An Undergrad's InterDepartMental Adventure: What is SCRM and is it Worth it?

Apologies for the tardiness of this somewhat less ranty blog, but the pulls of dissertation, coursework and cricket tour could not be resisted until now.  Anyway, to the originally intended topic of this now 2-part entry:  What exactly is SCRM and is it worth it?

Also known as CRM 2.0, this relatively new area is created through the effective merging of Social and CRM areas.  Whilst organisations have typically been satisfied with the mutually exclusive existence of the two departments, the rapidly increasing importance of Social mean it's becoming a vital component for any effective campaign.  That said, only 14% of organisations currently believe Social to be adequately integrated into their marketing strategies.  Therefore,  in order to properly learn and act on the data and meaningful interactions with consumers that Social allows, greater credence must be given to Social, and a proactivity must be undertaken in merging the two disciplines.

Favouring behavioural and social data over that of transactional, SCRM uses consumer "conversations" to formulate better engagement with consumers, in recognising the value of influences and HVCs.
Whilst normally a social presence is placed somewhat cumbersomely via Twitter, Youtube and Facebook pages, SCRM utilises the data gained from social interactions to better place these as part of a wider, full consumer engagement strategy.

This "listening" approach enables marketers to better create individual relationships with consumers.  Whilst any campaign will inevitably miss some targets, properly reactive consumer "listening" can acknowledge the 80 - 20 rule and be used to engage the right consumers .  This has for example been excellently enacted by Gatorade, in transforming their call centre into a live interactive social hub.  Being able to monitor social sites live, and feed back to those that can act, they are able to not only make any campaign more fluid and personal, but are able to have a constantly "switched on" approach.  Whilst an effort and cost, this move from periodic campaigns to a constant 365 day approach has the ability to build better brand reputation through building personal relationships with consumers, better generate buzz from valuable social site "influencers" - those that not only like a page but actively generate to the conversation, and keep the brand front of mind of the brand's target audience.

All this said, it must be borne in mind that results need to be achieved.  Whilst it has been suggested (and maintained) that success of SCRM relies upon a proper interdepartmental integration, with the future of the discipline near certain to become an integral department of any organisation SCRM must still be examined on a business level.

Whilst setting the right metrics on which to measure the success of SCRM are naturally key to it's success, through such measures as:  Analytics, Engagement metrics, Branding metrics and ultimately Business metrics.  Through this, SCRM's effectiveness can be calculated, assessed for improvement, and simply and clearly presented to clients.

Overall, though still in it's infancy, in the rapidly progressing Social environment SCRM is a dramatic improvement from CRM 1.0.  The focus it has on the "conversation" allows businesses to better understand what consumers desire from the brand, and more quickly and accurately deliver those expectations on an individual level. Though an entirely "switched on" approach may possibly be more suitable for clients with fewer budgetary constraints, SCRM can to a reasonable extent be employed by most if not all who wish to take advantage of it.  With Social here to stay, the clear benefits of effective SCRM mean that if your business doesn't look to take advantage of it of soon, your clients will definitely be asking why?

N.B.  The information presented above is predominantly as interpreted from the first lecture of the IDM Seminar "2 + 2 = 5:  The Role Of Social and CRM", presented by Nick Broomfield and Julian Measey of The Customer Framework.  To view the seminar click here.