As the infographic below demonstrates the social customer of today is looking to 'participate' all four areas of Marketing, Sales, Feedback and Service & Support.
It would be fair to say that the adoption of marketing through social media is now mainstream and monitoring the 'buzz' is a growing realisation for SME's. The deficient segment of the mix is often direct interaction with the customer, or prospect, with lack time and staff resources being the common excuses.
Fully incorporating social CRM into a business is a bit of a 'no-brainer' when one considers the benefits:
- Major cost saving in the marketing budget
- Greater opportunities to hook prospects
- Growing sales volumes through social channels
- The power of word-of-mouth recommendations to drive sales
Hubspot reports that 71% more likely to purchase based on social media referrals. It is the power of conversation driven social CRM that all businesses should strive to harness if they hope build their customer base and increase sales.
Social CRM should augment not supplant current business practices and needs to be meshed with other business strategies to be truly effective.
