify what to do next.
1) Use free and paid tools to analyze conversations - See Jesus Hoyos' list of tools here.
2) Use segmentation techniques and data mining to analyze your customers within your own CRM database - are your best customers already on Facebook or Twitter? (This can be accomplished by matching your opt-in email list with a social graph tool or dashboard).
3) Understand these conversations and the customer, discover if they participate in forums, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Discern where to be present: ex: engage in Facebook with a Facebook App + fan page? create a blog? set up multiple Twitter accounts: one for support, for sales, etc.? Bear in mind that content and engagement are both key parts of a social media presence.
4) Empower a team to manage these conversations: a social media director and/or a community manager tasked with development of social media processes and policies
5) Create and engage in communities - TheSocialCustomer.com or Kraft.com - to gain trust and to participate in conversations - Facebook and Twitter are channels that will drive traffic and conversations to these communities.
6) Integrate CRM with the communities and social media channels. Prepare a use case - encase business needs, customer engagement, and how to convert conversations into transactions in the plan.
Jesus Hoyos recommends achieving objectives - be it sales, leads, new product idea generation - all via a collaboration culture. These goals and the means of achieving them bring the customer closer, promote word of mouth, and instill loyalty.
Isn't that what social is all about? Thanks, Jesus Hoyos, for the expert advice and experience you've shared! And, with that, Globetrotting SocialCRM wraps up this segment from Latin America.