We all agree that social CRM is about responding to the customer's control of the conversation. And the obvious response is to first listen to what they are saying, but that means the business needs to know where they are saying it!
So, we need to first figure out where our customers are talking, about what & then decide who would be the most apt to not just respond but also engage & eventually be able to influence them as the new "social" relationship grows.
But let this not merely be about social media as yet another channel. Don't get me wrong, social media/networks as another channel works in the current framework & is the transitional step. However the eventual outcome/goal will/may be far different from what any of us can envision. I hope. For the better.
So to take co-creation as one of the possible frontiers (thats the farthest am able to look BTW, others can help me see further), we could be seeing more & more co-created experiences, not just online but offline as well. More personalized services which have been co-created, not just crowdsourced ideation / community based design / mass collaboration.
Does anybody think that the traditional CRM functions marketing, sales or customer service are poised to achieve any of the above ideals in isolation?
And John, beg to differ, social CRM is not merely about the social media/networks. Social CRM had to be framed because of the customers taking control of the conversation, which was in turn made possible by social media/networks. But its not limited to online world. Its about the change we are yet to see in the kind of relationship b/w the firm & the customer - "social" relationship as opposed to the "transactional" relationship.
In a way that would be going back to the basics. Think a century back. Or come to rural India. I refer to the "Family" doctor/ tailor/milkman/cobbler/jeweller, the corner grocer. The professionals who delivered us individualized services &/or bespoke products. They still exist in your world, but not scalable, thus pricey & rather upmarket. Advances in technology (think other than social web, like in manufacturing, miniaturization, 3d desktop printing, RFID, etc.) will allow creating personalised products on scale.
But these don't belong to marketing/sales/customer service either!
Look at the Coke example Paul Greenberg wrote on his ZDNet blog. Isn't it about personalized drinks? 100s of drinks out of one machine? One that can give me my "regular"? Who would have thunk!
So fight all you want about where to start & who gets the most benefit, I will not join the debate. Its pointless. The change needs to happen, where ever it is in the organization.
You need a leader & a sponsor. And a team to support them operationally and a tribe to take the message to the rest of the organization. Sorry Esteban, for driving the change we need a passionate tribe, not a community.
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